Fictions in pleading in actions of ejectment in the courts of this District are abolished, and the provision is, that 'all actions for the recovery of real estate in the District shall be commenced in the name of the real party in interest, and against the party claiming to own or be possessed' of the sae. 16 Stat. 146.
Certain described parts of lot numbered 17, in square 377, according to the recorded plat of the city, were, on the 11th of June, 1870, in the possession of the defendant; and it appears that the plaintiffs, claiming to own the premises, sued the defendant on that day to recover the same, alleging that they, on the 12th of October previous, were lawfully possessed of the premises, and that the defendant then and there unlawfully entered the premises and ejected the plaintiffs therefrom, and that she has ever since and now does unlawfully detain the same, claiming both the property and the right to possess the same.
Service was made; and the defendant appeared and filed two pleas: 1. That she is not guilty in manner and form alleged in the declaration. 2. That the lot of land described is, and was at the time alleged, the property of the defendant, and that being justly entitled to the possession thereof she lawfully entered into the premises.
Issue was duly joined by the plaintiffs; and the parties subsequently went to trial, which resulted in a verdict and final judgment for the defendant. Exceptions were filed by the plaintiffs, and they sued out the present writ of error.
Six errors are assigned by the plaintiffs, as follows: 1. That the action is not barred by the limitation of twenty years, the same having been commenced since the act of Congress abolishing fictions in pleading in actions of ejectment. 2. That the court erred in admitting evidence to establish adverse possession by the defendant, the Statute of Limitations not having been pleaded. 3. That the court erred in admitting in evidence the record of the former ejectment suit, the same having been commenced before fictions in pleading in such suits had been abolished, and because the holding of the testatrix of the defendant was in subordination to the heirs. 4. That the court erred in admitting parol evidence to show that the first husband of the testatrix of the defendant, under whom she claims, was duly naturalized. 5. That the court erred in refusing the prayer of the plaintiffs, that the Statute of Limitations did not run against the four grantors of the plaintiffs who were foreigners, and resident beyond seas. 6. That the o urt erred in refusing to give the prayer of the plaintiffs, that they must recover the two-fifths of the property which belonged to their two female grantors, who, having married in 1845, could not be affected by the Statute of Limitations, it appearing that the second husband of the testatrix disclaimed all title to the premises during their coverture.
Exceptions not assigned as error will not be examined.
Prior to the passage of the act abolishing fictions in pleading in actions of ejectment, it is conceded that the limitation in such cases was twenty years; but the proposition is submitted by the plaintiffs that the act referred to converts the action, where it is brought in the name of the real party, into a writ of right, and that it extends the limitation to the same period as that which is by law allowed for remedies in that form of proceeding. Nothing of the kind is found in the language of the act, and no authorities are cited in support of the proposition, or which give it any countenance whatever. Fictions are abolished where the pleading is in ejectment; but the action of ejectment is not abolished, nor is there any provision in the act making any other alteration in the form of the action than that it shall be commenced in the name of the real party in interest, and against the owner or the party in possession. Jackson on Real Actions, 284.
State laws abolishing such fictions sometimes provide what the effect of the new provision shall be, and it is settled law that the State regulation in that regard is a rule of property which the Federal courts must follow. Miles v. Caldwell, 2 Wall. 43; Blanchard v. Brown, 3 id. 249.