Jackson v. Thomson

Citations

• 215 Pa. 209
• 64 A. 421
• 1906 Pa. LEXIS 766

Syllabus

<p>Res adjudicata — Pleadings—Ejectment—Bill in equity.</p> <p>Whore a prior adjudication, in equity is pleaded as a bar to an action of ejectment between the same parties, the court will examine the pleadings and the decree of the court in the equity suit to determine precisely what was adjudicated in that suit. In such an examination the court will exclude all extraneous questions not raised by the pleadings, although such questions may have been injected into the suit collaterally by the counsel of the parties.</p> <p>Where, in an action of ejectment, a prior equity suit between the same parties is set up as a bar, the plea of res adjudicata will not prevail where it appears that the purpose of the equity suit was to have a deed absolute on its face declared to be a conveyance of land as collateral security for the payment of a debt, while the evidence offered in the ejectment showed that the purpose of the ejectment was to have the defendant declared a trustee ex maleficio.</p> <p>In such a case the plea of former adjudication cannot be sustained, as the same evidence will not support a cause of action which requires proof of an express parol agreement to reconvey real estate, and a cause of action which requires proof that the holder of the title to the real estate is a trustee ex maleficio. The one requires proof, not of fraud in the grantee, but of an express contract which alone would entitle the party to recover; the other is established by proof of fraud of the grantee holding the title which converts him into a trustee for the beneficial owner.</p>