Kearny v. Jeffries

Citations

• 48 Miss. 343

Syllabus

<p>1. Chancery practice — bill for discovery. — Technically, a bill for discovery is brought only in aid of a suit at law, pending or about being brought, to obtain disclosure of facts in the possession or knowledge of the defendant. No relief touching such facts is ever sought or allowed, except such as are merely incidental to the discovery sought, such as stay of the suit at law, the production of deeds, etc. But the object is merely the discovery of facts material to a suit in another court having, as is generally the case, exclusive jurisdiction of the subject-matter. This chancery jurisdiction for discovery has, by statute, in Mississippi, been conferred upon courts of law.</p> <p>2. Same — discovery at law under the Mississippi statute — relief—jurisdiction. — While the statutes which enable the plaintiff in a suit at law to examine the defendant as a witness, or to file in that court a petition for ancillary discovery, may not preclude his right to have a discovery in a court of equity, it is, nevertheless, affirmed that if the plaintiff, who has a legal title and needs discovery, brings his bill for that purpose, a court of equity will not undertake to try the case as if it were ejectment.</p> <p>3. Equity — discovery—relief.—A court of equity must have jurisdiction to relieve in some particular before it will relieve in all. But the ordinary bill of discovery is not a bill for relief, and requires generally no decree.</p> <p>4. Contracts — deeds—mutual concurrence of grantor and grantee. — A deed is one of the forms of contract, and to constitute it the parties, grantor and grantee, must concur, tho former to convey and the latter to accept, on the terms mentioned in the instrument. This is the last formal act necessary to complete the contract. But mere manual delivery and possession of the deed is not enough; but thore must be an acceptance and assent that the deed shall be operative as a contract.</p> <p>5. SAsrE. — Where the deed is beneficial to the g