36 Fla. 99 | Fla. | 1895
On the 26th day of July, A. ID. 1888, George C. Middleton, Charles E. Gard, Burton W. Cole, William IT. Erwin, Betsy P. White, William S. Vansickle, Isaac-AT. Vansickle, Marion R. Cooper, Prank F. Smith,. Joseph Randall as administrator of the estate of Erastus Randall, deceased, R. M. Simms, W. H. Simpson,. Ira S. Bunker, Edgar P. R. Pripp and T. B. George, all of the county of St. Johns, as complainants, filed their bill in equity in the Circuit Court of St. Johns-county against Ramon C. Reyes in his own right and as administrator of the estate of Jose B. Reyes, deceased, Carmen Reyes, Innocencia Reyes, Maria del Rosario Reyes, Gabina Andreu and Emanuel P. Andreu, her husband, and Adolphus N. Pacetti, all of St. Johns county. The bill alleges, in substance, that the complainants are severally seized and possessed in-fee of certain portions of that tract of land situated in St. Johns county, Florida, known as section 37 in township 8, south of range 29 east, located on Moultrie creek, the same being a Spanish grant confirmed to Jose B. Reyes, containing 223.10 acres; the several respective portions thereof owned and possessed severally by the respective complainants being particularly described in divers deeds of the same to them that are attached to the bill as exhibited thereto. That complainants are now severally in the actual possession of
The prayers of the bill are that the defendants and all persons claiming through or under them be perpetually enjoined from alleging or asserting title in themselves to said land, or any claim thereto, or right therein, and from instituting any suits to assert title to, or to recover possession thereof, and from disturbing complainants in any manner in the enjoyment, use and possession of said land; and that complainants’ title hereto may be decreed to be good and indefeasible as against-said claims of title thereto of the said defendants. That said power of attorney from the defendants Reyes to the defendant Pacetti be decreed to foe delivered up and cancelled, and adjudged to be null
The defendants demurred to the bill upon a ground'' of a want of equity in the bill, and because the complainants claim to hold separate interests in separate-pieces of property, and the damages, if any, would be separate and distinct, and the complainants aré, therefore, improperly joined; and for uncertainty. This demurrer was overruled, and this ruling is the first error assigned. Attached to the bill as an exhibit thereto is a power of attorney from the defendants-Reyes to the defendant Pacetti, authorizing the latter to sue for .and recover possession of any and all lands- and claims to which the Reyes may be entitled by inheritance or otherwise, and to put the Reyes in possession thereof; and this instrument contains also air agreement with Pacetti entitling him to one-half of allí lands and other property that he may recover for the-Reyes in consideration of his services in and about the recovery thereof. This instrument, the bill assumes, is a cloud upon the complainants’ title, and its delivery and cancellation, as such cloud, is prayed for. We do not think that it constitutes such a cloud upon the-complainants’ title as will authorize the maintenance-by them of a bill in equity for its removal. Upon its-face, when its features as a conveyance to Pacetti of' an interest in the lands is considered, it shows that the-grantors were, at t-he time of its execution, out of possession of the lands proposed by it to be conveyed,, and, according to the well-settled rule of this court, it was therefore, a nullity and void upon its face as to the-complainants who were, at the time of its execution,, in possession of the lands in dispute adversely to suck grantors. Doe ex dem. Magruder and Logan vs. Roe, 15 Fla. 692; Levy vs. Cox. 22 Fla. 546; Gould vs. Carr,
The next ground of relief set up by the bill, and the one mainly relied upon by the complainants, is, that the defendants are and have been traducing and slandering the title of complainants to the lands described by declaring themselves to be the true owners thereof, and that complainants had no title thereto, and by posting up notices or placards warning purchasers from buying any of said lands from any one but themselves, under penalty of purchasing law suits, etc. Under this last phase of the bill there is no allegation as to-any overt act of interference by the defendants with the complainants in their quiet use, enjoyment and possession of the-lands; neither is it alleged that the defendants have interfered in any wray directly with the land itself, by any attempt to possess themselves, orto dispossess the complainants thereof, but the substance of the allegations is, simply, that the defendants are and have been libeling and slandering the title of complainants to said lands, and the prayer of the-bill upon this phase of it is, that they be restrained and enjoined from so slandering and libeling it in future. There is no allegation that the defendants, have brought, orare about to, or threaten to, bring any
It is further contended here that the complainants .are entitled to the relief prayed, upon the ground of •the prevention of a multiplicity of suits, and this contention is based upon the idea that the complainants -are numerous, and that each of them owns a separate parcel of the land in controversy, and that each of them is subject to a several action of ejectment by the defendants for the respective parcels of the land owned by each. We do not think that the facts set up by the •bill discloses a case calling for the interposition of a •court of equity to prevent a multiplicity of suits; bub besides this the bill distinctly alleges that the defend■•ants will not bring ejectment to test the title, though ■often solicited and invited to do so by the complainants. •