Conveyance (law)

“ Be this as it may, the original mode of conveyance was, as a feature of the feudal law, so effectually resumed or continued upon the advent of the Normans that, except by means of judicial proceedings, real or feigned, the common law of England has never provided any other mode of directly transferring the entire estate in land than the solemn and public delivery of possession in the presence of the assembled neighbors, known in legal phrase as the "livery of seisin" the word "livery" meaning delivery, and the word "seisin" meaning possession. ”

“ Grants or conveyances of the kind may, in certain cases, be valid, subject to those conditions, or, to speak more accurately, the law will permit the grant or conveyance to take effect upon the property when it is brought into existence and belongs to the grantor, in fulfilment of an express agreement, if founded on a good consideration, and it appears that no rule of law is infringed and the rights of third persons are not prejudiced. ”

“ The execution of the conveyance by Clarke, the trustee, under this order.
If the order was made by the Chancellor in the exercise of his jurisdiction as a court, his judgment was conclusive in the matters before him; and there is an end of that question. It affords an authority to sell and convey, that cannot be controverted in a court of law. And the validity of the deed executed under it stands upon an equally solid foundation. ”

“ They may reply further that the argument from convenience is not for a court to use, but for the legislature; that the court is to decide not what would be the most convenient law, but what is the law! They may reply further that if the argument from convenience were a legitimate one, there are other people in the nation besides slave-owners, and other interests besides slavery. ”

“ It is not necessary, in arriving at this conclusion, to examine whether the words of the section shall be restricted to grants, or extended to mesne conveyances, or whether to deeds prior or subsequent. In no point of view will this section sustain the registration; for the deed is registered as a mesne conveyance, not a grant, properly so called, and must take effect under those legal provisions which extend to mesne conveyances. ”

“ Where property in the hands of the receiver is claimed by another, the right may be tried by proper issues at law, by a reference to a master, or otherwise, as the court in its discretion may see fit to direct. ”

“ And authorities are relied on, principally from the English Courts, to show, that in all cases of this sort, the established rule is, that the vendee shall prepare and tender the conveyance. This is certainly the rule in England, founded, doubtless, upon the general understanding and practice among conveyancers, as well as upon the peculiar circumstances attendant upon conveyances in that country. ”

“ If it be asked, how came this deviation, which has been attended with so many inconveniencies? The true answer is the best, that it sprung from the advantage of practitioners, and the litigiousness of suitors. By the common law, no man could bring two actions of the same nature for the same thing. If I am entitled to the possession of lands, I may bring my writ of entry, or an assize, to recover it; but if I am foiled, I cannot bring a second. So, if I am entitled to the propriety of the land, I may bring my writ of right, and if I recover not therein, my right is gone for ever. ”

“ Indeed, I had supposed, if there was a universal and uncontroverted proposition in the common law, as it is known and understood in England and in this country, it was, that no act done in violation of the laws of the land, or in disregard or contravention of its principles, can be the foundation of a claim which can be enforced at law or in equity. ”

“ Yet each state, so long as it does not impair the obligation of any contract, has the power by general laws to regulate the conveyance and disposition of all property, personal or real, within its limits and jurisdiction. ”

“ Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress. ”

“ Nothing can be more material to the obligation than the means of enforcement. Without the remedy the contract may, indeed, in the sense of the law, be said not to exist, and its obligation to fall within the class of those moral and social duties which depend for their fulfilment wholly upon the will of the individual. The ideas of validity and remedy are inseparable, and both are parts of the obligation, which is guaranteed by the Constitution against invasion. ”

“ Nor am I able to agree with the majority in their opinion, or at least intimation, that the authority to purchase carries with it authority to acquire by condemnation. The one supposes an agreement upon valuation, and a voluntary conveyance of the property: the other implies a compulsory taking, and a contestation as to the value. ”

“ It is true that, even in such a case the citizen may, if he choose, rely upon the good faith of the state in the matter of compensation. But he is not compelled to part with his property for public use except upon the terms prescribed by the supreme law of the land, namely, upon just compensation made or secured. ”

“ Certain general clauses, e.g., that pledging that justice should neither be bought nor sold, and that prescribing that a freeman might not be imprisoned, outlawed, or dispossessed of his property save by the judgment of his peers or by the law of the land, meant in effect considerably less than they sometimes have been interpreted to mean. ”

“ There is nothing in that instrument which prohibits the legislature of a State or Territory from exercising judicial functions, nor from passing an act which divests rights vested by law, provided its effect be not to impair the obligation of a contract. ”

“ Central R. Co. supra. But, if the only source of this obligation is the law of the place of the act, it follows that that law determines not merely the existence of the obligation (Smith v. Condry, 1 How. 28, 11 L. ed. 35) , but equally determines its extent. ”

“ They meet us again when we inquire in what territory, or by virtue of what territorial law, a particular alleged right has accrued. Persons belonging by domicile or nationality to A enter in B into a contract to be performed in C; where and by virtue of what law does either acquire a right against the other? Is it to be in or by the law of their homes, where they are normally, though not always necessarily, to be sued? Or of the country where they contract, which for various purposes, as those of police, but not for all purposes, has the control of them when they contract? ”

