Kersey v. Rash

Citations

• 3 Del. Ch. 321

Syllabus

<p>The Court of Chancery in relieving against judgment, at law upon grounds impeaching their justice, should act carefully and hold itself within just limits, since the jurisdiction, though unquestioned, is one which, from the pressure of hardship, always an element in these cases, is liable to abuse ; and the abuse of it is extremely mischievous, tending, as it does, to a conflict between different jurisdictions and to the promotion of needless litigation.</p> <p>To Warrant the interference of a court ol equity, with the operation of a judgment at law, upon grounds of defense or evidence, which were cognizable at law, but not used at the trial, it must appear that the defendant at law was prevented from availing himself of such grounds of defense or evidence, either by fraud or surprise, or by what is termed, in the sense of courts of equity, accident, and without any neglect or default on the part of himself or his agents.</p> <p>If a party has an equitable defense, one not cognizable at law, of which, there. fore, he could not avail himself at law, and consequently has suffered judgment, equity will always relieve against the judgment, not, however, by compelling a new trial at law, but by dealing with the subject as one of its own original jurisdiction.</p> <p>An injunction to restrain proceedings under a judgment was refused for want of equity in the bill, upon allegations that the claim for which the judgment had been recovered had been paid, and that the complainant held a receipt for the whole amount; that he was jrrevented by sickness from attending the trial, but wrote seasonably to his attorney, enclosing a physician’s certificate, but whether this was received or not, he did not know; that the attorney wrote to him for the receipt, “in ample time, ’’ but the letter did not reach him until after the trial; that the damages originally laid in the narr at $1,500, had been increased at the trial term to $3,000, upon the discovery by the plaintiff at law, tha