Court : US Supreme Court
..... that william, by mistaken constructions of the will of governor dudley, might have claimed an estate for life in the premises and that such mistake would not operate to defeat his title by possession, for there was no evidence that william ever claimed under that will, and also erred in instructing the jury that it was authorized to presume a grant by the children of thomas ..... appears to us, therefore, that the jury ought to have been instructed that if it was satisfied that joseph's possession was adverse to that of the other heirs, and under a claim of title distinct from or paramount to that of his father, during his 25 years of exclusive possession, the entry of the purchaser, under the administrator's sale, was not congeable, and that the ..... of entry of the purchaser did not accrue until after the conveyance to him, and if he should then be deemed in under the estate of the intestate and in privity of title, it would be a new right growing out of the exercise of a power conferred by law, and no more barred than a right of entry upon an extent after a fine levied, page 20 u. s. ..... question by possession, as he claimed to hold the same only during his life and could therefore acquire no title except for life by any length of possession, and that if he could acquire title by possession, if this estate descended from thomas dudley, said william could not in seventeen years acquire a title against his brothers and sisters, or at least against those of them who had not been of full age .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... the weight which might be allowed to this argument had the property continued in the peaceable occupation of the heirs of james dunlap and had this presumption been required to sustain the title clothed with that possession is, we think, diminished by the circumstance that the land was, soon after his death, claimed and occupied by a citizen of kentucky as a purchaser. ..... " the defendant moved the instruction that if james dunlap was an alien and died before 19 november, 1794, then the plaintiff has made out no title to the land in question which will authorize it to find for him, which was given by the court with this qualification, that if the jury found that john dunlap had actual possession of the premises after ..... 538 7th instructions moved by the plaintiff and gave the second, with this qualification, "that if john dunlap had either title or the actual possession of the premises after the death of james dunlap and before the entry of said hunter or of the defendant, then the statute of limitations did not apply. ..... claimed under an executory agreement with john dunlap, and that said defendant has held and occupied under john dunlap's title, claiming from said hunter, as the attorney of said dunlap, or under an executory agreement, or has, since he was in possession, acknowledged the title of said dunlap as that under which he held, that then the defendant is not permitted to impeach or controvert the title of said john dunlap by parol evidence that james dunlap was an alien. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... 1 syllabus a warrant and survey authorize the proprietor of them to demand the legal title, but do not in themselves constitute a legal title; until the consummation of the title by a grant, the person who acquires an equity holds a right, subject ..... where the plaintiffs seek to set aside the legal title because they have the superior equity, it is consistent with the principles of the court to rebut this equity by any circumstances which may impair it, and the legal title cannot be made to yield to an equity founded on the mistake of a ministerial ..... is a hard one on the part of the plaintiffs, and they may have strong claims on the liberality and justice of the united states or of virginia, but we do not think the legal title can be made to yield to an equity founded in the mistake of a ministerial officer. ..... it has been urged on the part of the appellants that the title of thomas powell for services in the state line is precisely to the same quantity of land as if those services had been rendered in the continental line; his claim on the state of virginia ..... as the plaintiffs are endeavoring to set aside the legal title because they have the superior equity, we think it consistent with the principles of the court to rebut this equity by any circumstances which ..... they say that they are purchasers, without notice, of a title apparently good, and ought not to be affected by the mistake of ..... until the consummation of the title by a grant, the person who acquires an equity holds a right .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... " it is most manifest that in this answer the court proceed upon the supposition that the demandant has, prima facie, a good title, upon which he may maintain his suit, and that he has established a seizin sufficient in point of law to entitle him to a ..... it is consequently the right of each party to give any fact in evidence which destroys the title of the other, for the question in controversy is which hath the better mere right to hold the demanded ..... to rebut this conclusion the tenants offered in evidence, as well for the purpose of proving title in themselves as to show that the demandant was never seized of the premises, certain patents from the commonwealth of virginia which included the premises, to-wit a patent to john lewis and richard may dated 1 june, 1782; ..... a writ of right brings into controversy only the titles of the parties to the suit and is a comparison of those titles, and either party may therefore prove any fact which defeats the title of the other or shows it never had a legal existence or has been parted ..... ) 27 syllabus in a writ of right, the tenant cannot give in evidence the title of a third person with whom he has no privity unless it be for the purpose of disproving the demandant's ..... seizin solely upon a constructive actual seizin in virtue of a patent from the state of vacant lands, the tenant may show that the land has been previously granted by the state, for that devests the title of the state and disproves the demandants' constructive seizin. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... occupying the land covered by his patent, judgment was rendered in his favor, whereupon several of the defendants filed their bill on the equity side of the court setting forth their better title under the preemption warrant of harrison and praying that stephens might be enjoined from proceeding further at law and might be decreed to convey to them, respectively, the lands they held under harrison. ..... considering this question as being res integra, entirely unaffected by the decisions made in the courts of kentucky, the opinion of this court would be that a title acquired while the preemptive right of harrison was in force, could not be sustained against his entry, if made according to the act by which his right ..... then, which was brought into market and offered for sale, on which the purchaser might place his warrant, and to which he might acquire a title, was "waste and unappropriated land" -- land to which another had by law a preemptive right -- could not be of this description. ..... the words of the law opening the land office are "be it enacted that any person may acquire title to so much waste and unappropriated land as he or she shall desire to purchase on paying the consideration of forty pounds for every ..... that patents obtained on improper entries have prevailed against persons whose titles commenced after such patents have issued is no authority for the opinion that such patents ought to prevail against a title which traces its commencement to a time anterior to the emanation .