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13 Ill. 395

Shafer v. Davis

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided December 15, 1851

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1851-12-15

Adam Shafer brought suit in the Brown Circuit Court against John Davis, for trespass in breaking his close and taking and carrying away rails, damaging grass, &c., at the September term, 1849.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1851-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently January 1891

3 state decisions

2018511860187018801890decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Treat, C. J.

¶1This decree cannot be sustained. The bill discloses no case for the interference of a court of equity. It does not call for a discovery of facts, to aid the complainant in his defence to the action at law. Nor does it seek to reform the conveyance. It does not allege that any mistake was made in the writing of the instrument. The complainant does not pretend that he executed the deed under the impression that it contained a reservation of the fence. On the contrary, he expressly states that he did not require the reservation to be inserted, because he considered it unnecessary. He sets up no mistake of fact, but simply a mistake of law. This ignorance of his legal rights will not avail him. He charges a fraudulent combination between the defendant and Gillis, to procure a conveyance of the land without any reservation of the fence. But he does not allege that he was induced by them representations or artifices to execute the deed in question. Such a general charge of fraud cannot be regarded. The only pretence for sustaining the bill, is, that the complainant was mistaken as to the legal effect of the conveyance. Courts of equity will, relieve parties against mistakes of fact, but not against mere mistakes of law.

¶2The decree must be reversed, and the bill dismissed.

¶3Decree reversed.

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