Henry Baldwin

“ When the whole action of a court of equity on a bill, which does not, in its body, contain this averment in positive terms, is thus a mere nullity, and a final decree does not cure the defect, it is a most strange conclusion, that it cannot be denied by the answer, or the plaintiff be put to its proof ”

“ There is no more certainty that a last opinion is more correct than the first. Generally speaking, a construction of a law, nearest the time of its passage, is most respected, and is adhered to, though there may be doubts about it, on the principle of 'stare decisis.' But it is believed to be unprecedented, to consider a subsequent decision that omits any reference to prior ones, and from some cause overlooks them, though they are in point, and by a court of the last resort, as having settled the law. ”

“ Reasonable diligence would seem to consist in the plaintiff's pleasure; eleven years must be held not to be 'a great length of time,' under the circumstances of this case; or the utter silence, and want of notice for this period, must be held not to be an 'acquiescence' in the defendant's right. It has been a truly fortunate result for the plaintiff, that with a case not substainable by either the practice or law of Louisiana, or by the rules and principles of a court of equity, separately, he has been able to attain his object at one term, by one law, and at another term, by the other ”

“ He, too, the distinguished jurist who revised and compiled codes for Louisiana, and was deeply versed in all the details of its laws, asks this court to give him the benefit of this law of antichresis, as the only ground on which it can give him a decree for property, without irretrievably compromitting that which he deemed far more valuable-his character. ”

“ A denial of this fact does not oust an existing general jurisdiction; it puts in issue the only fact which can give the court cognisance of the case: no fact or matter, not in the bill, is set up by way of avoidance or delay, or as a reason for not answering; nothing is put in issue but the truth of the allegation, in which the plaintiff claims a right and privilege denied to the citizens of Louisiana. He has claimed, and the court have granted him, a much higher privilege than that of merely suing in a federal court ”

“ So again, 'as the courts of the Union have a chancery jurisdiction in every state, and the judiciary act confers the same chancery powers on all, and gives the same rules of decision, its jurisdiction in Massachusetts' (and of course, in Louisiana) , 'must be the same as in other states.' Ibid. 656. And if no such laws and rules applicable to the case exist in Louisiana, then such equity powers must be exercised according to the principles, usages and rules of the circuit courts of the United States, as regulated and prescribed for the circuit courts in the other states of the Union. Ibid. ”

“ Fort & Story did not intend to pay their money on such a contract as an antichresis. Mr. Livingston did not intend to mislead or deceive them, by persuading them to waive a sale, which, under such a contract, was indispensable to bar his right of redemption; he did not cancel the counter-letter, and pledge himself that his equity of redemption was for ever extinguished, knowing that the law incapacitated him from doing it. Fort & Story never contemplated that their only right to the property, was only a pledge upon it, for their money and legal interest ”

“ Ibid. 455, 459. Inadequacy of price is not a circumstance which will convert a conditional sale into a mortgage (7 Cranch 241) ; and if the party makes no claim to the property, while the other is in possession, making valuable improvements on it, without any notice of an intention to assert a right of redemption, a court of equity will not aid him. Ibid. 240.
In the counter-letter, Mr. Livingston is not bound to repay the money; Fort & Story had no remedy against him; had the property sold for, or been worth, less than the sum advanced, the loss was theirs. ”

“ There is no phrase so potent as this, 'nothing in this act shall be so construed:' it has not only the effect of an exception, a limitation or proviso; it is a positive and absolute prohibition against any construction by the judicial power, by which the thing prohibited shall be sanctioned. ”

“ Livingston was not a minor, deemed incapable of managing his own affairs; neither is ignorance of the law or facts of his own case, imputable to him; and he shows in his bill no reason why he should not be bound by his contracts, or why he should have them annulled.
As a mortgagor, in the first instance, a court of equity would protect him against any unfair release of his equity of redemption to the mortgagee ”

“ See 3 Wheat. 146. By suing in a court of the United States, the plaintiff, by the aid of the process act of 1792, has protected Mrs. Fort, and thrown the whole loss on Mr. Story; leaving him the chances of a suit with her, in place of the certain remedy that a state court would give him. To him, it was no matter of form, practice or mode of proceeding, whether he was sued in the one or the other court ”