Crowley

In the court below a demurrer to the complaint was sustained, whereupon judgment was given in favor of the defendants, and the plaintiff appeals. The complaint presents a cause of action in equity, and asks for manifold relief. It relates to two separate tracts of land, the grounds of relief with respect to the different tracts arising out of separate and distinct transactions. The action is to set aside a deed to the defendant Margaret E. Crowley for one tract; to declare her a trustee for the plaintiff as to the undivided one half of the other tract; to quiet the plaintiff’s alleged equitable title to, and to be let into possession with the defendants as tenant in common of, the undivided one half of both tracts, and for an accounting as to the rents and profits of both.

The facts are stated with much detail, not necessary to be given here. In substance they are as follows: Daniel F. Crowley died on July 11, 1898, leaving as his only heirs at law the plaintiff, who is his daughter by adoption, and the defendant Margaret E. Crowley, who is his widow. Margaret E. Crowley was married to said Daniel F. Crowley on June 2, 1890. At that time Daniel F. Crowley was the owner of the…

I dissent. The cases cited and relied upon in the majority opinion are clearly distinguishable from the one at bar. In those cases the party seeking relief was the owner of the real property in question, and either in possession or entitled to possession but for the fraudulent instruments sought to be set aside. The purpose of the actions, therefore, was either to quiet title as against these fraudulent instruments, or to recover possession, or be restored to possession, the fraud, as was said, being “a mere incident, and not the main purpose of the action. ’ ’■ Here there is nothing of that kind. The plaintiff was not the owner nor in possession of the real property either at the time the deeds complained of were executed or since. According to the allegations of her complaint, soon after the marriage of her father (by adoption) to the defendant Margaret E. Crowley, in July, 1890, “the plaintiff was driven from her home,” and there is nothing to show she has ever since set foot on the premises in question. She was neither owner nor entitled to the possession of the lands mentioned in the deeds, and if they had never been executed, or if now set aside, the plaintiff would not be…

I concur in the judgment of reversal. I do so, however, solely upon the ground that the law on the question involved has been settled by former deeis ions of this court in accordance with the conclusion reached in the above opinion of Mr. Justice Shaw, and that the rule of stare decisis applies strongly to a case where the disturbance of a settled principle would shorten the period of limitation. If the question were an open one, I would be clearly of the opinion that in the case at bar the three-year limitation applies.