4 Miss. 276 | Miss. | 1839
delivered the opinion of the court.
Several questions have been presented for the determination of this court on this statement of the case. The first is, whether the court below had any authority to allow the bill of review on the grounds stated in the application to the court for that purpose. The rule on this subject is well settled. A bill of review can only be granted after an enrolment of the decree,' for error apparent on the face of the decree, or upon some new matter ,as a release, receipt, &c., proved to have been discovered since. 2 Mad. Chan. 536; Taylor v. Sharp, 3 Peere Williams, 371; 3 Atkyns, 35. In the case of Wiser v. Blachley, 2 Johns. Chan. Rep. 490, this rule is stated as the ground for dismissing the petition for a rehearing. In the case of Livingston v. Hubbs, 3 Johns. Chan. Rep. 126, the same rule is recognised and applied. The newly discovered matter, for which the decree is sought tobe reviewed, must not be relevant only; it must be distinct, and such as could not, upon reasonable diligence, have been ascertained. In the case last cited, the ground of the decree was, that certain land had been represented to the complainant to be of good quality, and fit for cultivation, when in fact it was not. Whether the land was so represented, and so defective, was the main question in the cause, and the newly discovered evidence was such as had a tendency to decide that issue. The petition for the bill of review stated that, since the decree, the defen
The second question for our consideration is, whether the complainant did establish the fact of his heirship as charged in his bill. This is purely a question of fact to be decided upon the proofs in the cause. The fact was once determined, by a jury, against the complainant. But it is insisted that the chancellor erred in directing an issue to the jury, because the proof was all on one side, and in favor of the complainant. It is, however, a general rule fully sustained by authority, that the chancellor may, whenever his mind is thrown into a state of doubt and uncertainty as to the preponderance of evidence, send an issue to the country; but he has a right, with certain exceptions, to take upon himself the decision of every question of fact in the cause; and this rests in his sound discretion. 2 Mad. Chan. 474. We are certainly of opinion that the weight of the evidence was clearly
In the case of Smith v. Clay, Ambler, 645, the rule is laid down by Lord Camden to be, that, as often as parliament had limited the time of actions and remedies to a certain period, in legal proceedings, the court of chancery adopted that rule, and applied it to similar cases in equity. In the case of Elmendorf v. Taylor et al., 10 Wheat. 152, it is said, that, from the earliest ages, courts of equity havé refused their aid to those who have neglected for an unreasonable length of time, to assert their claims, especially where the legal estate has been transferred to purchasers without notice. The same doctrine is stated and applied in the case of Clapp v. Bromagham, 9 Cowen, 530. Courts of equity have, therefore, uniformly adopted the limitation which is prescribed in the analogous proceeding at law. For, although the act of limitations does not extend to them in terms, yet they have always acknowledged the obligation of them. By the provisions of the first section of the act for the limitation of actions, every real, possessory, ancestral, mixed, or other action for any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, shall be brought and instituted within twenty years next after the .right or title thereto, or cause
The decree of the chancellor must be affirmed, with costs to the appellees, and the bill dismissed.