In Provident Mutual Building-Loan Ass'n v. Schwertner, 15 Ariz. 517, 140 P. 495 (1914), the court held that when a property owner brings suit to remove a cloud on his title caused by an unsatisfied mortgage from his predecessor, he first must pay off the predecessor's debt. Id. at 517, 519, 140 P. at 495, 496. The court reasoned that "equity will not grant relief, except upon condition that the debtor pay or tender payment of the debt secured." Id. at 519, 140 P. at 496. Thus, since our early statehood, we have followed the rule that "the statutory action to quiet title cannot be sustained as against a mortgage debt confessedly unpaid." Id.