60 So. 810 | Ala. | 1913
It is an elementary rule of pleading that on demurrer the allegations of a plea are to be taken most strongly against the pleader. A complainant who seeks relief in a court of equity is presumed to have stated in his bill of complaint his case as favorably to himself as his facts will justify, and for this reason, when the bill of complaint is demurred to, then, if the bill, when construed as above stated, fails to show a recoverable right and the defect in the bill is properly pointed out by the demurrer, the demurrer to the bill should be sustained. The language of the bill of complaint should, however, when the sufficiency of the bill of complaint is tested by demurrer, be given a fair and reasonable interpretation, and hypercriticism should not be indulged in.
The truth, said one of the greatest — perhaps- the greatest — of Americans, is the shortest route between a fact and the statement of that fact, and, when a bill of complaint shows the facts of a case and those facts show a right of recovery, the bill is sufficient, although the language in which the facts are stated may be somewhat involved or somewhat obscure.
The respondents to the bill are the children and grandchildren (the grandchildren being the children of
The bill alleges that the husband died solvent, and shows that no stranger has in any way acquired any interest in, or right in any way to, said lands.
The respondents claim that the complainant is not entitled to relief because of laches. The legal title appears to have resided in the husband for 28 years before his death, and while, as we have already said, the husband, during all those years, is alleged to have held those lands in recognition of his wife’s right to them, the respondents contend that as the wife during that period took no steps to have the legal title vested in her, she has by her laches lost her right to appeal to a court of equity for relief. “Staleness or laches is founded upon acquiescence in the assertion of adverse rights and unreasonable delay on complainant’s part in not asserting her own, to the prejudice of the adverse party.”—Treadwell v. Torbert, 122 Ala. 300, 25 South. 216; Montgomery Light & Power Company v. Lahey, 121 Ala. 136, 25 South. 1006; Ashurst v. Peck, 101 Ala. 499, 14 South. 541; Shorter v. Smith, 56 Ala. 208; Gilmer v. Morris, 80 Ala. 78, 60 Am. Rep. 85; 1 Pom. Eq. Jur. § 419; 12 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law, 533. “Acquiescence involves knowledge, either actual or imputable, of the assertion of an adverse right. If there is no assertion of the adverse right, there can, of course, be no acquiescence.”—Haney v. Legg, et al., 129 Ala. 619, 30 South. 34, 87 Am. St. Rep. 81. The above quotation from the case last cited, it seems to us, settles the question now under discussion adversely to appellants. There has not been, according to the allegations of the bill of complaint, an assertion of an adverse right to the rights of appellee, and the delay of complainant in filing her bill
The decree of the court below is affirmed.
Affirmed.