Dunbar v. Green

Citations

• 198 U.S. 166
• 25 S. Ct. 620
• 49 L. Ed. 998
• 1905 U.S. LEXIS 1132

Syllabus

<p>The guardian of an Indian minor appointed in a county of Kansas, other than that in which the land was situated, gave a deed to his ward’s property; the grantees did not take possession or exercise any act of ownership for thirty years, when the original owner took possession of the land which was s.till vacant and unimproved, and for the first time asserted the invalidity of his guardian’s deed; thereupon the grantees under the guardian’s deed brought ejectment; the defendant answered by general denial and also by cross-petition asked for equitable relief quieting the title and declaring his guardian’s deed void; the state court held the deed void but awarded possession to the grantees thereunder on the ground of the Ward’s laches.</p> <p>Held, error; that in an action of ejectment plaintiff must recover on the strength of his own title and not on the weakness of defendant’s, and that the rule is not affected in this case by the fact that the defendants, by cross-petition, had asked for equitable relief.</p>