Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/621

 614 PEDBBAL BEPOBTEB. �purchaser of the legal title without notice of an oufstanding equity. He yrho purchases no legal title is not proteoted, even though without actual notice. Story's Eq. Jur. § 1502; Vattier v. Hinde et al. 1 Pet. 252. �3. When a purchaser goes into possession under a contract of purchase, equity makes the vendor a trustee to the vendee for the conveyance of the title; the vendee is a trustee for the payment of the purchase money and ,the performance of the terms of the purchase. 10 Pet. 225; Lewis v. Hawk- ins, 23 Wall. 119. Such a trust, however, must be enforced within a reasonable time. What that reasonable time is may be somewhat unsettled, and may vary according to circum- Btances; but it is settled, so far as the federal courts are con- cerned, that it is not less than 20 years. Boone v. Childs, 10 Pet. 177, 223-224; Lewis v. Hawkins, supra. Thestatute of limitations did not run against complainants during the war of the rebellion. Brown v. Hiatts, 15 Wall. 178. As the time of the defendant's occupancy has been less than 20 years, exclusive of the period of war, the defence of the stat- ute of limitations is not good, and there must be a decree for complainants. �ON EEHBAEING. �McCeaet, g. J. Upon motion of counsel for respondents, in the foregoing case, a reargument was ordered, and the case has been reconsidered. It is insisted that it has become a rule of property in Arkansas that suits in chancery, to en- force a lien upon real estate oreated by sale under title bond, must be commenced within the same period limited by law for bringing ejectment, in analogy to the statute of limita- tions. This suggestion is answered by the case of Lewis V. Hawkins, 23 Wall. 119, which went up from Arkansas. In that case the supreme court say: "In many of the cases it is held that the lien of the vendor, under the circumstancea of this case, is substantially a mortgage. It is well settled that the possession of the mortgagor is not adverse to the mortgagee. In the case last cited it is said that to apply the statute of limitations 'would be like making the lapse of ����