## Facts

- John Lewis and others owned and possessed a lot on Washington Street in Wickford, within the Town of North Kingstown.
- The town council authorized John H. Weeden, the surveyor of highways for a local highway district, to treat the lot as part of a public highway and to remove a structure located on it.
- Acting under that order, Weeden entered the lot and proceeded to raze the building, remove its foundations, and grade the lot so it would be open to public use and the private boundaries would be erased.
- The owners filed a bill in equity seeking an injunction and general relief, alleging that the town’s acts would cause irreparable injury.
- The town and Weeden answered that they had done (or were doing) what the bill alleged, but denied the owners’ claim of private title, asserting the lot was and long had been part of a public highway and that the building stood there only by the town’s sufferance.
- After the bill was filed, the defendants completed the removal of the building and graded down the lot.
- The defendants then moved to dismiss the bill, arguing that because the work was finished, an injunction could not be granted and the owners’ remedy was solely an action at law for damages.

## Issues

1. Whether a court of equity loses jurisdiction over a bill seeking to restrain threatened trespasses when, while the suit is pending, the defendants carry out the acts sought to be enjoined.
2. Whether equity may keep the case and provide compensation by awarding damages, with leave to amend the bill if needed.

## Decision

- The motion to dismiss was denied.
- The case was within the class in which threatened trespasses may be restrained in equity.
- Defendants could not, while the suit was pending, defeat equity jurisdiction by committing the very acts the bill sought to stop.
- Because the defendants completed the acts after suit was brought, the court could keep jurisdiction and grant compensation, including damages as in an action at law.
- If necessary to seek such compensation, the owners should be allowed to amend their bill.

## Legal Principles

- When a bill properly invokes equity to prevent a threatened trespass causing irreparable injury, equity jurisdiction attaches at the time of filing.
- A defendant cannot defeat that jurisdiction by completing the challenged conduct during litigation and then claiming the request for an injunction has become moot.
- After the preventive remedy becomes impossible due to defendants’ conduct during the suit, equity may still grant complete relief, including monetary compensation.
- A request for general relief supports relief beyond a bare injunction, and the court may permit amendment so the pleadings match the relief available.

## Conclusion

Lewis v. North Kingstown holds that where landowners file in equity to stop municipal officers from treating their lot as a highway and destroying their building, the defendants cannot avoid the suit by finishing the demolition and grading after the case begins; equity keeps jurisdiction, denies dismissal, and may award damages (with leave to amend) so the defendants do not benefit from their pendente lite actions.


Lewis v. North Kingstown, 16 R.I. 15 (1887)