Snowden v. President of Baltimore General Dispensary

Robinson, J., delivered theApinion of the Court.. The Act of 1853, chap. 305, provides that all fines imposed by the Criminal Court of Baltimore City, on persons convicted of keeping houses of ill-fame, shall be divided equally between such Dispensaries of said city as shall have had under their charge during the year preceding, at least fifteen hundred patients. This bill is filed by the-appellee in its own behalf, and in behalf of all other Dispensaries, to compel the appellant, formerly the sheriff of said city, to discover and pay into Court the sums of money collected by him from fines imposed under the Act, in order that the same may be distributed among the several Dispensaries entitled to the fund. Instead, however,-of bringing the money into Court, or tendering himself ready to pay the same, the appellant meets the allegations in the bill by a demurrer to the jurisdiction of the Court, and insists that the remedy of the appellee, if any, is by an action'at law against him or his bond.

Where a party has a certain, complete, and adequate remedy at law, he cannot, it is true, sue in equity, but it is plain the remedy at law in this case is not as certain and complete as the remedy in equity. ⁸⁷ The share to which, each Dispensary is entitled, depends, in the first place, upon the sum or sums which the appellant, as sheriff, has, or ought to have collected; and in the next, upon the number of Dispensaries having under their “ charge during the year preceding, at least fifteen hundred patients.” Then again, at law, each Dispensary would be obliged to sue separately, and in the one case the proof may show the defendant has, or ought to