105 N.E. 808 | NY | 1914
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The People of the state, as defendants, in actions for the registration of titles under the sections of the Real Property Law relating thereto, have the right by their pleading to oppose the right of the plaintiff to the judgment demanded and to support the pleading by corresponding proof. The statute throughout recognizes the People of the state as interested in the property or as having interests which may be affected by the judgment. It requires that the complaint and the summons specifically name them as defendants. In the provision that the complaint shall state what interest, if any, the state has in the property involved in the action "other than the general governmental interest or such as exists as to all land in private ownership" is the recognition of the fact that there inheres in the People of the state an interest in a true, just and conclusive registration of the titles to the lands within the state. A system or procedure which would secure or permit the registration of false, defective or questionable titles would give rise to conflicts of ownership, litigation or appeals for legislative relief, and be inimical to public peace and contentment and of brief existence. (American Land Co. v.Zeiss,
We turn now to the questions of pleading and proof raised by the present record. It is enacted that the complaint shall have the form and effects prescribed by the Code of Civil Procedure. (Section 379.) It must, therefore, be a plain and concise statement of the facts constituting the cause of action with a demand of the judgment to which the plaintiff supposes himself entitled. (Code of Civil Pro. section 481.) It is true, as we have seen, that certain documents are to be annexed, as exhibits, and a part, to the complaint, but section 481 of the Code prescribes its form, and it as a pleading cannot be aided or perfected by the contents of those documents as allegations independent of and unreferred to in the complaint. The complaint is the foundation of the action. It must allege, in the form stated in that section, the facts which, if true, would entitle the plaintiff, upon compliance with the prescribed procedure and rules, to the judgment of registration. The proofs annexed must establish at the close of a judicial and thorough scrutiny a title in the plaintiff which the statute permits to be registered, and thereupon the summons and notice are issued as the commencement of the action, which thereafter shall be governed by, and shall proceed according to, the laws of this state and the rules of court, relative to such an action, as far as the same are not expressly abrogated or modified by the relevant sections of the Real Property Law. The requirements of the Code of Civil Procedure relative to the pleadings are abrogated or modified in the single particular that "if any defendant controverts any allegation or statement contained in said certificate of title, abstract, or searches, or survey (that is, the documentary proof annexed to the *46
complaint), the facts controverting such allegation or statement must be specifically pleaded and set forth." It follows that the pleading of a defendant to the complaint itself must be in the form prescribed by the Code of Civil Procedure. In the present case the reply to the answer was improper, because the answer did not contain a counterclaim or the court did not direct the service of a reply. (Code of Civil Pro. sections 514, 516.) The complaint and the pleadings of the defendants create the issues precisely as would such pleadings in the ordinary action under the Code and those issues are triable by the tribunal named in section
As we read the documents attached to the complaint, they do not show the title in question to be in the plaintiff except through the statement of the official examiner "that the title to the property herein described is vested in Dina Barkenthien." The force or effect of that statement or conclusion we do not consider, because the answer denies it and supports its denial with controverting facts.
The judgment should be affirmed, with costs.
WILLARD BARTLETT, Ch. J., WERNER, HISCOCK, CHASE, HOGAN and MILLER, JJ., concur.
Judgment affirmed. *48