Nominative case

“ If the condition be precedent, the estate die not vest, and cannot descend to him. This would be contrary to the general spirit of the will.
If the change of name constituted the whole condition of the devise, the proofs furnished by the will of its being a condition subsequent, are so strong as to dispel all reasonable doubt. But there is another condition, respecting which the intention is less obvious.
The person 'that may have the right' is to procure an act of Assembly for the change of his name, 'together with his taking an oath, before he has possession, before a magistrate,' &c. ”

“ The recognizances taken are returnable under penalty to the court of trial, which orders their estreat in the event of breach of the conditions.
Similar powers as to the recognizances of persons prosecuted summarily are given by the Summary jurisdiction Acts 1848 and 1879; and in the event of appeals to quarter sessions or by special case to the High Court from courts of summary jurisdiction, recognizances or security are required from the appellant (42 & 43 Vict. c. 49, ss. 31, 33) . ”

“ If the defendant's title should be a connected title in law or equity, supposing no other to exist on the ground, then if he proves seven years' possession holding under it, the statute shall aid him, although the plaintiff may be able to show, by the production of his own title or that of others, that the title did not in law or fact pass to the defendant.'
The deed offered in evidence in this case was not such as the law would prim a facie consider good. It is not good when tested by its own face, but it is absolutely void upon its own face. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The declaration of the Judge in the case cited from Harris & Johnson, that a Court of Chancery might injoin the obligees to allow the injured person to use their names in that particular case, is evidence of the opinion, that he could not sue at his own will. ”

“ This court sustained the title founded upon the suit commenced against the non-resident by attachment. In the opinion delivered in that case there may be remarks, by way of argument or illustration, tending to show that a judgment obtained in a suit not commenced by the levy of an attachment will not give title to land purchased under it. They are, however, extra-judicial, the decision itself sustaining the judgment obtained under the State statute by publication. ”

“ Jur. § 616, 'Where a title under which the occupant holds has been put upon record, and his possession is consistent with what thus appears of record, it shall not be a constructive notice of any additional or different title or interest to a purchaser who has relied upon the record, but has had no actual notice beyond what is thereby disclosed.' That the court did not intend to hold that a joint occupation by a husband and wife is in no case notice of more than the occupation of the husband, is evident from the subsequent case of Trust Co. ”

“ In the last two classes the designation of the party, plaintiff or defendant, is in the singular number, but the designation is intended to embrace all the persons who are on one side, however numerous, so that each distinct interest must be represented by persons, all of whom are entitled to sue, or are liable to be sued, in the Federal courts. ”

“ If to one partner alone, the whole legal title vests in him, which is the case, also, where the title is to a partnership name, which, as in this case, expresses the name of one party only, with the addition of '& Co.' If the deed be to a name adopted as the firm style, which includes the name of no party, it passes nothing in law. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If the special finding of the jury in the case of interfering titles on a question of boundary, which may, and indeed usually does involve a comparison of the conflicting testimony of witnesses and other parol evidence, is to be set aside and disregarded, there is nothing upon the record to guide the plaintiff in regard to the extent of his title in taking possession ”

“ If none existed in the person as whose estate it was so sold, it was a transfer of an existing title; and not in its nature or effect an original grant.
2. That independent of the title of Kiersereau and Gamache, there was sufficient evidence before the jury to establish a title by prescription in Chancellier and his heirs; which instruction could not be given without usurping the province of the jury to decide on the sufficiency of the evidence. 9 Peters, 445. ”

“ That the title exhibited by them was superior in point of law to that exhibited by the plaintiff. 2. That the title of the defendants was a regular chain of title, deducible of record from the United States, and if they believed from the evidence that the defendants, and those under whom they received the possession, had been in actual possession, by residence, of the premises more than seven years immediately preceding the commencement of the suit, and were still in possession when the suit was brought, then the plaintiff was not entitled to recover in this action. ”

“ The Bureau of Naturalization has contended that a naturalization hearing is not a “case”; that there is nothing to litigate; that the examiner is present not as an attorney, but as a friend and informant of the court, with which abides the final responsibility. It holds that the petitioner does not need an attorney, the judge being assumed to be of course as solicitous to protect the interests of the petitioner as those of the country’s citizenship. ”

“ This case decided that the assumption of a name by a person, by the King's license, would not entitle him to take under a limitation in a will "unto the first and nearest of my kindred, being male, and of my name and blood." The same rule would no doubt hold as to a change of name by Act of Parliament. (See Pyot v. Pyot, 1 Ves. Sen. 335.)
These extracts from the highest authorities will sufficiently show of how little use is an Act of Parliament, or the royal license, for effecting a change of name ”

“ This imperfect state of the record has made us hesitate to enter upon a review of the case, but as the order setting aside the original judgment refers to the notice of motion and the annexed affidavits as the foundation of that order, and identifies those papers as they are found in the transcript, we are of opinion that they may be considered as part of the record, so far as the question of the authority of the court to make that order is involved. ”

