Jenkins v. McMichael
Jenkins v. McMichael
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
When this case was previously here — Jenkins v. McMichael, 17 Pa. Superior Ct. 476 — it was clearly intimated that, if the plaintiff had based his claims in the court below upon the ground assumed in the argument in this court, the result might have been different. The case had been tried in- the court below upon the theory that the plaintiffs had acquired title by adverse possession. Having entered into possession
In the trial which resulted in a verdict upon which the present judgment is based, the case was tried upon an entirely different theory. The sale from Boyd to Bowman and from Bowman to Marshman and the entry under articles of agreement was shown and the evidence in regard to the payment of purchase money considerably strengthened. The continuous possession, payment of purchase money and acts of ownership exercised by the Marshmans from 1855, when they acquired possession under the agreement, down to the time of trial, were claimed by the plaintiffs to be such as to raise the presumption of a grant by Boyd to the Marshmans, or those under whom they claimed, upon which the plaintiffs could rely.
“ Presumptions arising from great lapse of time and non-claim are sources of evidence which a court is bound to submit to a jury, as the foundation of title by conveyances long since lost or destroyed: ” Carter v. Tinicum Fishing Co., 77 Pa. 310. In Taylor v. Dougherty, 1 W. & S. 324, Mr. Chief Justice Gibson, referring to the cases in which the presumption of a conveyance had been held to arise, said: “ The case before us is much stronger, for we have the expenditure of money, not in a single contested act of ownership, but in acts repeated and persisted in for more than thirty years as regards the ownership of the warrant and without any adverse claim to it whatever. On every principle of authority and reason, this was sufficient not only to be left to the jury but, in the absence of conflicting evidence, to command a verdict. The execution of a deed is presumed from possession in conformity to it for thirty years; and why the entire existence of a deed should not be presumed from acts of ownership for the same period which are equivalent to possession, it would not be easy to determine.” See also Hasson et al. v. Klee, 181 Pa. 117.
The appellant does not deny the general principle set forth in the cases above cited, although denying its applicability to the facts of this case, but claims that the plaintiffs, having failed to give distinct notice, by an amendment of their abstract
The facts were fairly submitted to the jury for their consideration. We think they justified a finding for the plaintiffs and that the judgment entered upon the verdict in their favor should stand.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.