Holland v. Challen

Citations

• 110 U.S. 15
• 3 S. Ct. 495
• 28 L. Ed. 52
• 1884 U.S. LEXIS 1649

Syllabus

<p>Equity — Nebraska—Statutes.</p> <p>1. A statute of Nebraska provided that an action may be brought and prosecuted to final decree, judgment, or order, by any person or persons, .whether in actual possession or not, claiming the title to real estate, against any person or. persons who claim an adverse estate or interest therein, for the purpose of determining such estate or interest, and quieting the title to such real estate: B.eld, That it dispensed with thfe general rule of courts of equity, that in.order to maintain a hill to quiet title, it .is necessary that the party should be in possession, and in most cases that his title should have been established by law, or founded on undisputed evide13.ce, or long continued possession. Glarh v. Smith, 13 Pet. Í95, with reference to á Kentucky statute in some respects similar, approved.</p> <p>3 Jurisdiction over proceedings to quiet title and prevent litigation is inherent in courts of equity ; and although the courts have imposed limitations upon its exercise, it is always competent for the legislative power to remove, those restrictions.</p> <p>3. While it is true that alterations in the jurisdiction; of State courts cannot affect the jurisdiction of the Circuit Courts of the United States, so long as the equitable rights themselves remain ; yet an. enlargement of equitable rights may be administered by the Circuit Courts as well as by the courts of the State.</p> <p>4. Under the Nebraska statute cited above, a bill to quiet title which, on its ’ face, presented a good title in the complainant, gave him the right to call upon the defendant to produce and disclose whatever estate he had in the . premises in question, to the end that its validity might be determined, and, if adjudged invalid, that the title of the plaintiff might be quieted.</p>