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Porter v. Houghton

Plaintiff should have proceeded under the Quiet Title Act rather than suing for a declaratory judgment to establish that his late wife's siblings had no interest in her lands.

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Herman Houghton brought a declaratory action against his late wife’s siblings seeking to establish that the siblings had no interest in lands Houghton claimed were owned by his wife at her death. However, we conclude that declaratory judgment was not available to establish his claim, and we reverse.

A declaratory judgment is not the proper action to decide all justiciable controversies.1 To proceed under a declaratory judgment a party must establish that it is necessary to relieve himself of the risk of taking some future action that, without direction, would jeopardize his interests.2 The record reveals that Houghton has failed to make that showing.

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