Bettes v. Dana

3 F. Cas. 309, 2 Sumn. 383

• Court: U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts
• Decided: May 15, 1836
• Status: Published

Opinion

STORY, Circuit Justice.

It seems to me clear, that the demurrer must be overruled. The causes assigned for the demurrer, though in form addressed to the bill of revivor, are all in fact addressed to the original bill. Nothing can be more clear, than, that upon a bill to revive, the sole questions before the court are the competency of the parties, and the correctness of the frame of the bill to revive. The present demurrer admits that Ann F. Dana is the administratrix of Francis IV. Dana, the original defendant, and that Charles F. Dana is the infant son and sole heir of the deceased. The bill is proper against each of them, for they are both proper parties to meet the exigency of the original bill. The objections now raised on the demurrer, if they can be raised at all, are properly matters to be objected to in the frame of the original bill after it is revived. I will not enter upon any decision of them in this interlocutory proceeding, although I confess, that, supposing the allegations of the bill to be true, there can be little doubt, that the bill in its substance, however defective in its form, contains sufficient matter to sustain the jurisdiction of this court as a court of equity. Whether Charles C. Little ought to be a party, I do not decide, because it is not proper in the present stage of the cause; though it is difficult to see, upon the actual frame of the bill, what decree is, or can be sought against him.

Let an order be entered, that the bill do stand revived; and that the administratrix, and the infant do answer the bill, as they shall be advised. A guardian ad litem has, I believe, been appointed for the infant.

After the revivor, a general demurrer was put in to the original,bill, containing, in substance, the same causes, which had been originally assigned against the bill of revivor; and they were again spoken to by the same counsel on each side.

STORY, Circuit Justice. Upon farther consideration I am well satisfied, that the case stated in the bill is sufficient to sustain the jurisdiction of the court, and properly cognizable and remedial in equity. I have, therefore, no difficulty in overruling the demurrer, as to all the causes assigned in it, except that, as to the want of parties. It appears to me, that, upon the frame of the bill, Charles C. Little is a necessary party, he having a subsisting interest in the estate, as the immediate mortgagor, from whom the plaintiff derives her title as mortgagee, and having an equal interest with the plaintiff, to litigate the validity of the attachment made by the intestate, Dana. The demurrer, therefore, must be allowed, so far as it insists upon Charles C. Little being a party, and overruled as to the other causes.