18 Haw. 415 | Haw. | 1907
OPINION OP THE COURT BY
The plaintiffs brought a bill to quiet their title in a parcel of land in their possession devised to them by George Oharman and which the defendant claimed, “by reason of which said claim said premises have been damaged and the above named plaintiffs have been and are unable to dispose of and lease the said premises to advantage.” The prayer is that the defendant be required to set forth the nature of his claim, that the same be determined, that the court adjudge that the plaintiffs are the owners and that the defendant has no right, except as one of the devisees under Oharman’s will, and that the defendant and those claiming under him “be forever debarred from asserting any claim whatever in and to the said premises adverse to the plaintiffs” and for further relief. The defendant demurred to the jurisdiction and at the same time answered, denying the plaintiffs’ ownership and averring that Oharman had no title but that the land belonged to one Likeke, whose mortgage on it dated July 22, 1869, assigned to Oharman September 13, 1874, was of record, not being fully paid or cancelled; that Oharman ap mortgagee had collected the rents to liquidate the mortgage debt, and since his decease that his
After signing an opinion which contains these tin dings the judge signed a decree for .the plaintiffs Mary Oharman and Aloses Miller, which sets forth the findings above mentioned, and declares that it appeared from the evidence that the defendant had at divers times since about July 2, 1903, asserted a claim of title to the land in his own right upon the, ground that the plaintiffs took no title under the will because. Oharman had newer foreclosed the mortgage, and that “the plaintiffs having presented their case1 herein to a practical conclusion thereof upon the ¡headings on- file, herein, whereupon the defendant by his counsel orally disclaimed the truth of his answer on file, and further renounced any claim of title in fee in himself or in said W. Tfikeke to any part of the land described in said complaint, and thereupon admitted the title of the plain
“And it further appearing that the claim of said defendant coupled.with his said acts based thereupon, constitutes a cloud upon the title of said Mary Oliarman and Moses Miller to said property, injuriously and vexatiously embarrassing and affecting the saipe, and it is just and expedient that such likewise cloud should be removed.”
The decree concludes with a perpetual injunction of the defendant and all claiming under him from claiming any right in the premises adjudged to constitute the store and land leased to Turner either under the will or otherwise and from bringing any suit or action to disturb plaintiffs’ possession and title or otherwise disturbing them in their quiet enjoyment of the premises.
This was unnecessary verbiage, with repetitions and recitals of findings and of matters of evidence which are not required in a decree declaring that the leasehold devised to the plaintiffs includes the lot in dispute; that the defendant’s claim thereto was unfounded and enjoining him from its assertion.
But the bill cannot be sustained. Equity has no jurisdiction of the controversy whether the description in the will of the land devised to the plaintiffs, namely, the Turner leasehold, or the description of the land- devised to the defendant, namely, the testator’s dwelling house and lot, included the lot in question. This was a question of law presenting no equitable considerations. An action to quiet title would have settled the question, and if after judgment in their favor the defendant
The present case does not come within the classes of cases enumerated in' the statute defining the jurisdiction of equity nor is it a case “where there is not a plain, adequate and complete remedy at law.” Sec. 1834, R. L. No case is cited, and we are aw'are of none, which holds that a claim of ownership followed by acts of trespass and annoyance constitutes a cloud upon title merely because the claim is based on a written instrument. In Whitehead v. Shattuck, 138 U. S. 146, 151, the court discusses Holland v. Challen, 110 U. S. 15, relied on by the plaintiff, which was a bill brought under a statute of Nebraska to quiet title, alleging that the defendant claimed an interest adverse to the plaintiff which so affected his title as to render a sale or other disposition of his property impossible and disturbed his possession, and praying that the defendant be required to show the nature of her adverse interest that his own title be adjudged valid, and the defendant decreed to have no estate in the premises and enjoined from hindering the plaintiff in his possession. A demurrer to the jurisdiction was sustained. To the defendant’s claim that the plaintiff’s title had not been adjudicated, and that equity would therefore not remove a cloud upon it, the court said, p. 153, that the statute authorized the proceeding not merely when a bill of peace would lie, “but also to prevent future litigation respecting the property by removing existing causes of controversy as to its title and so embraces cases where a bill quia timet to
Holland v. Challen is further explained in Scott v. Neely, 140 U. S. 106, a case under a Kentucky statute similar to that of Nebraska, which, as the court said, merely did away with tile necessity of previous adjudications at law in favor of the plaintiff’s right, “it being declared sufficient to call intp exercise the powers of a court of equity that he was in possession of the land and of the title and was disquieted by an assertion of a claim to the property by the defendant.” In Smyth v. New Orleans Canal Co., 141 U. S. 656, a demurrer was sustained to a bill setting forth the plaintiff’s title from the state and that the respondents claimed under French grants, praying that he be declared owner and put in possession and have an accounting. “Whether that title can be enforced against other claimants will depend of course upon the validity of the ancient grants produced, and of the proceedings by which Louisiana is alleged to have acquired the property. That can be shown in an action at law as well as in a suit in equity. The facts upon which a title to the premises in controversy rests, or by which such title can he defeated, can be readily shown in an action at law” in which “all the facts can be established and all the questions necessary to determine the right to the property can be considered and disposed of.” Devine v. Los Angeles, 202 U. S. 313, a bill to remove a cloud upon a title' originating with a Spanish grant confirmed by a treaty and patents, averred that the city claimed the Los Angeles river and its waters under usages of Mexico and Spain in vogue prior to the cession of California under the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Under our former ruling that “under the allegations of the amended bill there is no cloud for equity to remove,” the plaintiffs were at liberty to move to amend by averring facts constituting a cloud, but the evidence now shows that under the decisions above cited such amendment could not have been made.
Decree appealed from reversed, bill dismissed.