Comstock v. Henneberry

Citations

• 66 Ill. 212

Syllabus

<p>1. Chancery—jurisdiction—bill to quiet title. It is only in extraordinary eases that a court of chancery will assume the trial of purely legal titles; and, as a general rule, the holder of a legal title, not in actual possession, can not maintain a hill to quiet his title and compel a relinquishment of adverse claims, for the reason that he may have his title tested in a court of law.</p> <p>2. Same—wrongful possession. Where the holder of an adverse claim of title to land took possession and leased the same for five years, and the complainant, also claiming title to the same land, procured the tenant to attorn to him, and the original lessor, by forcible detainer, recovered the possession, which was, on the following night, forcibly retaken by the tenants of the complainant, who filed his bill in equity to enjoin the prosecution of an action of forcible entry and detainer, and to quiet his title as against the holder of the adverse title: Held, that while the complainant was in the actual possession of the land at the time he exhibited his bill, yet, as it was obtained unlawfully and forcibly, he could not be allowed to take advantage of his own wrong, and would be considered, in equity, as out of possession, so far as the question of jurisdiction was concerned; and, being out of possession, he had a complete remedy at law, and' a court of equity could not entertain his bill.</p> <p>3. Chancery jurisdiction—waiver of objection to. Except in cases where the subject matter is wholly foreign to the jurisdiction of a court of equity, the objection that there is an adequate remedy at law must be raised and urged in the court below, or it will be considered as waived, when the record is brought to this court.</p> <p>4. Same—to set aside title fraudulently obtained. A court of equity has jurisdiction to set aside and cancel a deed, even where the defendants are in possession,' where it is fraudulently procured with full knowledge of a prior unrecorded deed from the sam