Marsee v. Middlesborough Town Lands Co.

• Decision Date: 15 November 1901
• Citation: 65 S.W. 118
• Parties: MARSEE v. MIDDLESBOROUGH TOWN LANDS CO. [1]
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

65 S.W. 118

MARSEE v. MIDDLESBOROUGH TOWN LANDS CO. ^[1]

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

November 15, 1901

Appeal from circuit court, Bell county.

"Not to be officially reported."

Action by Jonah Marsee against the Middlesborough Town Lands Company to recover land. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

N. B Hays, for appellant.

J. R Sampson, for appellee.

O'REAR. J.

In this action of ejectment upon the trial appellant introduced an official copy of a deed, a link of his chain of title, which had been admitted to record under the following indorsement of acknowledgment: "June 12, 1889. Signed and acknowledged by S. Marsee and Nancy Marsee, his wife, to be their act and deed, in due form of law. Attest: Tom Wherritt Clerk, by C. D. Peacock, D. C." The Marsees were the grantors of the deed in question. The trial court, deeming the certificate insufficient, because it did not appear that Wherritt was the clerk of a county court of this state, which was the only kind of a clerk then authorized to take acknowledgments to deeds in this state, it rejected the copy of the deed. Thereupon appellant offered to prove that Tom Wherritt was the clerk of the county court of Garrard county and that C. D. Peacock was his deputy at the time of the acknowledgment. This was rejected by the court. We are of opinion that this was error. Courts will take judicial notice of the names and signatures of the officials of this state, though generally they will require that their attention be called to the specific facts by such evidence as will amount to a satisfactory identification to the court. We are of opinion that the court erred in rejecting the deed in evidence mentioned.

The issue was joined as to the title to the whole tract of land sought to be recovered in this action. Plaintiff (the appellant) claimed the entire tract, while appellee claimed title to all of it. After this issue was joined, plaintiff offered an amended reply, alleging that in an action formerly pending in the Garrard circuit court, wherein Jonah Marsee was plaintiff and C. C. and J. E. Storms were defendants this same land was the subject-matter of that litigation, and that a judgment was rendered in that action which concludes the rights of the parties, and that appellee was a party to it. Tendered with the amendment was a copy of the judgment referred to, which judgment on its face fails to show that appellee was named in or affected by it. Later other parts of the...