Florida Guire v. William Blount

• Decision Date: 18 January 1905
• Docket Number: No. 6,6
• Parties: FLORIDA McGUIRE and Matilda Caro v. WILLIAM A. BLOUNT, William Fisher, Mrs. William Fisher, The Pensacola City Company, Thomas C. Watson, John Williams, James M. Bullard
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

199 U.S. 142

26 S.Ct. 1

50 L.Ed. 125

FLORIDA McGUIRE and Matilda Caro

v WILLIAM A. BLOUNT, William Fisher, Mrs. William Fisher, The Pensacola City Company, Thomas C. Watson, John Williams, James M. Bullard.

No. 6.

Submitted January 18, 1905.

Ordered for oral argument January 30, 1905.

Argued October 12, 13, 1905.

Decided October 30, 1905.

Messrs. Hilary A. Herbert, Benjamin Micou, E. T. Davis, and Samuel S. Belden for petitioners.

Messrs.William A. Blount and A. C. Blount for respondents.

Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:

This case was begun in the circuit court of the United States for the northern district of Florida to recover in ejectment certain lands described in the declaration. The defendants answered, and issues were joined as to the right of possession of the lands in question.

Upon the trial, after the testimony was submitted and the cause argued, the court instructed the jury to find for the defendants. Upon writ of error this judgment was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals, 56 C. C. A. 682, 121 Fed. 1020.

The plaintiffs, when the case was called for trial, filed a written motion, or petition, challenging the right of the presiding judge to hear the case, and praying that he 'recuse' himself. The petition was denied and the judge presided at the trial of the case. The ground of the petition for recusation was that the wife of the judge had acquired an interest in the property which was the subject-matter of the litigation. The petition was not sworn to, and while a statement was made of the desire of the plaintiffs to offer testimony in support thereof, the names of witnesses were not furnished, no affidavits were filed, and no definite statement made of what witnesses would say if permitted to testify. The judge overruled this motion, stating that his wife had no interest in the property, and, with a view to convey an interest, the vendor had tendered a quitclaim deed to his wife, which had been declined, and no delivery ever made thereof or title vested in her. Later the judge placed on file an affidavit of a real-estate agent, stating substantially the same facts.

While the courts cannot too carefully guard against any attempt of an interested judge to force himself upon litigating parties, and should scrupulously maintain the right of every litigant to an impartial and disinterested tribunal for the determination of his rights, we find in this record nothing establishing or offering to establish, in any legitimate way, the disqualification relied upon because of a pecuniary interest in the controversy, resulting from his wife's alleged ownership of a part of the land in question.

The petitioners, who were plaintiffs in the original case, sought to recover the tract of land as the heirs of one Gabriel Rivas. The tract originally owned by him consisted of about 300 'arpents' of land near the city of Pensacola, Florida.

The defendants at the trial undertook to defeat the plaintiffs' right of recovery, not by establishing a perfect title in themselves, but relied upon showing the divestiture of the plaintiffs' title as heirs of Gabriel Rivas. It is elementary law that the plaintiff in ejectment must recover upon the strength of his own title, which must be sufficiently established to warrant a verdict in his favor. McNitt v. Turner, 16 Wall. 352, 362, 21 L. ed. 341, 346; Watts v. Lindsey, 7 Wheat. 158, 5 L. ed. 423.

A defendant in ejectment who is not a mere trespasser or interloper may show an outstanding and subsisting title in a stranger, to defeat the plaintiff's right of recovery. Love v. Simms, 9 Wheat. 515, 6 L. ed. 149; Smith v. McCann, 24 How. 398, 16 L. ed. 714; King v. Mullins, 171 U. S. 404-437, 43 L. ed. 214-226, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 925.

Relying on this right, the defendants sought to show, by the production of certain ancient documents, bound together, styled a protocol, that Gabriel Rivas' will had been established by proceedings had during the Spanish control of Florida, which showed that Rivas, who had received the lands in controversy by grant of November 10, 1806, from Morales, intendant, etc., of Spain, had died on April 28, 1808, his will being probated by certain proceedings approved by the governor of Florida on May 2, 1808. In this protocol proceedings are shown for the sale of the three hundred (300) arpents of lands, which belonged to Rivas, resulting in a sale to one Gregario Caro, which sale purports to have been approved by the civil and military governor of West Florida. These original documents, evidencing the probate of the will of Rivas and the sale of the lands, including those in controversy, were presented to this court, having been admitted in testimony at the trial, against the objections of plaintiffs, under the stipulation that they came from the custody of the surveyor general of the United States, keeper of the archives. Many objections are urged to the authenticity and admissibility of these documents, as well as to the regularity of the proceedings under the Spanish law. The production of the originals of these documents has given the court an opportunity to inspect them. They bear upon their face every evidence of age and authenticity. There is nothing about them to suggest that they have been forged or tampered with. They present an honest as well as ancient appearance, and come from official custody. To such public and proprietary records the courts have applied the rules of admissibility governing ancient documents. 3 Wigmore, Ev. § 2145 and notes. With reference to such documents and records it is only necessary to show that they are of the age of thirty years, and come from a natural and reasonable custody; from a place where they might reasonably be expected to be found. 3 Wigmore, Ev. §§ 2138, 2139. While the testimony tends to show that these documents were subjected to various changes of possession during the transition of the government of Florida from Spain to the United...