Melville Fuller

“ The differences in quantity resulting from taking the areas as estimated and supposed, rather than accurately platted and calculated, could hardly excite remark, while the growth of the 75 acres in the deed of Chrispianos to George W. into 176 acres might, perhaps, as the record stands, invite some explanation.
We regard the evidence as clear and convincing in establishing the lost deed, and the facts which sustain the action of the district court in correcting the line. ”

“ It appeared from the evidence that in 1842 Robert D. Belcher and his brother Obediah purchased of James Hector 4,000 acres of land situated on the waters of the Bluestone, in the county of Mercer, Virginia, now West Virginia; that they agreed upon a division line, Obediah taking about 2,500 and Robert D. about 1,500 acres, and the land was surveyed and conveyed according to the agreed division; that the land was a part of a 500,000-acre survey granted by the commonwalth to Wilson Cary Nicholas, from whom Hector had purchased it ”

“ The conclusion of the American editor is that actual notice embraces all degrees and grades of evidence, from the most direct and positive proof to the slightest circumstances from which a jury would be warranted in inferring notice, while constructive notice is a legal inference from established facts, and, like other legal presumptions, does not admit of dispute. ”

“ The deeds to Witten of the 1,100 and the 200 acres bore the same date,-December 23, 1852,-and were both drawn up by Witten in the presence of Chrispianos. The one was acknowledged by Chrispianos and his wife and Robert and his wife, and the other by Robert and his wife, before the same justices, on the same day,-May 7, 1853,-and both were ordered to be recorded at the June term, 1853, of the county court. All this is irreconcilable with the view that the title to the 200 acres was left outstanding in Chrispianos, and confirms complainant's contention to the contrary. ”

“ Reference to the appendix to the acts of the legislature of West Virginia of 1885 (pages 446, 447) shows the certificate of incorporation of the company, from which it appears that the agreement required under the statute in order to form a corporation was delivered to the secretary of state of West Virginia on the 16th of January, 1885, on which day the company, as the secretary certifies, became a corporation. The subscribers to the agreement were P. H. Rorer, I. A. Welch, N. L. Reynolds, A. W. Reynolds, and George W. Belcher ”

“ Vawter, 3 Grat. 518, relied on by appellant, the registry of a deed of 'all the estate, both real and personal, to which the said James was in any manner entitled in law or in equity,' was held not to be notice in point of law to a subsequent purchaser of the existence of the deed, nor would notice in point of fact of such existence and contents affect such purchaser, unless he had further notice that the land purchased by him was embraced by the provision of the deed ”

“ Associated together to carry forward a common enterprise, the knowledge or actual notice of all these corporators and the president was the knowledge or notice of the company, and, if constructive notice bound them, it bound the company.
The conveyances were as follows: December 4, 1884, George W. Belcher conveyed to Newton L. Reynolds the undivided five-eighths of the tract of land claimed by the company, and on the 23d of February, 1885, George W. Belcher conveyed to Rorer the undivided three-eighths of the tract. ”

“ It is well settled that in running the line of a survey of public lands in one direction, if a difficulty is met with, and all the known calls of the survey are met by running them in the reverse direction, this may be properly done. ”

“ The deed of Chrispianos to George W. was dated October 18, 1884, and apparently at some time between that date and February, 1885, these defendants, or some of them, entered upon the tract, prospected for coal, and put on improvements amounting to the value of some $200. On February 24th Doran served notice on the persons then on the land of his ownership, etc., and on the 15th of May, 1885, served another notice, and demanded possession. ”

“ But the legal title to the land in dispute was not in Chrispianos from before 1852, and the land was entered on the land-books in 1863 and prior years, and taxes paid thereon. Moreover, the proceeding was an independent proceeding, to which the owners were not made parties, and by which they were not bound. ”

“ Cas. 180; Landes v. Brant, 10 How. 348; McLean v. Clapp, 141 U.S. 429, 436, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 29; French v. Loyal Co., 5 Leigh, 641; Western M. & M. Co. v. Peytona Cannel Coal Co., 8 W. Va. 406, 441; Core v. Faupel, 24 W. Va. ”