“ Another source of worry is that of compound names, or their equivalent hyphenated-surnames, that is to say, names compounded without the authority of a deed-poll, or even without obligations as beneficiaries under a will. It is a growing affectation, to which many persons are partial, especially if their surnames happen to be among those most common. ”

“ Admit, then, that the act requires the witnesses to subscribe their names, can a court of chancery require or permit it now to be done? There is no time limited, in which it must be done. The act does not, like the statute of wills, require it to be done at the time. Whenever done the terms of the law are satisfied. What is it that is asked?-that the requisitions of the act should be set aside? that merely fictitious names should be inserted, to present to the eye only a compliance with the statute? ”

“ The statute requires the supreme court of the District, at general term, to review, upon appeal, any order, judgment, or decree of the special term, involving the merits of the action or proceeding. (2) The judgment of the special term admitting a will to probate and record, pursuant to the verdict of the jury upon issues relating to the competency of the deceased to make a will, clearly involves the merits of the controversy, because it establishes the validity as a will of the writing offered for probate. ”

“ Of course, in a published notice or summons, intended to reach absent or nonresident defendants, where the name is a principal means of identifying the person concerned, somewhat different considerations obtain. The general rule, in cases of constructive service of process by publication, tends to strictness. ”

“ The decree of the District Court in this case is marked by other peculiarities which must deprive it of any validity whatsoever. The decree first decides that the title of Donna Maria to the land in question is good and complete as against the United States, and that, therefore, the land belongs to the petitioners, as deducing title from her. ”

“ That the confirmation by the Board of Commissioners to Benito, Antoine, Hypolite, Joseph, and Pierre Vasquez, given in evidence in this case, ratified by act of Congress of 4th July, 1836, did not vest any title in the land sued for in this action in the plaintiff.
3. That the plaintiff has shown no title on which she can recover of the defendant the land sued for in this action, or any part thereof. ”

“ Even if the plaintiff and A. P. H. Hanson had borne the same name, and the article identified its subject only by a proper name, very possibly that would not be enough to raise the question. For, as every one knows, a proper name always purports to designate one person and no other, and although, through the imperfection of our system of naming, the same combination of letters and sounds may be applied to two or more, the name of each, in theory of law, is distinct, although there is no way of finding out which person was named but by inquiring which was meant. ”

“ We supose that, in the absence of a statute specially dealing with the matter, either the title would be taken to relate back, or it would be held that a permitted conveyance, before the government has given a legal title to anyone, made by a person in process of acquiring a title in the statutory method, would be taken to have contemplated that the grantee should have the benefit of what was done afterwards to perfect it. Those propositions we are not called upon to discuss. ”

“ That any person alleged to be feeble-minded, or the parents or guardians of such person, shall have the right of appeal to a Judge of the Supreme Court against the placing of his or her name upon the register, and the parents or guardians of any person on the register shall have the right to apply to a Judge of the Supreme Court for the removal of the name of such person from the register, or for his or her release from any institution established under the Act. ”

“ The doctrine, that the recital is evidence against the defendant, goes the whole length of determining that an admission, made by any person through whom a title has passed, binds every one to whom the title may come; and that a deed, to which a party is a stranger, and under which there has been no holding, not only binds him, by way of divesting the title of his grantor, but that he is also bound by any admission it may contain. The king is not bound by estoppels. ”

“ If a defendant within the jurisdiction is served personally with process in which his name is misspelled, he cannot safely ignore it on account of the misnomer. The rule, established by an abundant weight of authority, is, that if a person is sued by a wrong name, and he fails to appear and plead the misnomer in abatement, the judgment binds him. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Dissatisfied with that decree the complainant appealed to this court, which is the case involved in the motion.
Pending the suit here the appellees have appeared specially and filed a motion to dismiss the appeal upon two grounds: (1) Because the citation is addressed to the original parties, one or both of whom deceased before the final decree. (2) Because the bond given to prosecuted the appeal is executed to a deceased respondent and not to the administrator in whose favor the decree was entered. ”

“ Hence their consideration belongs to the jury, to whom they will be left upon hypothetical instructions. The jury may presume a deed when neither the chancellor nor the common law judge will or can. Stark., 1216, 1227, 1235; Peake Ch., 25.
A possession of thirty years or less, by a purchaser who held a bond for a title, would be sufficient, in the absence of any controlling circumstances, to create a legal presumption of a conveyance from the possessor or the legal title. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If it is a plan made by authority, in conformity with any act of the legislature, it may be submitted, with other evidence, to the consideration of a jury, to avail, as much as it may, in ascertaining boundary. But the Court has also permitted what is denominated a demarcation, which we understand to be a private survey made by direction of a party interested under the grant, and assented to by the defendants, to be given in evidence. ”