Badger v. Badger

Mr. Robb, for the complainant in error: We are entitled to the relief prayed for, unless we have lost our rights by the lapse of time, or the statutes of limitations, or are otherwise estopped from asserting them. It may be true that courts of equity consider themselves bound by the statutes of limitations, which govern courts of law in like cases; and in many other cases they act upon the analogy of the limitations at law, as where a legal title would in ejectment be barred by twenty years' adverse possession; courts of equity will act upon the like limitations, and apply it to all cases of relief sought upon equitable titles or claims touching real estates. These, as abstract propositions, we do not controvert. But they do not furnish any ground for refusing the relief prayed for in this bill. If the defendants invoke the protection of this abstract principle, they must clearly bring themselves within it. It is not for the plaintiff to show that he is not barred by the statute, but for the defendants to show that he is; they must make it appear by a proper plea and proof, that they are entitled to the benefit of the limitation. It will be said that more than twenty years had elapsed since the sales took place, before this suit was commenced, and that this is apparent on the record. But it does not appear that this plaintiff became of age twenty years before the commencement of the suit. The inference is that he did not.