Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ So far as the 14th Amendment is concerned, there is nothing to hinder a state from enacting that in future the doing of such overt acts of ownership as are possible on wild land, under a recorded deed which shows that the actor claims title, coupled with payment of the taxes, the owner meantime not paying them, and doing no act indicative of ownership, shall constitute a disseisin, or that such disseisin, if continued long enough, shall bar an action for the land. ”

“ As to the possibility that the taxes may have been assessed unlawfully or the recorded deed under which the defendant claims forged, it is admitted that such matters might be proved. As they are public facts, give color to the overt acts done upon the land, and must be accompanied by a necessarily conscious omission of the plaintiff to pay taxes or do any acts of ownership, we see nothing to hinder the legislature making them sufficient, prima facie, at least, to set the statute running and to put the former owners to a suit. ”

“ The action then required to be brought by the former owner is an action 'to recover such land, or to avoid such deed.' An action to recover the land presupposes that the former owner still is out by a continuance, up to the time when the suit is brought of the acts and omissions of the parties concerned respectively which are made to constitute a disseisin. ”