Von Storch v. Von Storch
Von Storch v. Von Storch
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
This was an action of ejectment brought to recover possession of land which the plaintiff claimed he had a valid title to. That the land was conveyed to him many years ago was shown by the deeds and papers in his possession and admitted in evidence on the trial. It required no oral testimony to establish his case in chief. The documentary evidence alone was quite sufficient for that purpose. The reply of the defendant to the claim of the plaintiff was based on an alleged equity arising from an alleged parol trust. It needs no argument to prove that a defense of this nature cannot prevail in the absence of clear and satisfactory proof to sustain it. “ The legal title to lands ought not to be exposed to the peril of a successful attack, excepting where the right in equity is clearly established: ” Clabk, J., in Earnest’s Appeal, 106 Pa. 318.
The testimony introduced on the trial was remarkably voluminous and a part of it related to matters relevant to the issue and occurring more than fifty years ago. This testimony we have examined and considered with care and the conclusion we have drawn from it is that it presented an issue for the determination of a jury under proper instructions from the court. A specification herein of any part of the testimony is needless. Every part of it which is material to a proper understanding of the issue was referred to in the charge which occupies eighty pages of the appellant’s paper-book. More exhaustive and painstaking instructions seldom if ever appear in a charge^ Whether there was error in the instructions is a question to be considered in connection with the assignments relating to the subject.
There are thirty-seven assignments filed in the case and ten of them are based on excerpts from the charge. We have carefully examined and fully considered the excerpts on which the ten assignments above referred to rest, and are unable to discover in either of them any cause for a reversal of the judgment or a retrial of the case. In this connection we may state that, in our opinion, the learned court below did not err in declining to grant permission to the defendant’s counsel to open and
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.