If upon the hearing of an answer the statements are such as to leave upon the mind of the Court a reasonable doubt whether the plaintiff’s equity is sufficiently negatived, the injunction will not be dissolved, but be continued to the hearing. Munroe v. McIntyre, 6 Ire. Eq., 65; Miller v. Washburn, 3 Ire. Eq., 161.
But it is also a well settled rule that when by the answer the plaintiff’s whole equity is denied, and the statement in the answer is credible and exhibits no attempt to evade the material charges in the complaint, an injunction on motion will be dissolved. Perkins v. Hollowell, 5 Ire. Eq., 24; Sharpe v. King, 3 Ire. Eq., 402.
*99In the case before us the answer is full and complete, containing a positive and specific denial of every material allegation of the complaint, accompanied with such a connected and reasonable narration of the facts of the case,, that no Court could hesitate to dissolve the injunction, if it were here upon complaint and answer alone. Do the affidavits of the plaintiffs’ and defendant, made a part of the case, present it in a different aspect ? We think not. The complaint, from its vagueness of statement and evident suppression of matters within the knowledge of the plaintiffs, peculiarly as the dates and places of the occurrence, upon which they found their equity, is in striking contrast with the precision and minuteness of statement in these particulars, by the defendant. For instance, — the complaint does not set forth the date of the deeds under which the plaintiffs claim, or of the sale of the negroes, but it does state that at the time the deeds were executed, William Carroll owned a large number of slaves and other property, far more than enough in value to satisfy all his debts, when in truth as is clear from the affidavit of Carroll himself, the negroes had all been sold six months before the deeds to the land were executed. And so the important fact is suppressed that the note to Michaux was executed only a week before Carroll sold all his negroes, and six months before he conveyed away without consideration, all his lands* and six months before the note fell due; so that before the maturity of the note, the debtor Carroll had made way with all hi& property, negroes and lands.
The affidavits so far from helping the plaintiffs’ case, compromise it, in this, that they make clear what was only obscurely, seen in the complaint, to-wit, that Carroll had made way with his property to avoid his creditors, and that the plaintiffs knew it, and were conscious that they could, not hold the land unless they could succeed in getting up the Michaux debt. Did they purchase and acquire the title *100to tbe note given by Carroll to Michaux ? Unfortunately the main witness to establish this is Alfred Perry, the alleged agent who made the pnrchase. He does not directly deny the charges in the answer that he was the messenger sent by Michaux to McKesson for the note after the defendant had repurchased the note, and given McKesson credit for it on a larger note which he held on the latter.
On his own affidavit he stands self-convicted of duplicity •of conduct, and of assenting to a division of the proceeds of the note with the defendant, and of the actual receipt of a part of the money. It is reasonably certain, upon the whole case, that Michaux, for full value, purchased and was •entitled to the possession of the note. It is therefore immaterial how he obtained the actual possession, whether by snatching as the plaintiffs allege, or by paying tribute to a faithless agent who was acting in collusion with the plaintiffs or for his own corrupt gain, as the defendant alleges, with the better reason as we think. For early in 1873, Michaux brought suit upon the note against William Carroll, the obligor. The plaintiffs, it is confessed, then knew that the defendant had possession of the note, how he had acquired it, and that he was enforcing its collection as the owner. This action was pending until 1876, before judgment was rendered, during all of which time the plaintiffs herein, though cognizant of all the facts, neither asserted nor made claim of the ownership of the note, but so far from it, one of the plaintiffs, William Carroll, Jr., acted as agent of his father in defending the action, by filing an affidavit for continuance and alleging a tender and refusal by the father, of the principal and interest of the note. If these plaintiffs had a pretence of title to the note, why did they for three years stand silent spectators of Michaux possessing and claiming the note as his own, suing on it and prosecuting his action to final judgment against Car-rol ? No claim was made, no action instituted by them *101against Michaux to try the title until an execution is levied npon their land, four years after the commencement of the action. It is too late, even if the claim had the appearance of credibility. The plaintiffs have failed to make out a case for a continuance of the injunction to the hearing, and it must therefore be dissolved upon the answer and counter affidavits.
When the land shall be sold under the execution, and the purchaser put to his action for the possession, it will be time enough for the plaintiffs, if they desire to defend further, to assert their title as purchasers for value without notice, or that Carroll, when he executed the deed retained property amply sufficient to pay his then debts, or any other defence to the action not involving the title to the note and judgment. There is error. Judgment reversed, and injunction dissolved.
Error.
Per Curt AM. Judgment reversed.