“ The objection now made, that suits commenced by substituted service, as by publication, and judgments obtained without actual notice to the debtor, are in violation of that constitutional provision that no man shall be deprived of his property 'without due process of law,' has often been presented. ”

“ After their purchase, the court, the parties, and the res, stood in all respects as they stood before; and the judgment, sale, and conveyance have exactly the same effect as if the appellees and the facts upon which they rely had no existence.
In some of the States, peculiar systems of jurisprudence, with respect to suits in attachment, have grown up, and every thing in that connection is held to be stricti juris. In other States, more liberal rules prevail. ”

“ The operation of voluntary or common-law assignments upon property situated in other states has been the subject of frequent discussion in the courts, and there is a general consensus of opinion to the effect that such assignments will be respected, except so far as they come in conflict with the rights of local creditors, or with the laws or public policy of the state in which the assignment is sought to be enforced. ”

“ And so, if I sell you my land and covenant to enfeoff you and do not, you shall have a good action on the case, and this is adjudged.... And if I covenant with a carpenter to build a house and pay him £20 for the house to be built by a certain day, now I shall have a good action on my case because of payment of money, and still it sounds only in covenant and without payment of money in this case no remedy, and still if he builds it and misbuilds, action on the case lies. And also for nonfeasance, if money paid case lies. ”

“ Per Curiam: Judgments reversed with costs, on the authority of Bernheimer v. Converse, 206 U.S. 516, 51 L. ed. 1163, 27 Sup. Ct. Rep. 755, and cases remanded for further proceedings in conformity to law. ”

“ The proposition, thus generally put, is then followed by a qualification in these words, 'at least without an averment in pleading, that the decree within its territorial jurisdiction is of equal efficacy with a judgment at law.' By this language the universality of the previous proposition is modified, or rather contradicted, for it contains an obvious concession, that provided a particular efficiency can be affirmed with regard to it, an action at law may be maintained even upon a decree of a court of equity. ”

“ If this were a controversy between individuals, and it were shown that a conveyance had been made with statements in it as to the existence of water lots and rights of wharfage, would a court of equity be found to allow the person who had reaped the benefit of his assurance by selling the property to alter his position and assert, as against the purchaser, the nonexistence of the very rights which he had declared, 'of course,' existed, in order to consummate the conveyance? ”

“ Translation of the Arabic Marginal Quotations of the Luwaran
1. The person in charge of a property the subject of a suit has the first right to that property; his right must, however, be confirmed by oath. If both parties have charge of the property, their rights shall be regarded equal, and both parties shall take oath.
2. The compensation for a slave shall be equal to his value. The loss of a limb shall be compensated for by the amount by which that loss reduces the value of the slave. ”

“ That the power of a collecting agent by the general law is limited to receiving for the debt of his principal that which the law declares to be a legal tender, or which is by common consent considered and treated as money, and passes as such at par, is established by all the authorities. ”

“ Rights, attached by the law to contracts, by reason of the place where such contracts are made or executed, wholly irrespective of the citizenship of the parties to those contracts, cannot be deemed 'privileges of a citizen,' within the meaning of the constitution. ”

“ The law in England, by which property can be kept in the same families for many years, has, perhaps, caused greater importance to be given in that country than in this to the insertion in deeds of settlement of a power of revocation and appointment to other uses. ”

“ Now, the question arises, What proceedings are meant by the phrase 'suits of a civil nature at common law or in equity,' in the latter section, conferring original jurisdiction, and the phrase 'a suit,' in the former section, giving the right of removal? ”

“ It is an entire mistake of the true meaning of the rule of the common law, which is sometimes suggested in argument, that the action of assumpsit for money had and received is founded upon a voluntary, express, or implied promise, of the defendant, or that it requires privity between the parties ex contractu to support it. The rule of the common law has a much broader and deeper foundation. ”

“ In the case before us the power in question is not, in our opinion, indispensable to the exercise of the express or implied powers conferred upon the town by law. The utmost that can be said is that it was deemed more convenient or expedient to issue the bonds in that form than in the mode prescribed. ”

“ If a person purchases a slave and later presents a defective slave and requests the revocation of the purchase contract, and the vender denies the identity of the slave, the vender’s statement or plea shall be sustained if confirmed by oath. ”

“ Customs have sprung from the necessities and the convenience of business and prevailed in duration and extent until they acquired the force of law. This mass of our jurisprudence has thus grown, and will continue to grow, by successive accretions. ”

“ The convict, instead of being committed to work and labor as the statute provides for the state, when his fines and costs are unpaid, comes into court with a surety, and confesses judgment in the amount of fine and costs, and agrees with the surety, in consideration of the payment of that fine and costs, to perform service for the surety after he is released because of the confession of judgment. ”

“ The rule is in complete harmony with the American system of conveyancing, which accomplishes the cession of property, with its incidents of possession and enjoyment, without a resort to symbolical acts, or inconvenient ceremonies, by the consent of the owner, legally authenticated. ”

“ Or, if this be not so, that a Court of Chancery will, the conveyance being defective, lend its aid to carry the contract into execution, according to the intention of the parties.
We will consider, 1. The effect of the power of attorney.
This instrument contains no words of conveyance or of assignment, but is a simple power to sell and convey. As the power of one man to act for another, depends on the will and license of that other, the power ceases when the will, or this permission, is withdrawn. ”