A pending suit involving title conveys notice to intending purchasers, and charges the land, in whosesoever hands it may be, with the consequences of whatever decree may be made. This is known technically, as lis pendens. The doctrine of lis pendens is, that a purchase of property actually in litigation, or, as the technical phrase runs, a purchase pendente lite, although for a valuable consideration and without any actual notice, affects the purchaser in the same manner as if he had such notice, and he will accordingly be bound by the judgment or decree rendered in the suit.

The doctrine of lis pendens applies only where a third person attempts to intrude into a controversy by acquiring an interest in the subject-matter of the litigation. The reason of the rule is, that if a transfer of interest pending suit were to be allowed to affect the proceedings, there would be no end to litigation; for as soon as a new party was brought in he might transfer to another, and render it necessary to bring that other before the Court, so that a suit might be interminable.

It will be understood, however, that the rule, that a party purchasing pendente lite is to be regarded as a purchaser with notice, subject to all the equities of the person under whom he claims, and bound by the decree that may be rendered against the person from whom he derives title, applies only to cases in which such purchaser derives title from one of the parties litigant. If he claims adversely to both parties by-title paramount, the proceedings to which he is neither party nor privy can not bind him.

The common law rule requiring purchasers, at their peril, to take notice of the pendency of suits in courts of justice for the recovery of the lands they are about to purchase, although it is really impossible that they should actually know that such suits have been commenced, has always been considered a hard rule, and is by no means a favorite with the courts. In fact, it has only been tolerated from a supposed necessity. Usually the filing of a bill of complaint is itself a sufficient notice to the world, so as to defeat the transfer of property by the defendant made subsequent to the filing;44 but in a large number of states, particularly where the provisions of the New York Code have been followed, a material change has been made this rigorous rule. In these states the statute provides that the pendency of a suit shall not be notice to a stranger until a formal notice thereof has been filed in the office of the recorder of deeds of the county where the land is situated, and that as to one having no actual notice, he may, in good faith, and for a valuable consideration, acquire a valid title until such notice is filed.

Where the suit is still pending the notice may be shown as an appendix. If the proceedings are shown, as they should be after the bill has been filed, its orderly arrangement would be to precede the synopsis of the court proceedings. Where no notice is required the bill itself furnishes notice as above explained. The practical purpose of a notice of pendency of suit is to restrain strangers from acquiring interests in the subject-matter of the litigation during the progress of the suit.

44 Warvelle on Abstracts, 523; Van Zant vs. Van Zant, 23 111., 536;

Davis vs. Life Ins. Co., 84 111., 508.