Court Opinion

ID: 9669917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:10:51.617698+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:01.133725
License: Public Domain

On Application for Rehearing
In view of the seeming earnestness of able counsel for appellee and the novelty of the question treated, we will respond to the application for rehearing.
The essence of our holding is: “A claim for conversion is a legal one cognizable at law, with the result that the defense of laches may not be applied”. Several out of state cases are cited in the rehearing brief which are thought to be contrary to this conclusion. A brief analysis of these cases will disclose that they are in no way controlling upon the question considered under the Alabama transfer statute.
The case of Pottsville Bank v. Minersville Water Co., 211 Pa. 566, 61 A. 119, 123, is not in point because Pennsylvania had no system of equitable jurisprudence. The court there observed: “ * * * In our State, the doctrine is firmly established that equity is administered through common-law forums * * *
*414The Gold Mining case, Valley View Consol. Gold Mining Co. v. Whitehead, 66 Colo. 237, 180 P. 737, 739 next cited by appellee, was instituted in a court of equity in which the plaintiff sought to have an equitable title converted into a legal title, and the court stated: “Having thus treated the cause as one of equitable cognizance, the plaintiff cannot now change her ground and deny the right of Defendant to the benefit of an equitable defense.”
The Federal cases cited in the rehearing brief are likewise inapplicable. Indeed, the decision by the United States Supreme Court in Wehrman v. Conklin, 155 U.S. 314, 15 S.Ct. 129, 133, 39 L.Ed. 167, seems to support the theory advanced in our original opinion. There the action was in a court of equity to quiet title to real estate and enjoin an action at law in ejectment. As we read the opinion it definitely does not hold that the court allowed laches to be a defense to an action of ejectment. The court stated:
“It is scarcely necessary to say that complainants cannot avail themselves as a matter of law of the laches of the plaintiff in the ejectment suit. Though a good defense in equity, laches is no defense at law. If the plaintiff at law has brought his action within the period fixed by the statute of limitations, no court can deprive him of his right to proceed. If the statute limits him to 20 years, and he brings his action after the lapse of 19 years and 11 months, he is as much entitled as matter of law to maintain it, as though he had brought it the day after his cause of action accrued, though such delay may properly be considered by the jury in connection with other facts tending to show an estoppel. As was said by Chancellor Green in Horner v. Jobs, 13 N.J.Eq. 19, 23: 'Nor can the staleness of the claim, or the lapse of time, or the statute of limitations, avail the complainant. The defendant is asking no relief at the hands of this court. He is seeking to enforce his legal rights in a court of law. The complainant is here asking the aid of this court. It is the claim of the complainant, not the title of the defendant, to which the equitable defense of a stale claim is applicable. No lapse of time can avail the complainant, unless it be a bar to the defendant's title under the statute of limitations. This defense will avail the defendant at law as well as in equity, and constitutes no ground for enjoining proceedings at law.’ Had Wehrman seen fit to resort to a court of equity in assertion of his rights, undoubtedly the defendants to such suit might have interposed the defense of laches, but it is quite a different question whether it could be made the basis of a bill. It may, however, be considered as one of the facts of the case tending to show an estoppel.” (Italics ours).
Wall v. Harris, 90 Miss. 671, 44 So. 36, is next cited by appellee to support his contention that laches is an available defense to an action of ejectment. There the mortgagee of lands became the purchaser at an irregular foreclosure sale, crediting the amount of his bid on the note evidencing the indebtedness and continued in the peaceful possession for eight years. After the statute of limitation barred the note, the mortgagor instituted an action of ejectment to invalidate the sale. Thereupon the mortgagee instituted an action in a court of equity conceding the sale to have been irregular, but claiming that he, as a mortgagee in possession, was entitled to hold the land until the indebtedness was paid. The court very properly enjoined the further prosecution of the ejectment suit, ordered an accounting between the parties, and directed payment of any balance that may be due on the note and decreed that upon failure so to do, the land should be sold for the payment of the mortgage debt. The Supreme Court of Mississippi held:
“We apprehend that no court would permit the grantors in a trust deed under the circumstances set forth in *415this bill, to stand quietly by for eight years, with the beneficiary peaceably in possession, and wait until the note which the trustee secured became barred by limitation, and then take the land free from the obligation of any of the debt and with rents and profits.”
We cannot construe this case as supporting the appellee’s claim that the defense of laches may be interposed to an action of ejectment.
Baker v. Langley, 247 Mass. 127, 141 N.E. 671, 672, was an action to recover bank deposits of a deceased seaman in settlement of an account for board and lodging. The plaintiff also sought delivery of the bank book and the court stated: “Having acquired jurisdiction for one purpose (the court) will retain it for any purpose within the scope of the bill”. The court also pointed out:
“The estate of the intestate should not be put to the same expense, nor its settlement delayed, nor the ends of justice defeated by the further prosecution of the case at law in which no substantial living cause of action exists.” (Italics ours).
Appellee also cites Ford v. Huff, 5 Cir., 296 F. 652, holding that laches is a defense to an action at law for damages for patent infringement. However, this and other Federal cases were decided under the now obsolete provisions of Section 274b of the Federal Judicial Code, under which the distinction between legal and equitable actions, was substantially abolished, and under which an action at law was subject to the instituted in a court of equity. Procedure defense of laches, as if the action had been under that old section required the trial of equitable issues as in a court of equity, but preserved the right of trial by jury on the legal issues, all in the same action. Banker v. Ford Motor Co., D.C., 3 F.Supp. 737. These Federal cases and others not necessary to discuss, as well as cases from other State Supreme Courts, present no analogy to our removal statute, which in no way abolishes the distinction between the legal and equitable causes of action.
We are firm in our opinion that the conclusion reached on original deliverance is sound.
Application for rehearing overruled.
All the Justices concur except STAKELY, J., not sitting.