47 Miss. 593 | Miss. | 1873
Martha A. Watkins was the owner of a certain tract of land in Columbus, Lowndes county, Mississippi, and she and James H. Turner were the joint owners of the buildings, storehouses, etc., on said tract of land, and were partners in business conducted in the said buildings, under the firm name of James H. Turner & Co. Some time in 1868 this firm was dissolved, Turner disposing of his interest in the business and in the buildings to
In view of the case of Otley v. Haviland, Clark & Co., 56 Miss. 19, it will be unnecessary to enter into any extended discussion on the disposition of the case at bar. That was a case in equity, taken to the appellate court on demurrer to the bill. The complainant was the purchaser of a building sold under a proceeding to enforce the lien of a mechanic upon the building, the land whereon it was erected not being subject to the lien. In that case, as in the one at bar, numerous causes of demurrer were assigned. The court of last resort, in disposing of that case, say: “ As to the propriety of coming into equity to assert the appellant’s right to the buildings and materials, it appears, from the peculiar nature of the case, that no other court is competent to give adequate relief without injustice to the respective rights of the parties. The appellant being entitled to the buildings and materials, with the right to remove them from the ground, and the appellees being entitled to the ground, it is proper that a court of equity should direct how the appellant’s right to remove the buildings and materials should be exercised, so as to do no prejudice to the rights of the appellees as owners of the ground, and this could not be done by a court of law. It appears, therefore, to be a proper case for the interposition of a court of equity.”
In a case like this, there is open to the owner of the buildings, the statutory remedy to recover possession by summary proceedings before a magistrate, a,n action to recover damages for the conversion, and an action of ejectment. To either remedy there would be found serious, if not fatal obstacles, and neither would afford
It can make no difference, that in one case the complainant became the owner of the buildings at a sale on a judgment decreeing a lien of a mechanic, and in the other by purchase at a sale by a trustee under a trust deed. In both, the complainants appear as the owners of the buildings, while third parties own the land. Otley v. Haviland et al., is not only our guide upon the maxim, “ Stare decisis, et non quieta movere,” but it commands the approval of our .judgment as a practical rule in a case which seems not to be otherwise provided for.
The decree overruling the demurrer is affirmed, with leave to the respondents to answer the bill within forty days from this date.