McQuiddy v. Ware
| Court | United States Supreme Court |
| Writing for the Court | DAVIS |
| Citation | 20 Wall. 14,22 L.Ed. 311,87 U.S. 14 |
| Parties | MCQUIDDY v. WARE |
| Decision Date | 01 October 1873 |
APPEAL from the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Missouri; the case being thus:
At the beginning of the late rebellion, which broke out in 1861, McQuiddy, a resident of Nodaway County, missouri, and owning a farm there, voluntarily entered the service of the Confederate States under General Sterling Price, and followed the fortunes of that officer and his army when they left Missouri. At this time there were two mortgages on different parts of his farm, or instruments of writing which the holders of them asserted to be mortgages. These were due, and the holders in May, 1862, and November, 1863, procured a decree of foreclosure of them. This proceeding
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was made in professed pursuance of a statute of Missouri, regulating the subject of the foreclosure of mortgages, and which authorizes an order of publication instead of an actual service when the mortgagee alleges and the court in which the foreclosure is applied for, or its clerk, is satisfied 'that the place of residence of the defendant is unknown.' The foreclosures, therefore, so far as the records of them showed, were made on constructive notices, and on allegations such as above stated.
McQuiddy also owed money, when he left Missouri, to a third creditor; this debt being by a note unsecured. This creditor proceeded to get his debt by a proceeding in attachment, and in professed pursuance of another statute of Missouri, which authorizes a writ in that sort of proceeding to issue whenever the plaintiff files his petition setting forth his cause of action, with an affidavit that he has good reason to believe, and does believe, that the defendant has absconded or absented himself from his usual place of abode in this State, so that the ordinary process of law cannot be served upon him. Such affidavit was made by the unsecured creditor, and under it, in November, 1863, judgment was got; a judgment, of course, like the other, on a constructive notice, so far at least as the record of the proceeding showed.
On these three different judgments all parts of his farm were sold; a sale of one part being in 1863, and of the others in 1864, in sales following at no great intervals the dates of the judgments.
By the Revised Statutes of Missouri a party against whom judgment has been rendered on constructive notice simply, may come in at any time within three years afterwards and file a petition for review.*
In this state of things and of law, McQuiddy, in July, 1871, filed his bill in the court below, against the purchasers of the farm (one Ware, and others), and against their vendees, to set aside the sales and to have possession again of the property sold.
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His bill attacked the jurisdiction of the court in all three cases alike.
He averred that the orders of publication were based on false statements, and that in one of the cases, proceeded in as in the case of a mortgage, the instrument proceeded on was not a mortgage, and that the proceeding was in truth a proceeding to enforce a lien on lands, instead of a suit to foreclose a mortgage, and required an affidavit of non-residence to authorize the giving of constructive notice; and that jurisdiction could not be acquired on affidavit of unknown residence, the sort of affidavit made in the case. He alleged further that his departure from the State was for a temporary purpose and with an intention of soon returning; that he left his wife at his domicile, and that copies of writs could have been served on her, and that he neither absconded nor absented himself from his usual place of abode in the sense of the statute, nor was his residence unknown; that all these facts were known to the parties in interest, including the respondents, who either purchased the property at the sales, or derived title from the person who did purchase.
By way of excuse for his want of diligence in his own affairs, he alleged that the state of feeling was such against him in Nodaway County, on account of the part he took in the rebellion, that he could not with any sort of safety return to the...
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Nicole B. v. Sch. Dist. of Phila., No. 16 EAP 2019
...to act diligently cannot invoke equitable principles to excuse that lack of diligence."); McQuiddy v. Ware , 87 U.S. (20 Wall.) 14, 19, 22 L.Ed. 311 (1873) ("Equity always refuses to interfere where there has been gross laches in the prosecution of rights.").In discussing the doctrine, the ......
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Fountain v. Lewiston Nat. Bank
...Oil Co. v. Marbury, 91 U.S. 587, 23 L.Ed. 328; Carr v. Thompson, 87 N.Y. 160; Mills v. Mills, 115 N.Y. 80, 21 N.E. 714; McQuiddy v. Ware, 20 Wall. 14-20, 22 L.Ed. 311; Marsh v. Whitmore, 21 Wall. 178, 22 L.Ed. 482; Simmons v. Baynard, 30 F. 532; Hammond v. Hopkins, 143 U.S. 224, 12 S.Ct. 41......
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Beatty v. Rawski, Civil Action No. 1:13–3045–MGL–SVH.
...See id. “Under long-established principles, petitioner's lack of diligence precludes equity's operation.” Id., citing McQuiddy v. Ware, 20 Wall. 14, 19, 22 L.Ed. 311 (1874) (“Equity always refuses to interfere where there has been gross laches in the prosecution of rights”).For these reason......
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United States v. American Bell Tel. Co.
...202, 19 How. 69; Badger v. Badger, 2 Wall. 87, 94; The Key City, 14 Wall. 653; Harwood v. Railroad Co., 17 Wall. 78; McQuiddy v. Ware, 20 Wall. 14, 19; Marsh v. Whitmore, 21 Wall. 178, 185; U.S. v. Throckmorton, 98 U.S. 61; Wood v. Carpenter, 101 U.S. 135, 140; Quinby v. Conlan, 104 U.S. 42......
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Mangum v. Action Collection Service, Inc., No. 08-35191.
...principle that "[e]quity always refuses to interfere where there has been gross laches in the prosecution of rights." McQuiddy v. Ware, 20 Wall. 14, 19, 22 L.Ed. 311 (1874); see also McKnight v. Taylor, 42 U.S. 161, 168, 1 How. 161, 11 L.Ed. 86 (1843) ("There must be conscience, good faith,......
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Smith v. Davis, No. 17-15874
...in which "each case as it arises must be determined by its own particular circumstances." McQuiddy v. Ware , 87 U.S. (20 Wall.) 14, 19, 22 L.Ed. 311 (1874). The rule he asks us to apply is something much more akin to the uniform, forward-looking actions of a legislature. But, of course, we ......
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Nicole B. v. Sch. Dist. of Phila., No. 16 EAP 2019
...to act diligently cannot invoke equitable principles to excuse that lack of diligence."); McQuiddy v. Ware , 87 U.S. (20 Wall.) 14, 19, 22 L.Ed. 311 (1873) ("Equity always refuses to interfere where there has been gross laches in the prosecution of rights.").In discussing the doctrine, the ......
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Fountain v. Lewiston Nat. Bank
...Oil Co. v. Marbury, 91 U.S. 587, 23 L.Ed. 328; Carr v. Thompson, 87 N.Y. 160; Mills v. Mills, 115 N.Y. 80, 21 N.E. 714; McQuiddy v. Ware, 20 Wall. 14-20, 22 L.Ed. 311; Marsh v. Whitmore, 21 Wall. 178, 22 L.Ed. 482; Simmons v. Baynard, 30 F. 532; Hammond v. Hopkins, 143 U.S. 224, 12 S.Ct. 41......