83 Tenn. 479 | Tenn. | 1885
delivered the opinion of the court.
On May 10, 1882, the defendant, Kussell, claiming the land in controversy under a written instrument of sale purporting to have been executed by Patsey J. Galbraith, on March 2, 1871, undertook to sell the land to the defendant, Scott, by assigning to him the instrument of sale, and making him a deed to the land. The defendant, Scott, caused the assignment,, with the instrument attached, and the deed to be duly registered about a month after he received them. On
The defendant, Scott, answered the bill, insisting upon the genuineness of the instrument sought to be impeached, but denying, in the event the fact 'Should be otherwise, all charges of collusion with his co-defendant, and claiming that he bought the land in good faith, and paid the price, under the belief that he was acquiring a good title. The depositions of Russell and of- several of his relations and neighbors, were taken to establish the genuineness of the instrument under which he claimed title, and that he had been in possession of the land for more than seven
The chancellor, upon the coming in of the master’s report, held that the proper basis of the account for mining was the value of the coal in bed, unmined and existing as realty, and that this value, under the proof, was the usual royalty paid by lessees for the right of mining, which he found to be one cent for each bushel of coal mined. He also held that the defendant, Scott, was not entitled to any thing for betterments put on the land, nor th.e complainant to damages for the timber cut, because the same was used in building houses on the land and as props in mining. The exceptions filed by both parties to the master’s report were disallowed, and a decree was rendered against Scott for the amount of royalty found, with interest, and the costs of the cause, including the costs of surveys made by the complainant. Erom .so much of this decree as fixed the basis of damages to be allowed him for coal mined and timber cut, the complainant alone appealed.
The Referees are of opinion that the defendant, Scott, is to be regarded as a wilful trespasser, or, at least, as one who has negligently failed to investigate his title, the foundation of which as to him is a paper bearing upon its face such marks of forgery as to put a prudent man upon inquiry, and when nearly
The chancellor merely found that the complainant had the better title. The Referees do not say that
The courts of law, trammeled by their forms of action and the principles upon which they were supposed to rest, such as title in replevin and conversion in trover, have found it very difficult to formulate a
The court of chancery is not hampered by forms, and possesses all the power and means to do exact justice as near as is possible. It never enforces forfeitures nor gives punitive damages. The fundamental rule of equity is to afford just compensation to its suitors. The bill, before us is, under our decisions, one of pure equitable cognizance: Almony v. Hicks, 3 Head, 39. It seeks to remove the defendant’s paper title as a cloud upon the. complainant’s legal title to the land in controversy, an.d, as the necessary consequences of the decree, to recover possession of the land in controversy, and to have an account for mesne profits and waste. All that the complainant can claim on the account is just compensation for the coal mined and wood cut. That just compensation, under the foregoing principles of law and the rules of a court of equity, is the value of the coal before it was mined, and of the" wood before it was cut, with such damages, if any, as may be occasioned by the impairment of the value of the . land by reason of the removal, or mode of removal, from the soil.
In the absence of special damage to the land, which is not shown or claimed, the complainant would be entitled to the value of the timber cut as it stood in the tree, and to the rent of the houses erected on the land with that timber. On the other hand, the defendant would be entitled to the permanent enhancement of the value of the land by reason of the permanent improvements made by him as they existed at the time of the consent decree (when the defendant began to mine virtually under contract), to the extent at least of the rent and waste. The master reported the value of the trees cut at $120, and the value of
The report of the Referees .will be set aside, and the decree of the chancellor affirmed. The complainant will pay the costs of this court.