Hardin v. Boyd

Citations

• 113 U.S. 756
• 5 S. Ct. 771
• 28 L. Ed. 1141
• 1885 U.S. LEXIS 1730

Syllabus

<p>No rule can be laid down in reference to amendments of equity pleadings that will govern all cases. They.must depend upon the special circumstances of each case, and in passing upon applications to amend, the ends of justice must not be sacrificed to 'mere form or by too rigid an adherence to technical rules of practice.</p> <p>In a suit brought by the heirs and administrator of a vendor of land by title bond, the bill alleged that the bond had been obtained by fraud, and, also, that the land had not been fully paid for according to the contract of sale. Its prayer was, among other things, that the bond be cancelled ; that an account be taken of the rents and profits which the purchaser had enjoyed, and of the amount paid on his purchase ;^that the title of the complainants be quieted ; and that they have such other relief as equity might require. At the final hearing the complainants were permitted to amend the prayer of the bill so as to ask, in the alternative, for a decree for the balance of the purchase money and a lien on the land to secure the payment thereof : Held, That no error was committed in allowing the amendment. It did not make a new ease, but only enabled the court to adapt its relief to that made by the bill and sustained by the proof. The' bill, with the prayer thus amended, was in the form in which it might have been originally prepared consistently with the rules of equity practice..</p> <p>The case distinguished from Shields v. Barrow, 17 How., 130.</p> <p>Although the debt for unpaid purchase money was barred by limitation under the local law, the lien therefor on the land was not barred ; for there was no such open adverse possession, 'for the period within which actions for the recovery of real estate must be brought, as would cut off the right to enforce the equitable lien for the purchase mpney.</p>

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