Richardson v. Pennsylvania Coal Co.

203 F. 743, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1771
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 31, 1913
DocketNo. 154
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 203 F. 743 (Richardson v. Pennsylvania Coal Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richardson v. Pennsylvania Coal Co., 203 F. 743, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1771 (M.D. Pa. 1913).

Opinion

WITMER, District Judge.

This is a bill in equity, wherein Henry Richardson, a citizen of the state of New Jersey, is plaintiff, and the Pennsylvania Coal Company, a Pennsylvania corporation, is defendant. Upon its face the bill involves a question of disputed title to 3,500 acres of land, more or less, situate in Shohola township, Pike county, Pa., which disputed title the plaintiff seeks to have determined by a chancellor in equity. The defendant has demurred to the bill, and the controversy is before the court upon bill and demurrer. The demurrer is to matters of substance and form, and must be taken to admit all such matters of fact as are sufficiently pleaded therein. Stephen’s Pleading (Heard’s Ed. 1867) p. 143. But it does not confess matters of law deduced from facts therein pleaded. Stephen’s Pleading, supra, p. 143, note 2-i; Preston v. Smith (C. C.) 26 Fed. 884.

After describing the lands particularly, the bill proceeds, in the fourth paragraph thereof, as follows:

“That your orator is the owner of the title of said land. That the said defendant claims an interest and certain rights in said premises adverse to the claim of your orator, but that the nature of said claim of defendant is unknown to your orator. That the claims of said defendant and each of them is without any right whatsoever, and that the defendant has no estate, right, title, or interest whatsoever in said land and premises or any part or portion thereof.”

Averring, in the third paragraph, that the plaintiff “now, and for a long time hitherto, has been in the possession” of the lands and premises described in the bill, the plaintiff proceeds to charge, in the sixth paragraph, as follows:

“That defendant is the owner of or in possession of certain land and premises adjacent to and adjoining the above mentioned and described land and premises (being the lands described in the bill) belonging to your orator, [745]*745and is engaged in the business and occupation of cutting timber and lumber from the said land so held in possession by it. The said defendant daily, constantly, continuously, and repeatedly trespasses and enters upon the above land and premises of your orator and carries and places upon, and stores upon, your orator’s said premises, lumber and timber cut from the adjoining land and premises and threatens to so continue to trespass. That defendant has already stored -upon your orator’s premises about 5,000,000 feet of lumber cut on adjoining property. That defendant constantly, continuously, and repeatedly enters upon and drives logs through the said property of your orator, and lias permitted thousands of them to accumulate in the bed of the streams which flow through your orator’s property, and threatens to so continue to trespass. That defendant constantly, continuously, and repeatedly trespasses and enters upon said land and premises of your orator and operates locomotive engines, cars, and trains from adjoining property into, over, and upon said premises of your orator in the regular course of its business and threatens to so continue to trespass in the future. That said defendant constantly, continuously, and repeatedly commits trespasses and enters upon said land and premises of your orator for the purpose of operating a sawmill thereon and to make use of a storehouse, a woodshed, and an oilroom situate in the said premises of your orator, and, threatens to so continue to trespass. That all of the manifold acts of trespass committed by the defendant as aforesaid alleged are a daily occurrence committed again and again in the regular course <>1' defendant’s business.”

Proceeding, in the seventh paragraph of the bill, the plaintiff avers:

“That when said acts of trespass were discovered said defendant has refused and still refuses to heed the warning of your orator and to desist and refrain therefrom and asserts the right to continue to trespass and waste as aforesaid, under color of some right thereto, which defendant well knows is false and fraudulent. That 1he pretenses of defendant to the right to enter upon and ^trespass upon the said land and premises of your orator is a cloud upon the title of your orator and are an impediment to the sale of said land and premises of your orator and are a great damage to value of your orator’s estate.”

By the eighth paragraph the plaintiff avers:

“That defendant is doing the acts complained of with full knowledge of the truth as above stated, and threatens and avers that it will continue the same, and your orator avers that, unless defendant is restrained and enjoined by the process of this honorable court, the damages so threatened to lie committed will further despoil the surface of said premises, will create ruts, beaten tracks and roadways and prevent your orator from effecting a salé of said land and premises and will be irreparable; and your orator further avers that the acts complained of are contrary to equity, and that he has no complete and adequate remedy at law and sues to avoid a great multiplicity of suits.”

The bill then in the prayer seeks: (a) Disclosure and discovery,, by the defendant, of its claim of title, (b) A decree by this court “that the alleged claims of the defendant and each of them are invalid and void; that the defendant has no estate, rights, or interest in or to said property, land, or premises above described, or any part thereof; that y.our orator is the owner in fee of said property; that the.title and rights of your orator are good, valid, and absolute in all respects to each and every part of said premises and in respect to all rights in'"or .concerning the same; that the defendant be forever barred from asserting or claiming any rights, interest, or estate therein; and that all clouds thereon be removed.” (c) An injunction, preliminary until hearing and perpetual thereafter restraining the defendant, its servants [746]*746and employes “from entering into or upon the above-described premises.” And (d) that the plaintiff’s title “be quieted and confirmed” in all “respect in said land and that it be decreed that the defendant has entered upon said land in fraud.”

[1] As to the distinction between law and equity in the federal courts, it is said in Foster’s Fed. Prac. vol. 1, § 4, p. 7:

“Although a great number of the states of the American Union and even England itself have fused together the two systems, in the courts of the United States while the same judges have jurisdiction in each, the common law and equity are still as distinct as they were in the time of Coke and Bacon.
“By the judicial act of 1789, by which the first Congress established the courts of the United States and defined their jurisdiction, it was enacted that suits in equity shall not be sustained in either of the courts of the United States in any case where a plain, adequate, and complete remedy may be had at law.”

The effect of this provision, as often stated by the Supreme Court of the United States, is:

“That whenever a court of law is competent to take cognizance of a right, and has power to proceed to a judgment which affords a plain, adequate, and complete remedy, without the aid of a court vof equity, the plaintiff must proceed at law, because the' defendant has a constitutional right to a trial by jury. * * * But the adequate remedy at law, which is the test of equitable jurisdiction in the federal courts, is that which existed when the Judiciary Act of 1789 (Act Sept.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Vanderwater v. City Nat. Bank
28 F. Supp. 89 (E.D. Illinois, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
203 F. 743, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1771, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richardson-v-pennsylvania-coal-co-pamd-1913.