28 Conn. 593 | Conn. | 1859
This petition, the object of which is to set aside the decree made in the case of Bill v. Mason, or to open that case for the purpose of giving the present petitioner an opportunity to make defense therein, is sought to be sustained on the ground that it divested him of the title to the land in question which he obtained by the deed to him from Mason.
It is very clear that by that deed from Mason, to whom the legal title had been conveyed by Bill, the acknowledged owner, the petitioner acquired and still retains a perfect legal title to the land, under which, if he is in the possession of it, he can at law protect himself in that possession, or if not in possession can acquire it by an action of ejectment; and that therefore, having an adequate remedy at law for the protection or enforcement of such title, he has no occasion to resort to a court of
In the first place, the general principle of law that a judgment or decree binds or affects only the parties to the case in which it was rendered or their privies, would exclude the introduction of the decree in favor of Bill against the plaintiff, as the latter was not made a party in that case ; and his title having been acquired subsequently to that upon which the decree operated and prior to the passing of that decree, there was no such privity between the plaintiff and the party against whom that decree was rendered, that the former in a court of law is affected by it. In the next place, whatever title was passed by that decree was the title of Mason only, the defendant in that suit, and no such title was passed excepting that which he had when the decree was rendered. And his legal title having been previously conveyed to the plaintiff, the title thus passed was founded only upon an equitable interest in Bill in the land, existing previously and down to the rendering of the decree. Indeed the ground of Bill’s petition was only to turn an equitable interest which he claimed into a legal title by the decree of the court, and the effect of that decree was only the same as if the court, ^instead of thus passing directly, [ *598 ] under our statute, the title of Mason to Bill, had, as it might have done, ordered Mason himself to convey his title to Bill, and he had conveyed it accordingly; in which last case there is no doubt that the conveyance to Bill would have taken effect, as a legal instrument, only from the time of its execution ; and it would not have related back to the title of Mason, either
But it is suggested that the snit in equity brought by Bill against Mason was pending when Mason conveyed to the petitioner, and that therefore the latter is bound by the decree in that case. This claim is founded upon .the principle, that a person acquiring rights from another against whom a suit is pending by which those rights may be affected, is bound by the proceedings and decree in such suit. Whatever may be the extent to which this doctrine of lis pendens is carried elsewhere, or is to be adopted here, it being now for the first time brought before our courts, we are of the opinion that it is not necessary for us in this case to examine it, because it is purely [ *599 ] an equitable dogtrine, ^adopted,’ recognized and enforced in courts of equity alone, and can not be rendered available in proceedings in courts of law; and therefore, in an action at law inywhich the legal title only of the plaintiff should come in question, that title could not be met or impaired by an application to it of a merely equitable principle, the cognizance of which^is confined to courts of chancery. And if, in the present controversy, the defendant can avail himself of that principle on his petition against Mason, he can do so, not in an action at/law between himself and the plaintiff, but only by a petition in chancery founded on a claim for equitable relief, which is cognizable in that court only. Whatever ground he might there have for relief, it does not therefore impair or affect the present legal title of the plaintiff or any proceeding founded upon it in a court of law, and consequently does not take from the plaintiff his present remedy at law founded on that title,
The judgment complained of is therefore affirmed.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
Judgment affirmed.