Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It is argued that the description in the first deeds is too vague to identify the land, and the argument is fortified by the testimony of a surveyor that 'the deed is not definite enough to place it on the ground.' But the deed was accompanied by plats to which they referred, and the same surveyor testified that 'the plats are as near identical [with the witness's survey of the locus] as it is possible to make them,' and more to the same effect. It is evident that the former words refer to the descriptive language of the deeds alone ”

“ But in a case like the present, at least, where the tracks of the railroad were on the land, and when the plaintiff exhibits a series of deeds purporting to convey the property, the last one to itself, it is to be presumed that possession followed the title until the dispossession by the defendant took place. ”

“ We shall state such facts as are material.
The declaration contains nine counts, for nine parcels of land, which the plaintiff (defendant in error) contends were formerly part of the roadbed of the Southern Maryland Railroad Company, and now are part of its own. The plaintiff sought to prove its title by putting in deeds of each of these parcels made to the last-named company in 1884, and evidence of possession on the part of the same, together with subsequent deeds finally conveying the land to the plaintiff. Of course this would be sufficient if made out. ”