Akey v. Great Western Bldg. & Loan Assn‪.‬

Quieting Title ? Grantor of Property After Sale Giving Mortgage Thereon ? Foreclosure ? Grantee Held Barred by Laches. Equity ? Doctrine of Laches ? When Properly Invoked. 1. A court of equity will not aid a party whose application for relief is destitute of conscience, good faith or reasonable diligence, but will discourage stale demands by refusing to interfere where there have been gross laches in prosecuting rights or where long acquiescence in the assertion of adverse right has occurred, particularly where the difficulty of doing entire justice arises through the death of the principal participants in the transactions complained of. Quieting Title ? Grantor of Property After Sale Giving Mortgage Thereon ? Foreclosure ? Grantee Held Barred by Laches. 2. Action to quiet title brought by the personal representative of the grantee of the property purchased in 1921. No deed was ever given by the grantor, who five years thereafter gave a mortgage on the property, and died four years later. The mortgage was foreclosed in 1930 and the property bought in by defendant mortgagee on foreclosure sale. The grantee died in 1936, the action to quiet title being instituted in 1938. The mortgagee paid the taxes each year after 1929, none being paid to the county treasurer by the grantee. The grantee, during the course of the probate of the grantors estate never asserted his interest therein, nor, with knowledge of the foreclosure proceeding instituted six years before his death, ever took notice thereof. Held, under the above rule, that the trial court was correct in holding that the action was barred by laches.