20 Or. 491 | Or. | 1891
Lead Opinion
— This is a suit in equity to have a conveyance of certain lands therein described from the insolvent Wm. Ramsey and its subsequent conveyance to the defendant Jones declared void, and the defendant required to convey the same to the plaintiff. The facts in substance were these: The insolvent Wm. Ramsey made a general assignment for the benefit of his creditors on the 23d day of February, 1880, to one Pringle, but the court in 1890 thereafter appointed the plaintiff in the present suit assignee. On the same day he executed a conveyance to one F. of the land in controversy, which was designed to pay or secure certain indebtedness as disclosed by the answer of the defendant, and soon thereafter died, leaving a will, by which he devised all his right and title to the land in dispute to his executors. A few days prior to such assignment, the defendant and his partner had commenced an action and levied an attachment on the said land, and a certificate was filed as required by law upon the date of such assignment. Several years intervening, and no proceeding being taken under the assignment, and acting on the supposition that it had been abandoned, the defendant obtained judgment on the 10th day
There is certainly nothing shown even to indicate what were the impediments to an earlier prosecution of the suit to secure the land in controversy for the payment of the claims alleged, or how under the circumstances he could have remained so long ignorant of his rights as such assignee when so much was openly transpiring calculated to awaken his knowdedge, if any rights he had, and no means were used to fraudulently keep him in ignorance of them.
What constitutes a stale equity, is regarded as a vexed question, hardly susceptible of an accurate definition; it is not length of time alone that is a test of staleness, but the question must be determined by the facts and circumstances of each case, and according to right and justice. Nor in determining whether or not the claim is stale, is the court confined to the statutory period, but may refuse relief in cases where the delay is less or greater than that named in the statute. From the original appointment to the commencement of the present suit, no action has been taken or anything done, although covering more than the statutory-period, to indicate that any insolvent estate was in the course of settlement or pending; and it was certainly the duty of the plaintiff, if necessary for any cause, to seek the aid of a court of equity without unreasonable delay, for during the interval the defendant was pursuing modes to secure and perfect his rights upon principles substantially equitable and without any fradulent concealment; and as the facts conceded in the pleadings in our judgment indicate that he could not have been without knowledge of the existence of such rights, and the defendant’s conduct in the interim, he must have regarded such rights acquired by the defendant as just and equitable, and acquiesced in them, otherwise negligence would seem justly imputable to him. In Linsay Petroleum Co. v. Hurd, 5 P. C. Cas. 8, Eng. R. 196, the court
Upon analogous principles, the lapse of time especially, when there was equal means of knowledge of the original transaction, and a failure to take any steps under the assignment, and no explanation or excuse for such delay, while at the same time the defendant was seeking openly in the same court to protect his title to the land in controversy from the action of the executors, and expending large sums in the settlement of such litigation, combined with all the circumstances set forth, much of which is matter of record, bring the case within the rule that lapse of time and staleness of the equity or claim requires upon principles of equity and justice that the decree of the court below be affirmed and the bill dismissed.
Rehearing
On rehearing.
— The point suggested as to the assignee is immaterial. It is the staleness of the proceeding, under the. circumstances, which influenced the judgment of the court.