Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/118/86/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 18:24:35+00:00

Document:
A bill quia timet to remove a cloud from a legal title cannot ordinarily be brought in the courts of the United States by one not in possession of the real estate in controversy, but when a local statute of the state authorizes a bill in equity in such case, the remedy allowed in state courts may also be enforced in federal courts, and when a cloud upon the title to real estate prevents the enforcement of a lien at law to secure the payment of money, then the creditor may have his bill to remove the cloud.
In equity. The case is stated in the opinion of the Court.
the said Allen being at the time insolvent, and the property conveyed being all his property subject to execution, and the conveyance to Wilson being therefore an assignment of all his effects by an insolvent debtor of the United States, within the meaning of § 3466 of the Revised Statutes of the United States; that since this assignment, and since the sale to the United States, the defendant Gill claims to have acquired an interest under Wilson in the said real estate.
The prayer of the bill is that the conveyance by Allen to Wilson be declared fraudulent and void; that the paramount lien of the United States in said land for the said taxes be adjudged and declared; that the priority of the United States be maintained and decreed, and the pretended conveyance of Allen to Wilson be removed as a cloud upon their title, and account for rents and profits, and a writ of possession to put the complainant in possession, and for general relief.
The defendants answered denying the legality of the tax and its assessment and the regularity of the steps taken for its enforcement and the validity of the sale and conveyance to the United States, and denying all the allegations of fraud and trust in reference to the conveyance from Allen to Wilson, insisting that the same was an absolute conveyance, made in good faith and for a valuable consideration. The case was put at issue by a replication, and heard upon the pleadings and proof. The circuit court, finding the preponderance of evidence against the allegation of a demand of payment of the tax, penalty, and interest, as required by § 3185 of the Revised Statutes, and that the title set up by the United States had failed, dismissed the bill. From this decree the United States has appealed.
purchase in pursuance thereof. The United States claims, and, if the allegations of the bill can be supported by proof, owns, the legal title to the lands described -- a title paramount to that under which the appellee claims, for the deed to the United States conveys, if it is effective, the title which Allen had when the tax was assessed in July, 1867, and operates by relation from that time. Having the legal title, then, but being kept out of possession by defendants holding adversely, the remedy of the United States is at law to recover possession. Equity in such cases has no jurisdiction, unless its aid is required to remove obstacles which prevent a successful resort to an action of ejectment, or when, after repeated actions at law, its jurisdiction is invoked to prevent a multiplicity of suits or there are other specific equitable grounds for relief. Bills quia timet, such as this is, to remove a cloud from a legal title cannot be brought by one not in possession of the real estate in controversy, because the law gives a remedy by ejectment which is plain, adequate, and complete. This is the familiar doctrine of this Court. Hipp v. Babin, 19 How. 271; Ellis v. Davis, 109 U. S. 485; Killian v. Ebbinghaus, 110 U. S. 568; Fussell v. Gregg, 113 U. S. 550, 113 U. S. 555.
The case of Ward v. Chamberlain, 2 Black 430, 67 U. S. 444, was one of a creditors' bill, where the complainant, having a lien on the real estate of the defendant, by virtue of a decree in admiralty, for the payment of money, was held, as in other cases of creditors by judgment or decree, to be entitled to the aid of a court of equity to remove a cloud upon the title which obstructed or prevented the enforcement at law of his lien. The jurisdiction is invoked in such cases because it is necessary to give to the complainant the benefit of his remedy at law, which, without it, is not plain, adequate, and complete. Where the local statute gives the remedy by a bill in equity to remove a cloud upon the legal title, without requiring the complainant to obtain prior possession, that remedy, it is admitted, may be administered in appropriate cases by the courts of the United States. Holland v. Challen, 110 U. S. 16; Reynolds v. Crawfordsville Bank, 112 U. S. 405; Chapman v. Brewer, 114 U. S. 158.
"shall have and exercise concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court of all civil actions triable at law, except for injuries to person, property, or character, involving unliquidated damages,"
and it has been decided by the Supreme Court of that state that this gives the chancery court jurisdiction over an action of ejectment. Frazier v. Browning, 11 Lea 253. But this does not efface the distinction between legal and equitable rights and remedies, and if it did, it could not confer upon the courts of the United States jurisdiction in equity to try cases at common law. Thompson v. Railroad Companies, 6 Wall. 134; Basey v. Gallagher, 20 Wall. 670.
Affirmed without prejudice to the right of the appellant to bring an action at law.

References: § 3466
 § 3185
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