Legal title

“ When a party by his pleadings sets forth a merely legal title, he cannot on the trial be let into the proof of facts which show that, having an equity, he is entitled to a conveyance of the legal title. ”

“ Courts of justice have no authority to mark out and define the land which shall be subject to the grant. But when the political authorities have performed this duty, the compact has an object, upon which it can attach, and if there is no legal impediment the title of the State becomes a legal title. ”

“ In such a case, a court of equity, whose appropriate and peculiar jurisdiction is to act upon the conscience of the person who holds the formal or legal title to the property, compels him to convey it to the person to whom he is bound in good conscience to make a complete title, thus uniting form to substance. ”

“ The Constitution of the United States, in creating and defining the judicial power of the General Government, establishes this distinction between law and equity, and a party who claims a legal title must proceed at law, and may undoubtedly proceed according to the forms of practice in such cases in the State court. ”

“ The court instructed the jury against them on the ground that they had no legal title. As the foregoing opinion decides that they had no title at all, legal or equitable, the judgment of the court below must be affirmed. ”

“ It can have no operation to prevent the denial of an equitable transfer of title, which is not identical with the legal title or muniment of title which it may be relied on either to establish or protect. ”

“ Under the jurisdiction and practice in equity, independently of statute, the object of a bill to remove a cloud upon title, and to quiet the possession of real estate, is to protect the owner of the legal title from being disturbed in his possession, or harassed by suits in regard to that title ”

“ Congress has the sole power to declare the dignity and effect of titles emanating from the United States, and the whole legislation of the federal government in reference to the public lands declares the patent the superior and conclusive evidence of legal title. ”

“ Work, 5 Bin. 158, it is said: 'An estate held by warrant and survey, or other imperfect title, without patent, is of a singular nature. In many, and indeed in most, respects it is considered as a legal estate against all persons but the commonwealth. ”

“ In showing possession and acts of ownership, from which the legal title may be presumed.
2. In proving a particular title. 2 Stark. on Ev. 514. He who claims as heir, must prove the seisin of his ancestor; and afterwards that he is heir. A guardian in socage, who has an interest in the land, must in ejectment prove that his ward is heir; that he is guardian; that his ward is then under the age of fourteen. 2 Stark. on Ev. 521. These authorities show the error of the assumption that the defendants, having pleaded the general issue, admitted the right of the plaintiffs to sue as a corporation. ”

“ And by the term 'property,' as applied to land, all titles are included,-legal or equitable, perfect or imperfect. 'It comprehends,' assaid by this court in Soulard v. U.S., 4 Pet. 511, 'every species of title, inchoate or complete. It is supposed to embrace those rights which are executory as well as those which are executed. ”

“ If there is any one point in the case on which an opinion may be given with confidence, it is this, whether we consider the letter of the statute, or the spirit, intent, or meaning, of the constitution and of the legislature, as expressed in the 27th section, it is equally clear that the title is the primary object to which the attention of the court is called in every such case. The words are, 'and the decision be against the title,' so set up, not against the construction of the treaty contended for by the party setting up the title. ”

“ If in any such case a title so claimed to be perfect shall be established and confirmed, such confirmation shall be for so much land only as such perfect title shall be found to cover, always excepting any part of such land that shall have been disposed of by the United States, and always subject to and not to affect any conflicting private interests, rights, or claims held or claimed adversely to any such claim or title, or adversely to the holder of any such claim or title. ”

“ The adjudications of their courts; the settled and uniform practice and usage of the state, in the practical operation of its provisions, evidencing the judicial construction of its terms; are to be considered as a part of the statute: and as such furnishing a rule for the decisions of the federal courts. The statute and its interpretation form together a rule of title and property, which must be the same in all courts. ”

“ The methods therefore of acquiring on the one hand, and of losing on the other, a title to estates in things real, are reduced by our law to two: descent, where the title is vested in a man by the single operation of law ”

“ The History of the World is but a Modern Treatise of things of a late Date, which were done in pursuance of Counsels and Decrees made before: Matters of Fact set forth, without the Original Design and Institution of them seem irrational, and to have no Meaning in them: Would any thing seem more ridiculous, than that the taking off a Seal, and delivery of a piece of Parchment by one Man, should give another a Title to an Estate, if the Law were not known, which gives the Sanction to this Ceremony? ”

“ If the accident to the controversy that both parties claim title under the United States should be considered as sufficient to bring it within our jurisdiction, then every controversy involving the title to such lands, whether it involve the inheritance, partition, devise, or sale of it, may, with equal propriety, be subject to the examination of this court in all time to come. ”

“ Friley, 61 Miss. 1, 4, it was further said: 'The statute . . . not only authorizes the real owner to file his bill to cancel a paper title, but also to remove the cloud, doubt, or suspicion which may spring from the assertion of claim, or pretense of right or title thereto by the defendant, who, without any muniment of title, may assert a claim or pretend to have right or title. ”

“ That the respondents have a perfect and indefeasible title to soil and jurisdiction up to the existing line, by prescription, a title resting on a possession of more than a century, the highest and most sacred of the titles of nations. ”

“ Where any title, right, privilege, or immunity is claimed under the Constitution or any treaty or statute of, or commission held, or authority exercised under, the United States, and the decision is against the title, right, privilege, or immunity specially set up or claimed by either party under such Constitution, treaty, statute, commission or authority. ”

