Dennis' Lessee v. Kelso

Stewart, J., delivered the opinion of this Court. A majority of the Judges who sat in this case, are of opinion that the motion to dismiss the appeal must be overruled, on the authority of the decisions of the Court, in the cases of Green vs. Hamilton, 16 Md. Rep., 317 ; Graff & Gambrill vs. Merchants and Miners’ Transportation Company, 18 Md. Rep., 364 , and Henderson & Ross vs. Gibson, Garn. of Johnson, 19 Md. Rep., 234 . Upon the merits, the order appealed from is correct. The action of ejectment, being a proceeding founded in fiction, to enable a party to recover the possession of land, has been fashioned by the Courts to subserve the ends of justice, and an application to strike out a judgment against the casual ejector, will be more readily granted, in such action, than in other eases.

The oidy difficulty has been to reconcile such practice with interests that may have supervened. The authorities, in such cases, show that after a judgment against the casual ejector, has stood for years, and there has been laches on the part of the defendant, or improvements by the plaintiff, Courts will not disturb it. In Klinefelter’s Lessee vs. Carey, 3 G. & J., 349 , sundry references are made, where judgments have been stricken out in ejectment suits, although from the circumstances of that case, the judgment was not disturbed, because it had stood a long time, — some nine years. The facts in this case show that the plaintiff