Comans v. Tapley

Citations

• 101 Miss. 203
• 57 So. 567

Syllabus

<p>1. Judgment. Recitals. Oonclusiveness. Abatement and Revival. Final decree. Interlocutory decree.'</p> <p>In the absence of evidence to the contrary a recital in a decree that a party was defendant in the suit is conclusive of that fact.</p> <p>'2. Final Decree. Interlocutory decree.</p> <p>An interlocutory decree is one made pending the cause, and before a final hearing on the merits. A final decree is one which disposes of the cause, either by sending it out of the court, before a hearing is had on the merits, or after a hearing .on the merits decreeing either in favor of or against the prayer of the bill.</p> <p>3. Abatement and Revival. Time for Revival.</p> <p>A decree in a suit to' cancel a sale by a mortgagee in possession and a sale by him as administrator of the purchaser and for an accounting, which cancels the sale, orders' an accounting, appoints a commissioner to take an accounting, and reserves other questions until the coming in of the report of the commissioner, is not a final decree from which an appeal should have been taken within the time limited by the statute, so that a failure to appeal would bar a right to revive the action after the death of the parties thereto, but was. an interlocutory decree.</p> <p>4. On Suggestion of Error. Laches. Delay. Equity.</p> <p>Laches in legal significance is not mere delay, but delay that works a disadvantage to another. So long as parties are in the same condition, it matters little whether one presses a right promptly or not, within the limits allowed by law, but when a party, knowing his rights, neglects to enforce them until the condition of the other party has in good faith become so changed that he cannot be restored to his former state, if the right be then enforced, delay in such case becomes inequitable and operates as an estoppel against the assertion of the right.</p> <p>5. Equity. Stale claims. Enforcement.</p> <p>A claim is stale in equity and will not be enforced where a bill is filed to amend