Lequatte v. Drury

Citations

• 101 Ill. 77
• 1881 Ill. LEXIS 49

Syllabus

<p>1. Chancery—laches—when a bar to relief. Equity will not assist a party who has not been reasonably diligent in asserting his rights. Stale claims will not be encouraged, since by the lapse of time there must of necessity be great difficulty in arriving at the exact facts of the case; and this rule will be applied as a bar to relief sought against a trustee.</p> <p>2. On a bill for the partition of land in which the complainants claimed an equitable title, and that the defendant held the legal title in trust for them, which bill was not filed until thirteen years after the defendant obtained his deed, under which he had ever since claimed the land against all others, the defendant in his answer set up the laches and delay of the complainants as a defence: Held, that the laches, unexplained, was such as to constitute a bar to the relief sought.</p> <p>3. Error will no.t always reverse—exclusion of evidence. The exclusion of the testimony of a defendant, when called by the complainants to prove facts occurring before the death of a common ancestor under whom both parties claim, if error, is no ground for the reversal of a decree dismissing the bill, where the laches of the complainants has been such as to bar any claim to relief.</p>