• An action to quiet title is a lawsuit over land ownership.band of land image by Chris Holmes from Fotolia.com
  
  The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure govern civil lawsuits in U.S. federal courts. Rule 57 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure applies to declaratory judgments. An action to quiet titles is a form of declaratory judgment.
  
  

Quiet Title

• An action to quiet title is a lawsuit involving a piece of real property. In a quiet title action, the court is charged with establishing a party's ownership of the real property. More specifically, the court establishes that the person bringing the suit has the sole title to the real property against anyone else who may claim ownership, thereby "quieting" all other claims and challenges to the title. Parties who obtain property by a quitclaim deed--a deed giving up claim to the property by the person granting the deed--or through adverse possession, typically try to quiet the title in order to protect their interest in the real property. Adverse possession occurs when an individual acquires another's real property by holding the property out as his own for a period of time designated by statute, typically 20 years.
  
  

Rule 57

• Rule 57 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure authorizes federal courts to grant declaratory judgments. A declaratory judgment is a judgment in a civil case that determines the rights, duties or obligations of the parties to the action. Declaratory judgments are legally binding and a type of preventive adjudication, an action seeking a clarification of the law or someone's rights without going through a traditional trial process. An action to quiet title is a type of declaratory judgment since it declares the rights of the owner with respect to the real property in issue without going to trial; therefore it is a preventative adjudication.
  
  

State Law

• The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure only apply in federal courts, not state courts. However, most states have a rule similar to Rule 57 from the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and can similarly make declaratory judgments to quiet title.