Wagg v. Herbert

Citations

• 215 U.S. 546
• 30 S. Ct. 218
• 54 L. Ed. 321
• 1910 U.S. LEXIS 1861

Syllabus

<p>In a suit in equity to have a deed declared a mortgage and in which fraud, oppression and undue influence are charged, the court is not concluded by what appears on the '.face of' the papers but may inquire into the real facts of the transactions. Russell v. Southard, 12 How. 139.</p> <p>A court of equity may decree that a deed given in settlement of a mortgage debt, no new consideration moving, was, by reason of fraud, oppression and undue influence, merely a new mortgage, and by s^ch decree no new contract is created by the court, and the relation of mortgagor and mortgagee originally existing is not disturbed.</p> <p>Though laches may be the equitable equivalent of the legal statute of limitations, there is no fixed time that makes it a bar, and in this case a delay of a little over two years in bringing an action to have a deed declared to be an equitable mortgage did not amount to laches.</p>