Georgia v. Brailsford (2 U.S. 402)/Dissent Johnson

by Thomas Johnson

Johnson, Justice.⁠In order to support a motion for an injunction, the bill should set forth a case of probable right, and a probable danger that the right would be defeated, without this special interposition of the court. It does not appear to me, that the present bill sufficiently claims such an interposition. If the State has a right to the debt in question, it may be enforced at common law, notwithstanding the judgment of the Circuit court; and there is no suggestion in the bill, though it has been suggested at the bar, that the State is likely to lose her right by the insolvency either of Spalding, the original debtor, or of Brailsford, who will become her debtor for the amount, if he receives it, when in law he ought not to receive, or retain, it.

Nor does the bill state any particular confederacy, or fraud. The refusal to admit the Attorney General as a party on the record, was the act of a competent court; and it is not sufficient barely to alledge, that the defendant has not chosen to sue out a writ of error.

The case might, perhaps, be made better; but as I can only know, at present, the facts which the bill alledges, and which the affidavit supports, it is my opinion, that there is not a proper foundation for issuing an injunction.