Girard v. Stager
Girard v. Stager
Opinion of the Court
This is an ejectment suit which was tried before me and a jury at the Morris Circuit and resulted in a verdict for plaintiffs for possession of the locus in quo. Defendants took out the present rule to show cause and argue for a new trial on the ground that the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence.
On February 10th, 1926, Margaret Eaton conveyed to the plaintiffs lot No. 11, in block T, as shown on the revised map of a subdivision known as Towaco Bungalow Park prop
The fact appears to be, however, that shortly before defendants erected the buildings on their lot, they sought information—from what source does not appear- in the record— as to the location of the division lines of their lot with that of plaintiffs on the west and No. 14 on the east (there appears to be no No. 13 on the map), and as a result two iron pins were placed at what they evidently regarded as the northwest and northeast corners of their lot. This information turned out to be unreliable, for the reason that the evidence at the trial disclosed that the pin at the so-called northwest corner of their lot was thirteen and twenty hundredths feet over on the front line of plaintiffs’ lot, and by like token the pin at the northeast corner was the same distance westerly on their own lot from the beginning point
The foregoing are the fair deductions from the evidence offered at the trial. Since the solution of the problem submitted was largely a matter of mathematics and the litigants depended almost entirely on their respective surveyors, it cannot be said that the verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence. Defendants unfortunately appear to have been misinformed as to the exact location of the beginning point of the division line between their lot and that of plaintiffs, as to which there does not appear to have been any good reason. It suffices to say that the testimony of plaintiffs’ surveyor, a man of many years experience, was subject to credence by the jury and was not overcome by any evidence of a convincing character offered by defendants. A careful review of the evidence leads to the'conclusion that the rule to show cause must be discharged, but without costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.