Nathan Clifford

“ Jurisdiction in equity to remove a cloud from the title of the complainant is fully maintained by the modern decisions of the Courts, and so generally is the principle acknowledged, that all doubt upon the subject may be considered as put at rest. ”

“ Equity will not allow a title to real estate, otherwise clear, to be clouded by a claim which cannot be enforced either at law or in equity, and consequently will interfere in behalf of the holder of the legal title to remove a cloud on the same, or an impediment or difficulty in the way of an effectual assertion of his rights in a Court of law. ”

“ None of those provisions, however, authorize this Court to adopt rules making judgments or decrees for the payment of money a lien on land where no such charge is created by law, or to displace any such right where the same is conferred or recognized by an Act of Congress. ”

“ Rights and interests in, and liens upon the lands are claimed by the other respondents, as the complainants allege, in regard to which they, the complainants, are not particularly advised; and they also allege that the respondents owned the lands levied upon and described in the bill of complaint at and before the time of the rendition of the first named decree, and have so owned the same ever since that time, and that they have no other lands or tenements in the State, and have no goods or chattels liable to execution. ”

“ Regularity in pleading is both convenient and essential in judicial investigations, and such departures from the usual practice as are exhibited in this record ought not to receive countenance. This appeal was taken, and has been prosecuted upon the ground that the Circuit Court erred in coming to the conclusion that the Atlantic was in fault. ”

“ Afterwards, at the final hearing in the District Court, on the merits of the case, the libel was dismissed upon the ground that the steamer was wholly in fault; and, under the agreement of the parties that the answer should operate as a cross-libel, a decree was entered in favor of Chamberlain et al., for the amount of the damage occasioned to the propeller. Ward et al., as owners of the Atlantic, appealed to the Circuit Court, where the decree of the District Court dismissing the libel and awarding damages to the propeller, as upon a cross-libel, was in all things reversed. ”

“ Prayer of the bill of complaint is for discovery, and that the rights of the parties and the dates and validity of their several liens in respect of the lands may be ascertained, and that the lands may be sold and the proceeds applied so far as can of right be done, to the payment of the amount due upon the decrees and for general relief. ”

“ In that case, Ward et al., as owners of the steamer Atlantic, filed their libel in the District Court against Chamberlain et al., as owners of the propeller Ogdensburgh, to recover the damage sustained by the steamer in a collision which occurred between those vessels on the 20th day of August, 1852, while navigating on the waters of Lake Erie. ”