Stackhouse v. Delaney
| Decision Date | 19 January 1922 |
| Docket Number | 5669. |
| Citation | 279 F. 738 |
| Parties | STACKHOUSE v. DELANEY et al. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the District of Colorado; Robert E. Lewis, Judge.
Suit in equity by John H. Stackhouse against J. J. Delaney and others. From a decree dismissing the bill, complainant appeals. Affirmed.
1. Courts 284-- Mere assertion of right under law of United States not sufficient to give federal court jurisdiction.
The mere assertion of a right under a law of the United States is not sufficient to confer jurisdiction on a national court but the suit must really and substantially involve a controversy as to the construction or effect of the law on the determination of which the result depends.
2. Courts 299-- Cause of action as stated held not one arising under a law of the United States.
A bill by a homesteader to quiet title as against a mortgage executed before he made final proof on his entry, on the ground that the mortgage was an alienation in violation of the homestead law, held not to state a cause of action within the jurisdiction of a federal court, as arising under a law of the United States, where it also alleged that the mortgage was void, because obtained by fraud, and prays that it be so adjudged.
G. K Andrus, of Denver, Colo., for appellant.
L. F Twitchell, of Denver, Colo. (Harry C. Davis and Stanley T Wallbank, both of Denver, Colo., on the brief), for appellees.
Before CARLAND, Circuit Judge, and YOUMANS and JOHNSON, District judges.
Appellant brought suit in the court below to quiet title to 400 acres of land in Adams county, state of Colorado. The trial court sustained a motion of the defendants to dismiss the complaint, and the plaintiff has appealed the cause to this court.
The facts alleged in the complaint are, in substance, as follows:
In 1913 plaintiff was occupying and in possession of 320 acres of the lands above mentioned under homestead entries, and 80 acres under a desert land entry, theretofore made by him in the United States land office at Denver. He was indebted to the defendant J. J. Delaney in the sum of $917, which was evidenced by a note executed by him and payable to said defendant. To secure the payment of this note plaintiff agreed to make to Delaney an assignment of certain water rights owned by the plaintiff. On the 26th of August, 1913, Delaney presented to plaintiff a paper writing, which he falsely and fraudulently represented to plaintiff to be an instrument necessary to be executed by him in connection with the assignment of said water rights; plaintiff, relying upon said representation, executed the instrument. The paper writing was not in fact an instrument necessary to be executed in connection with his water rights, but was a trust deed upon and to the above-mentioned lands, purporting to secure the payment of the said note of $917. In November, 1914, plaintiff made final proof, and in February, 1915, the government issued to him a patent for the lands covered by his homestead entries. It is stated in the record that plaintiff made final proof and has received a patent to the lands covered by his desert entry since the trial of the case in the court below.
After plaintiff had received his patent for his homestead, the defendant Campbell, as public trustee of Adams county, Colo., advertised and sold all of the lands covered by the trust deed, pursuant to the power of sale therein contained, to the defendant Delaney, and thereafter executed a deed conveying the lands to Delaney as purchaser at said sale. Delaney has conveyed the lands by deed to the defendant Colorado Springs National Bank. It is alleged in the complaint:
'That this action arises out of a federal question involving a law of the United States essential to the cause of action and on which this action must be determined,' in that the trust deed was obtained by the defendant Delaney 'in fraud of and against the rights of and contrary to the laws of the United States of America.'
The prayer of the complaint is:
'That all of the proceedings appertaining to said trustee's sale be declared null and void and of no effect, and that the trust deed and all proceedings had thereunder be declared null and void, and in fraud of the rights of complainant and of the laws of the United States of America, and that the deed executed and delivered by the defendant J. J. Delaney to the defendant the Colorado Springs National Bank may be declared null and void, and that said title to said land be found to be in the plaintiff, free and clear from the lien of said trust deed, and from said warranty deed given by J. J. Delaney to the defendant the Colorado Springs...
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