Holmes v. Stateler

Citations

• 57 Ill. 209

Syllabus

<p>1. Chancery—jurisdiction of—to grant new trials at law. It is only in cases that commend themselves strongly to equitable relief, that a court of equity will interpose to vacate a judgment at law; and though the power of the chancellor to control the courts of general jurisdiction, to set aside, modify and otherwise interfere with judgments at law, is now conceded and fully established, yet it is upon fixed and determinate rules alone that the jurisdiction will be exercised.</p> <p>2. J udgments at law will not be vacated capriciously or as am ere matter of discretion, nor because the chancellor would, on the evidence heard in the suit at law, have arrived at a different conclusion from that reached by the jmy-</p> <p>3. Where a party has been brought into a court of law', and has had an opportunity of interposing a defense, and fails to do so, the repose of society requires that by the judgment then rendered the litigation should there end and the controversy terminate, unless by accident, mistake or fraud, the party has been prevented from interposing his defense, establishing his claim. And even though the judgment is manifestly wrong in law and in fact, or when allowing it to stand will compel the payment of a debt the defendant does not owe, unless it appears it was obtained by fraud or was the result of accident or mistake, relief in equity will not be granted.</p> <p>4. Where, however, a party, after making every effort in his power to discover evidence, fails, upon its being afterwards discovered, a court of equity will treat this as an accident, and will, when satisfied that such evidence would have produced a different result, and that the judgment thus obtained is unjust and should not he paid, grant a new trial; but all these requirements must concur before it will interpose its power to afford relief. It must appear that the judgment is manifestly wrong; that the evidence has come to the knowledge of the complainant after the trial; that he had exhau