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... the counsel for the appellants attempt to take this case our of the general rule because their equity, they say, commenced before the legal title of the respondent was consummated, and their preexisting rights were impaired by his intrusion into the military lands reserved for the virginia continental troops. ..... the principle is well settled in other cases that a patent is unassailable by any title commenced after its emanation, and we perceive no sufficient reason against applying the principle to this case. ..... ) 212 appeal from the circuit court of ohio syllabus a patent is a title from its date, and conclusive against all those whose rights do not commence previous to its emanation. ..... it is a scintilla juris which we should find much difficulty in supporting against a complete legal title founded on an original claim of equal merit of the same character. ..... this right of election which the appellants would now set up against a complete legal title originated in them and was common to both parties. ..... courts of equity consider an entry as the commencement of title, and will sustain a valid entry against a patent founded on a prior defective entry if issued after such valid entry was made. ..... this case attempted to be taken out of the general rule upon the ground that the equity of the party claiming under the entry commenced before the legal title of the other party was consummated. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... unquestionably if notice were given by any person claiming title against the certificate of the surveyor, the fact would be examinable before the emanation of the patent, but as no law requires that the assignment should be submitted to the person who issues the patent or be always ..... of a paper must be established before its contents can be proved, but where the patent issues upon an assignment of the warrant and the legal title is thus consummated, the assignment itself being no longer a paper essential to that title, the same degree of proof of its existence cannot be required as if it were relied on as composing part of the title. ..... legal title of massie is consummated, and the assignment, having performed its office, is no longer a paper essential to that title. ..... the title of the person who has obtained it is undoubtedly examinable, but no presumption exists ..... one of those cases in which the equity of the plaintiffs is not, we think, sufficiently proved to deprive the defendants of their legal title. ..... that under these circumstances, the nonproduction of the assignment ought not so to operate against the defendants as to defeat their legal title. ..... proof respecting it therefore cannot be demanded which might be required were it relied on as composing part of the title. ..... is a strong degree of probability that the assignment has been lost or destroyed through accident, its nonproduction by the party claiming under it ought not to operate against him so as to defeat his legal title. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... ) 164 appeal from the supreme court of the state of ohio syllabus where a party claiming title to lands under an act of congress brought a bill for a conveyance, and stated several equitable circumstances in aid of his title, and, the state court where the suit was brought having dismissed the bill and the cause being brought to this court by appeal under the twenty-fifth section of the judiciary act of 1789, c. ..... this suit was brought in the state court of ohio for the purpose of obtaining a conveyance of a tract of land to which the complainant supposed himself to have the equitable title, founded on an entry prior to that on which a grant had been issued to the defendants. ..... there were several charges of fraud in the bill, and a contract between the parties was alleged, but as the opinion of this court turned exclusively on the title of the parties under the act of congress, it is deemed unnecessary to state these circumstances. ..... filed by the plaintiff, matthews in the state court was brought for the purpose of obtaining from the defendants, zane and others, a conveyance of a tract of land to which the plaintiff alleged that he had the equitable title under an entry prior to that on which a grant had been issued to the defendants. ..... the state court having determined against the validity of the plaintiff's title under the act of congress, and dismissed his bill, the cause was brought by appeal to this court. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... the grounds of the prayer of the bill were, that the title of the property was substantially defective, and could not be made good by the vestry, and other persons, who were parties to the bill in the former suit; that the same bill contained a material misrepresentation of the facts respecting the title, of which the appellant was, at the time of the purchase, wholly ignorant, and of which he had ..... conclusion, that the vestry of the episcopal church of alexandria is the regular vestry in succession of the parish of fairfax, and being so at the commencement of the former suit, the main objection to the title to the glebe falls, and the bill of the plaintiff ought to be dismissed. ..... whether the appellant had full notice of the true nature of the title before the purchase, and so took it with its infirmities, ..... church, called the falls church, within the same parish, has any material bearing upon the title, either as to making parties, or settling the right to the glebe; 3. ..... taylor, 9 cranch 43, upon the ground that the title to the property was defective and could not be made good by the vestry and other persons who ..... bar, as to the sufficiency of the conveyance by jennings to the church wardens, in 1770, to pass his title in fee for the benefit of the parish. ..... the parishioners have individually no right or title to the glebe lands; they are the property of the parish in its aggregate or corporate capacity, to be disposed of, for parochial purposes, by the vestry, who are the legal .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
..... for that place; and that the grant to tyrrel, although founded on a survey made long after the grant to sumner was issued, should relate back to the date of said entry, and give a good title to those holding under the said grant to the land north of the north boundary as represented in the plat, &c. ..... , we think, manifests a clear intention to give priority of right to the prior entry, and we are not surprised that, under this act, the courts of tennessee should comprehend military titles also in that rule which authorizes courts of law to take into view the entries of the parties. ..... also gave in evidence a certified copy of a certificate granted by the commissioners of west tennessee to the heirs of general sumner for so much land as was equal to the quantity lost by the prior title of lieutenant pasteur, and a copy of the testimony on which this certificate was founded. ..... in november, 1786, by the guardian of the plaintiff, praying that a separate warrant might be issued to the heirs of general sumner for the quantity of land included in his survey to which lieutenant pasteur had a prior title, and the proceedings of the legislature granting the prayer of the petition. ..... these documents were official copies of papers belonging to the title of the parties, taken from the office in which those papers were kept ..... north carolina, which have been construed to justify a court of law in considering the entry as the commencement of title, are not, it is agreed, applicable to military warrants. .....
Tag this Judgment!