Shattuck v. Shattuck

Citation11 S.Ct. 276,138 U.S. 146,34 L.Ed. 873
PartiesSHATTUCK et al. v. SHATTUCK et al
Decision Date26 January 1891
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

[Statement of Case from pages 146-148 intentionally omitted] John F. Duncombe and C. E. Whitehead, for appellant.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 148-150 intentionally omitted] Charles A. Clark, for appellees.

Mr. Justice FIELD, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The facts set forth in the bill of the plaintiff clearly show that he has a plain, adequate, and complete remedy at law for the injuries of which he complains. He allges that he is the owner in fee, as trustee, of certain described lands in Iowa, and his injuries consist in this: that the defendants are in the possession and enjoyment of the property, claiming title under certain documents purporting to transfer the same, which are fraudulent and void. If the owner in fee of the premises, he can establish that fact in an action at law, and if the evidences of the defendants' asserted title are fraudulent and void, that fact he can also show. There is no occasion for resort to a court of equity, either to establish his right to the land or to put him in possession thereof. The sixteenth section of the judiciary act of 1789 (1 St. 82) declared 'that suits in equity shall not be sustained in either of the courts of the United States, in any case where plain, adequate, and complete remedy may be had at law,' and this provision has been carried into the Revised Statutes, in section 723. The provision is merely declaratory, making no alteration whatever in the rules of equity on the subject of legal remedies, but only expressive of the law which has governed proceedings in equity ever since their adoption in the courts of England. The term 'speedy' as used in the demurrer is embraced by the term 'complete' in the statute. The seventh amendment of the constitution of the United States declares that 'in suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.' That provision would be defeated if an action at law could be tried by a court of equity, as in the latter court a jury can only be summoned at its discretion, to ascertain special facts for its enlightenment. Lewis v. Cocks, 23 Wall. 466, 470; Killian v. Ebbinghaus, 110 U. S. 568, 573, 4 Sup. Ct. Rep. 232; Buzard v. Houston, 119 U. S. 347, 351, 7 Sup. Ct Rep. 249. And so it has been held by this court 'that whenever a court of law is competent to take cognizance of a right, and has power to proceed to a judgment which affords a plain, adequate, and complete remedy, without the aid of a court of equity, the plaintiff must proceed at law, because the defendant has a constitutional right to a trial by jury.' Hipp v. Babin, 19 How. 271, 278. It would be difficult, and perhaps impossible, to state any general rule which would determine in all cases what should be deemed a suit in equity as distinguished from an action at law, for particular elements may enter into consideration which would take the matter from one court to the other; but this may be said, that where an action is simply for the recovery and possession of specific, real, or personal property, or for the recovery of a money judgment, the action is one at law. An action for the recovery of real propery, including damages for withholding it, has always been of that class. The right which in this case the plaintiff wishes to assert is his title to certain real property; the remedy which he wishes to obtain is its possession and enjoyment; and in a contest over the title both parties have a constitutional right to call for a jury.

What we have thus said will be sufficient to dispose of this case, but some consideration is due to the arguments of counsel founded upon the statutes of Iowa, and the principle supposed to have been established by this court in the decision of the case of Holland v. Challen, 110 U. S. 15, 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 495, upon which the plaintiff relies. The Code of Iowa enacts that 'an action to determine and quiet the title to real property may be brought by any one having or claiming an interest therein, whether in or out of possession of the same, against any person claiming title thereto, though not in possession,' implying that the action may be brought against one in possession of the property. And such has been the construction of the provision by the courts of that state. Lewis v. Soule, 52 Iowa, 11, 2 N. W. Rep. 400; Lees v. Wetmore, 58 Iowa, 170, 12 N. W. Rep. 238. If that be its meaning, an action like the present can be maintained in the courts of that state, where equitable and legal remedies are enforced by the same system of procedure, and by the same tribunals. It thus enlarges the powers of a court of equity, as exercised in the state courts, but the law of that state cannot control the proceedings in the federal courts, so as to do away with the force of the law of congress declaring that 'suits in equity shall not be sustained in either of the courts of the United States, in any case where a plain, adequate, and complete remedy may be had at low,' or the constitutional right of parties in actions at law to a trial by a jury. The state, it is true, may create new rights and prescribe the remedies for enforcing them, and if those remedies are substantially consistent with the ordinary modes of proceeding in equity, there is no reason why they should not be enforced in the courts of the United States, and such we understand to be the effect of the decision in Clark v. Smith, 13 Pet. 195, and In re Broderick's Will, 21 Wall. 503.

In Holland v. Challen, 110 U. S. 15, 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 495, a bill was filed to quiet title under a statute of Nebraska, which provided that an action might be brought by any person, in possession or not, claiming title to real estate, against any person who claimed an adverse estate or interest therein, for the purpose of determining such estate or interest, and quieting the title. The bill alleged that the plaintiff was the owner in fee-simple, and entitled to the possession of the real property described. It then set forth the origin of his title, and alleged that the defendant claimed an adverse estate or interest in the premises, and that this claim so affected his title as to render a sale or other dis position of the property impossible, and disturbed him in his right of possession. He therefore prayed that the defendant might be required to show the nature of her adverse estate or interest; that the title of the plaintiff might be adjudged valid, and quieted as against her and parties claiming under her, and his right of...

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