Stephen Johnson Field,
Malarin v. United States — Opinion of the Court
“ Willes, for the United States, relied largely on the evidence of forgery and fraud, as exhibited by the erasures; upon the coutradictory and untrustworthy character of Alverado's evidence, and upon the omission to produce the clerk, Astrada, who had drawn the deed. ”
Stephen Johnson Field,
Malarin v. United States — Opinion of the Court
“ It is possible, but highly improbable, that serious alteration in the grant as to the quantity of the land, would have escaped observation and exposure. No suspicion on the subject having been suggested for eighteen years, is a circumstance of no little weight to show that no grounds for suspicion ever existed.The decree of the District Court must be reversed, and that court directed to enter a decree confirming the claim of the appellants to two square leagues under the grant to Pacheco. ”
Stephen Johnson Field,
Malarin v. United States — Opinion of the Court
“ Some of them hold, that where there are no particular circumstances of suspicion connected with the alteration, the presumption of law is that the alteration was made contemporaneously with the execution of the instrument, giving as the reason for the conclusion that a deed cannot be altered after its execution without fraud, which is never to be assumed without proof ”