“ Under all these systems, in interpreting the meaning of what is meant by 'just title,' it has invariably been held that they do not embrace a title made by one who, by operation of law, had absolutely no power to convey. ”

“ The court there says: 'An entry by one upon land in possession, actual or contructive of another, in order to operate as an ouster, and gain possession to the parties entering, must be accompanied by a claim of title.' [11]
We have thus examined the points made by the exceptions to the instructions asked by plaintiffs and given by the court. If there are points made on the instructions prayed by defendants and refused by the court not embraced in those we have discussed, they are of minor importance, and do not affect the merits of the case. ”

“ It is also essential for its application with respect to the title of real property that the party claiming to have been influenced by the conduct or declarations of another to his injury was himself not only destitute of knowledge of the true state of the title, but also of any convenient and available means of acquiring such knowledge. ”

“ This section comprehends all the lands within the State, whether within or without the manors, to which any individuals had derived a title from the proprietaries, either in law or equity, by virtue of any deed, patent, warrant or survey, and confirms such title according to the estate, right or interest conveyed. That the section operates alike on lands within and without the manors, and that it confirms titles under warrants or surveys, for which the purchase money has been paid, are certain. ”

“ If its effect is to make titles void which were before good, a grave constitutional question may arise with regard to its validity, which we would prefer not to pass upon until it has received the consideration of a local court, state or federal. In our judgment, all the matters of objection to the plaintiffs' title, arising under the constitution, are matters of defense, and could not properly be urged to prevent the title of the plaintiffs from being received in evidence. ”

“ We think it proper to state, that we express no opinion upon the effect of the evidence to establish the plaintiff's title as a subsisting title, and none upon the claim to such of the land as lies beyond the boundary line, settled by the survey of the United States under the first section of the act of 1812. ”

“ Thomas (16 Johns. 301) , the if a man enters on land without claim or color of title, and no privity exists between him and the real owner, and such person afterwards acquires what he considers a good title, from that moment his possession becomes adverse. This doctrine must not be understood as authorizing the purchaser to consider a naked possession a good title. It must be, as I understand the law, such a title as the law will, prim a facie, consider a good title. ”

“ It is true that, under the statutes of the State, the claimant, in order to take the forfeited title, must have had an apparent title, or color of title, regularly derived from the Commonwealth, acquired legitimately, and must have discharged the State's lien for taxes. ”

“ The court held that an outstanding title in a third person might be set up, and that the title set up in this case was claimed under a treaty, 'but,' said the court, 'to give jurisdiction to this court, the party must claim the right for himself, and not for a third person in whose title he has no interest. ”

“ There must be an intent to convey, and the delivery of a deed for the purpose of vesting a present title in the grantee, and a deed delivered without the consent of the grantor is of no more effect to pass title than if it were a forgery. ”

“ Allen, 44 Miss. 654, 662, it was said: 'The statute in reference to the removal of clouds from title enlarges the principle upon which courts of equity were accustomed to administer relief. It is very broad, allowing the real owner in all cases to apply for the cancelation of a deed or other evidence of title which casts a cloud or suspicion on his title. . . . The terms used in the statute, expressive of the scope of the jurisdiction, viz., 'cloud,' 'doubt,' 'suspicion,' quite distinctly imply that the instrument which creates them is apparent rather than 'real' ”

“ That the title of the donee was complete when the jurisdiction was ceded to the United States, which is sufficient to show that neither the act of Congress referred to nor the patent could convey any title to the other donee.
4. That the right and title of the original donee were superior to the claim of the other donee, and that if the jury believed from the evidence that the land in controversy is embraced in that concession, and that the plaintiffs derived their title to the same from that donee, then they are entitled to recover in this action. ”

“ While recognizing the weight which should be given to decisions of the supreme court of a state in construing its own laws, and being disposed to follow them and accept the conclusions reached in construing local statutes in every case of doubt, we are here dealing with a right and title conferred by authority of the decree of a Federal court, which may be virtually set aside and held for naught if the property awarded can be taken upon execution in suits to which the purchaser is not a party. ”

“ Upon the application of Morales, such proceedings were had in the insular court as were provided for in the judicial order, and the court in due time made and entered its decree to the effect that the entry of possession, or possessory title, which appeared in the registry recorded in favor of Morales, be converted into a record of ownership, or dominio title. ”

“ Possession and ownership—fact and right—enjoyment and title—are presumed by the law to be coincident. Every man may therefore keep what he has got, until and unless some one else can prove that he himself has a better title to it. ”

“ Unlike all other property, they carry their whole evidence of title on their face; and the law assures the right of him who obtains them for valuable consideration, by regular indorsement, and without actual notice of any adverse claim, or of such suspicious circumstances as should lead to inquiry. ”

“ A man whose title was good in 1876, when the constitution was adopted, whether his nuniments of title were on record or not, could not be deprived of it by a simple ipse dixit of the constitution any more than by a legislative act. ”

“ They are founded upon the consideration that the facts are such as could not, according to the ordinary course of human affairs, occur, unless there was a transmutation of title to, or an admission of an existing adverse title in, the party in possession. ”

“ The plaintiff in error must claim (for himself) some title, right, privilege, or exemption, under an act of Congress, &c., and the decision must be against his claim, to give this court jurisdiction. Setting up a title in the United States, by way of defence, is not claiming a personal interest affecting the subject in litigation. This is the established construction of the 25th section of the judiciary act. ”