Winter v. Stevens
Winter v. Stevens
Opinion of the Court
The instructions were correct. There was
no disseisin of Lane, the original owner of the fee, by the plaintiff. The former continued in actual possession of the premises down to the time when he conveyed them to the defendant. To constitute an actual disseisin there must be an ouster and dispossession of the true owner. There can be no disseisin sufficient to prevent the true owner from making a valid conveyance, without such actual ouster and dispossession. Therefore when two persons are in possession of land at the same time, under different claims of right, he has the seisin in whom the legal title is vested. Both cannot be seised of the same estate, claiming by separate and adverse titles. Consequently the seisin iii such case follows the title. Slater v. Rawson, 6 Met. 439, 444. Smith v. Burtis, 6 Johns. 218. 2 Prest. Abst. 286, 290. Anonymous, 1 Salk. 246. 4 Kent Com. (6th ed.) 482. The deed of Lane to the defendant could in no sense be regarded as a conveyance by a disseisee. It was a valid grant of land by the owner in actual possession of the premises.
it was not claimed at the frial that the plaintiff, at the time
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Ignatius Winter v. Joseph L. Stevens
- Status
- Published