Henry Billings Brown

“ No weight whatever should be given to testimony of this description in connection with the transfer of lands. It is incredible that any man should have paid $3,700 for such an indefinite purchase of real estate. A more probable explanation of the transaction was given by Dawson upon his cross-examination, when he produced a deed from Maxwell and wife, bearing date June 7, 1869, in which, to himself, for the consideration of $3,700, Maxwell conveyed to him the property admitted in this suit to belong to him. ”

“ Plaintiff has no just reason to complain of the instruction of the court that the documents introduced by it were sufficient to vest in it the title to the land in controversy, unless they found from the evidence that the plaintiff had failed to prove that the land in controversy, or some portion thereof, was not the whole or part of the 15,000 acres of land excepted in the conveyances under which plaintiff claimed title ”

“ They were calculated to prejudice the plaintiff's case, and to leave an impression upon the jury that defendant's claim of adverse possession was justified by a contract with Maulding, Miller, and Curtis, of which there was no legal evidence. The admission of such testimony would create a most dangerous precedent, and open up possibilities of fraud that might operate to the unsettlement of great numbers of titles. ”

“ The 'pile of rocks, on a knoll or elevation, with some bushes near thereto,' to which the line ran from the dam, Dawson swears he never found; and it must be admitted that the side lines of the tract are very vague, and justify the remark made by Morley, the surveyor employed by the plaintiff, when he was shown the deed from Maxwell and wife to Dawson, that there was not a man in the world who could take the deed and survey the land. ”

“ The court below also held that whether the statements of Maulding, Miller, and Curtis, as to their contract with Maxwell, were or were not properly admitted in evidence, was immaterial, from the fact that defendant Dawson further testified that he had conversations with Maxwell, the party from whom they claimed to have purchased, and that Maxwell pointed out the boundaries of the land he would receive under his agreement with Maulding, Miller, and Curtis, who were then in possession. ”