Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/273

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

209 U. 8. Opinion of the Court. the owner of a lot of land, with a dwelling house thereon, situ- ated on Massachusetts avenue, in the city of Washington. The premises adjoining this lot were owned by Stilson Hutchins, one of the appellants. Mrs. Munn's dwelling house did not occupy the whole of her lot, and she decided to build an ad- dition to it. She contracted with an architect and builder to desig? and construct this addition. The work under these con- tracts was begun about July 1, 1902, and it was expected that it would be completed about November 1, 1902, so that the enlarged structure would be ready for occupation during the season of 1902 and 1903. After making the contracts Mrs. Munn went to Europe with her family, intending to return and occupy the house on its completion in November. On Au- gust 14, 1902, Mr. Hutchins filed a bill in equity in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, praying an injunction against the continuance of the erection of the addition. Mrs. Munn, her husband, the architect, and the builder were' made parties defendant. The grounds upon which the injunction was sought are not material here. On the day of the filing of the bill a justice of the Supreme Court of the District entered an order that the defendants show cause, on September 4 next, why the prayer for an injunction should not be granted, and further ordered that, until the hearing, the defendants be "restrained and enjoined from continuing the erection of the building." On the same day Mr. Hutchins, with the other appellants as sureties, filed an undertaking, approved by the court, which is as follows: "Stilson Hutchins, the complainant, and William J. Dante, Ben B. Bradford, sureties, hereby undertake to make good to the defendant all damages by him suffered or sustained by reason of wrongfully and inequitably suing out the injunc- tion in the above-entitled cause, and stipulate that the damages may be ascertained in such manner as the justice shall direct, and that, on dissolving the injunction, he may give judgment thereon against the principai and sureties for said damages in the decree it.?.lf dissolving the injunction." Thereupon the work on the addition wa? suspended and not resumed until