Smith v. Love

Citations

• 49 Fla. 230

Syllabus

<p>EJECTMENT — PLEA ON EQUITABLE GROUNDS — FEDERAL HOMESTEAD LAWS — FRAUDULENT PROCUREMENT OF PATENT TO ANOTHER’S LAND.</p> <p>1. The. plea upon equitable grounds, provided for by section 1047 of the Revised Statutes of Florida of 1892, is applicable in actions of ejectment in this State. Such a plea Interposed and maintained by proof in an ejectment suit alleging such matter as would entitle the pleader thereof to an injunction in equity, if set forth by bill, restraining the judgment in ejectment against him,- has the effect, not of procuring for the pleader in the ejectment suit at law the same full relief as could be meted out in a court of equity, but, of defeating the plaintiff’s claim to possession sought by such suit in- ejectment; and when such plea is sustained by the proofs entitles the defendant to a verdict. (COCKRELL, J., dissents.)</p> <p>2. Where a party obtains a patent for lands from the United States by fraudulent imposition on the officers of the land department, equity will give relief to the party legally entitled to receive the patent.</p> <p>3. While a court of equity has no power to hear and determine any question affecting the title to public lands of the United States until the lanh department has. determined , the matter, and the title has passed from the government, yet after the title has passed to private parties, a court of equity will convert the holder of the legal title into a trustee to the true owner, if in equity and good conscience, and by the laws, of Congress and rules of the department thereunder it ought to have gone to another.</p> <p>4. Facts alleged in plea upon equitable grounds, held sufficient, if maintained by proofs, to constitute the plaintiff in this case a trustee holding the legal title to the land in controversy in trust for the defendant.</p>