Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/922

 DAILT V. DOS. 915 �cîsîons of thîs court, in that or the cases ■wh.ioh preceded it, rested; theyare founded on the oldest and most sacred prin- ciples of the common law. Time has conseerated them. The courts of the states have foUowed and this court has never departed from them. They are rules of property on which the repose of the country depends. Titles acquired under the proceedings of courts of competent jurisdiction must be deemed inviolable in collateral actions, or none can know what is his own." �The same doctrine, as to the conclu si ve character of a de- cree or judgment of a court having jurisdiction of the subject- matter, and the absolute validity of a title made under such decree, is declared in Oriffith v. Bogert, 18 How. 158, 163, and Beauregard v. City ofNew Orleans, Id. 497, 502. In the last case the court say : "And, when the object is to sell the real estate of an insolvent or embarrassed succession, the settled doc- trine is, there are no adversary parties ; the proceeding is in rem,', the administrator represents the land. They are anal- ogous to proceedings in admiralty, where the only question of jurisdiction is the power of the court over the thing — the subject-matter before them — without regard to the parties who may have an interest in it. Ail the world are parties. In the orphan's court, and ail the courts which have power to sell the estates of decedents, their action operates on the estate — not on the heirs of the intestate. A purchaser claimà not their title, but one paramount. The estate passes by operation of law. " �In Florentine v. Barton, 2 WaU. 210, 216, where the title of a purchaser under a sale by order of a court, to pay the debts of a deceased owner, was in question, Mr. Justice Grier says : "The court has power over the subject-matter and the parties. It is true in such proceedings there are no adversary parties, because the proceeding is in the nature of a proceeding in rem, in which the estate is represented by the administrators, and, as in a proceeding in rem in admiralty, ail the world are parties. In making the order of sale the court are presumed to have adjudged every question necessary to justify such order or decree, viz.: the death of the owner; that the peti- ����