Allore v. Jewell/Dissent Strong

by William Strong

United States Supreme Court

94 U.S. 506

Allore  v.  Jewell

MR. JUSTICE STRONG, with whom concurred MR. CHIEF JUSTICE WAITE and MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY, dissenting.

I cannot concur in the judgment given in this case. Were there no other reason for my dissent, it would be enough that the complainant has been guilty of inexcusable laches. He knew every thing of which he now complains, in February, 1864, when the grantor of the defendant died, and when his rights as her heir vested; and yet he waited until six years and nine months thereafter before he brought this suit, and before he made any complaint of the sale she had made. Meanwhile, he accepted the money the defendant had paid on account of the purchase, and he stood silently by, aserting no claim, while the defendant was making valuable improvements upon the lot, at a cost of $6,000 or $7,000, a sum about equal to the value of the property at the time of the purchase. To permit him now to assert that the sale was invalid, because the vendor was of weak mind, is to allow him to reap a profit from his own unconscionable silence and delay. I cannot think a court of equity should lend itself to such a wrong.

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