Fletcher v. McArthur

Citations

• 117 F. 393
• 54 C.C.A. 567
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4444

Syllabus

<p>1« Equity_Laches.</p> <p>By Act June 2, 1858, congress authorized the issuance of certificates to holders of deferred land claims confirmed under the treaty of cession of Louisiana, which should be receivable at any land office of the United States in payment for lands. A holder of such a claim, who had never applied for or obtained a certificate thereon, died in 1862, domiciled in Mississippi, and his will was there probated, by which he devised all his property to his children, one of the complainants and the father of the other complainants. Subsequently, without the knowledge of the devisees, proceedings were instituted in Louisiana for the settlement of decedent’s succession, in which his land claim was sold, and the purchaser, through whom defendants claim, obtained a certificate thereon, which was located on the lands in controversy. Held, that complainants were not chargeable with notice of the proceedings in Louisiana, nor barred by laches from asserting their rights against defendants, where suit for that purpose was instituted within two years after they first learned of the existence of any adverse claim.</p> <p>2. Same—Implied Trust—Measure of Trustee’s Liability.</p> <p>In such case, however, defendants were not chargeable with an express trust in favor of complainants, but with a trust implied by equity, and complainants were entitled to recover only the value of the scrip, with interest from the time of its location, and not the land into which the same had been converted.</p> <p>'8. Attorney and Client—Contracts for Compensation—Validity. -</p> <p>Under the law of Michigan, an agreement that attorneys shall receive a share of the recovery in payment for their services is lawful.</p> <p>4. Trusts—Suit to Enforce—Defenses.</p> <p>In a suit to recover lands alleged to be held in trust for complainants, defendants cannot plead as a defense a deed executed by complainants to a third person, describing other lands, upon an allegation that it was intend