Dickerson v. Colgrove

• Decision Date: 01 October 1879
• Parties: DICKERSON v. COLGROVE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

100 U.S. 578

100 U.S. 578

25 L.Ed. 618

DICKERSON v. COLGROVE.

October Term, 1879

The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.

Mr. George W. Lawton for the plaintiff in error.

Mr. M. J. Smiley, contra.

MR. JUSTICE SWAYNE delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action of ejectment brought by Dickerson and Wheeler. The latter died during the progress of the suit. The parties agreed in writing to submit the case to the court without the intervention of a jury. The court found the facts. So far as it is necessary to state them, they may be thus summarized: Micajah Chauncey owned the land in controversy. He died on the ___ day of February, 1853, leaving two children Edmund Chauncey and Sarah Kline. They were his only heirs-at-law. He is the common source of title of all the parties in this litigation. On the 3d of March, 1853, John Kline and Sarah his wife conveyed by warranty deed the entire premises to Lowell Morton. The deed was duly recorded on the 6th of March, 1854, and on the 1st of April, 1854, Lowell Morton entered into possession of the premises. He and the defendants have ever since been in actual possession, claiming to own and hold the property as tenants in common. The latter were in possession at the commencement of this suit, claiming title through conveyances from Lowell Morton. Prior to the 1st of April, 1856, Lowell Morton learned that Edmund Chauncey was one of the children of Micajah Chauncey, and that he lived in California. Whereupon Lowell Morton procured Eleazer Morton to write to Edmund Chauncey to learn whether he made any claim to the premises. On the 1st of April, 1856, Edmund Chauncey, still living in California, addressed a letter to his sister, Sarah Kline, then living in Michigan, wherein he disavowed, in strong terms, the intention ever to assert such a claim.

The contents of this letter subsequently came to the knowledge of Lowell Morton, who thereafter conveyed to the defendants by warranty deeds. Under these deeds they have since held and claimed title, and have occupied and improved the property. On the 9th of July, 1865, Edmund Chauncey conveyed the undivided half of the premises, by quitclaim deed, to Orlando B. Dickerson and James Witherell. On the 1st of May, 1868, Witherell conveyed all his right, title, and interest to William W. Wheeler, one of the original plaintiffs. The suit was instituted on the 6th of March, 1873. Lowell Morton and the defendants had then been in possession eighteen years and eleven months. The court below held as conclusions of law that the action was barred by the Statute of Limitations of Michigan of 1863, and by an estoppel in pais, and gave judgment accordingly. The plaintiff thereupon sued out this writ of error.

Both the conclusions of law are relied upon as errors for the reversal of the judgment. Our remarks will be confined to the point of estoppel.

This defence is founded upon the letter of Edmund Chauncey. The contents of the letter of Morton, to which it refers, are not given in the finding of facts, but the subject of that letter and the inquiry which it made appear clearly in the letter of Chauncey. He said: 'Mr. Morton wrote me a letter. He wanted to know if I intended to claim any of the Conger farm' (meaning the premises in controversy). 'You can tell Mr. Morton for me, he need not fear any thing from me. Thank God, I am well off here, and you can claim all there. This letter will be enough for him. I intended to give you and yours all my property there, and more if you need it.' The phrase, 'I intended to give,' &c., implies that he knew his half of the farm had already been sold to Morton, and that he could not, therefore, give his sister, to whom the letter was addressed, any part of that property. It does not appear that there was any other property held by them as coparceners. He says further, that he intended to give her more if she needed it. All this was communicated to Lowell Morton. What was the effect upon him? He was lulled into security. He took no measures to perfect his title, nor to procure any redress from the Klines, who had conveyed and been paid for the whole of the property while they owned but the half. On the contrary, he gave thereafter deeds of warranty to all the defendants,—who are sixty-two in number,—and he and they occupied and improved the premises down to the commencement of this suit. Between that time and the date of the letter was a period of nearly seventeen years. What improvements were made and how far the property had risen in value are not disclosed, nor does it appear what stimulated Chauncey to violate his promise and commence this attack on the defendants.

The estoppel here relied upon is known as an equitable estoppel, or estoppel in pais. The law upon the subject is well settled. The vital principle is that he who by his language or conduct leads another to do what he would not otherwise have done, shall not subject such person to loss or injury by disappointing the expectations upon which he acted. Such a change of position is sternly forbiddden. It involves fraud and falsehood, and the law abhors both. This remedy is always so applied as to promote the ends of justice. It is available only for protection and cannot be used as a weapon of assault. It accomplishes that which ought to be done between man and man, and is not permitted to go beyond this limit. It is akin to the principle involved in the limitation of actions, and does its work of justice and repose where the statute cannot be invoked. Here, according to the finding of the court, the time of adverse possession lacked but a year and a month of being twenty years,—when, it is conceded the statutory bar would have been complete.

In Faxton v. Faxon (28 Mich. 159), a mortgagee holding several mortgages prevailed on a son of the deceased mortgagor, then intending to remove to a distance, to remain on the premises and support the family, by assuring him that the mortgages should never be enforced. The son supported the family, and the property grew in value under his tillage. After the lapse of several years the mortgagee proceeded to foreclose. He was held to be estopped by his assurances upon which the son had acted. The court said: 'The complainant may have estopped himself without any positive agreement, if he intentionally led the defendants to do or abstain from doing any thing involving labor or expenditure to any considerable amount, by giving them to understand they should be relieved from the burden of the mortgages. In Harkness v. Toulmin (25 id. 80) and Truesdale v. Ward (24 id. 117) this principle was applied, in the former case, to the extent of destroying a chattel mortgage, and in the latter, of forfeiting rights under a land contract, where parties were led to believe they were abandoned. There is no rule more necessary to enforce good faith than that which compels a person to abstain from asserting claims which he has induced others to suppose he would not rely on. The rule does not rest on the assumption that he has obtained any personal gain or advantage, but on the fact that he has induced others to act in such a manner that they will be seriously prejudiced if he is allowed to fail in carrying out what he has encouraged them to expect.' Cooley, J., was inclined to doubt the sufficiency of the proof, but said, finally: 'His' (the mortgagee's) 'assurances have undoubtedly been relied upon and acted upon by the defendants, and, considering the great lapse of time without any claim under the mortgages on the part of the...