Robert Trimble

“ The construction of deeds belongs to the province of the Court; the materiality of an alteration in a deed, is a question of construction; and in this case the Court committed an error by giving an instruction to the jury, which imposed on them a difficult question of construction, upon which the jury ought to have been enlightened by the decision of the Court. ”

“ If the defendants had held under a conveyance executed by Jesse Spencer, in obedience to the decree, their title deed, although not recorded, would, by the terms of the statute, prevail against the plaintiff's prior unrecorded deed. A deed not being recorded, avoids it as against subsequent, but not as against prior purchasers. By the laws of the state of Ohio, the decree obtained by the defendants, clothes them with the legal title in as ample a manner as a deed. They are purchasers for valuable consideration, without notice ”