Atwood v. Weems
| Decision Date | 01 October 1878 |
| Citation | 99 U.S. 183,25 L.Ed. 471 |
| Parties | ATWOOD v. WEEMS |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
ERROR to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Florida.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the court.
Mr. H. Bisbee, Jr., for the plaintiff in error.
Mr. James M. Baker, contra.
This is an action of ejectment for a lot in St. Augustine, brought in the proper court of the State of Florida, and transferred into the Circuit Court of the United States for that district, where the plaintiff below recovered a judgment against the plaintiff in error, which we are called on to review. The questions to be decided are all raised by a bill of exceptions.
1. It appears 'that the defendants moved the court that the jurors of the panel be required to answer upon oath whether or not they had given aid and comfort to, or aided and abetted, the late rebellion against the government of the United States, within the true sense and meaning of sect. 820 of the Revised Statutes, for the purpose of exercising the right of challenging them, if they came within its provisions.' The court denied the motion, on the ground that said section was unconstitutional.
We decided in Burt v. Panjaud (supra, p. 180), from the same circuit, that a man cannot be compelled to answer this question when put to him separately in reference to the right of challenge for the disqualification prescribed by that section, and that to enable a party to avail himself of the right there given, he must prove by other evidence, if the proposed juror declines to give it, that he has been guilty of the offences which so disqualify him.
But sect. 821 authorizes such an oath to be tendered to the whole panel, at the instance of the district attorney or his representative. This, however, must be at the beginning of the term, and relates to service on the panel for the term. The right to tender the oath is discretionary with the attorney for the government, and belongs to no one else.
It is not a right, therefore, in a party to a civil suit to tender such oath in that suit. Sect. 821 does not require the panel, or any one on it, to take the oath or to take a general oath to answer questions touching his qualifications, but provides expressly for his declining to take the prescribed oath. This act of declining of itself disqualifies him as a member of the panel for that term. This right to decline to swear confirms what we have said in Burt v. Panjaud; namely, that it was not intended to compel the proposed juror to disclose on oath his own guilt. Since, therefore, the defendant had no right to challenge the entire panel, as the district attorney might have done at the beginning of the term, nor to require each member of it to testify as to his guilt or innocence of treason, and since he offered no evidence that any one of them was so disqualified, the court was right in overruling his motion.
The judge's declaration of opinion that the law was unconstitutional did not make his action erroneous when it was right on other grounds.
2. The next question arises out of the construction of the will of Francis M. Weems, under which plaintiffs claimed title.
The will is in the record, and is dated Sept. 25, 1865, and conveys a lot in St. Augustine, three notes due from J. H. Meyers for $500, each given for the purchase of a lot in St. Augustine, and all his other property, to his wife and three sons, who are the plaintiffs. A written agreement, made in 1860 by Francis M. Weems, for the sale of this lot to J. H. Meyers, is offered in evidence, with proof that Meyers had taken possession under it. The court was asked to instruct the jury that the will did not convey the title to the lot, but only the notes of Meyers; and that, if it was designed to convey the title, it was void, by reason of the adverse possession of defendant. The court refused to do this, and said that the failure to pay the notes gave to the testator, Weems, a right of entry which passed by the will.
It is clear that the contract with Meyers left the legal title in Weems. This legal title passed by the will as well as the notes; and though it may have been the desire of the testator to recognize the contract for the sale, it was necessary, to enable the devisees and the executor to enforce the collection of the notes, that the title should be in them also. They could then either tender a deed and demand payment, or assert their right of entry for failure of the purchaser to pay.
It is not necessary to decide here whether by the common law a testator having the legal title and right of entry of land in the adverse possession of another could make a valid devise of the title, or whether, if that be the common law, it was the law of Florida; for it...
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United States v. Lee Kaufman v. Same
...equivalent of payment in its effect upon the certificate of sale. Bennett v. Hunter, 9 Wall. 326; Tacey v. Irwin, 18 Wall. 549; Atwood v. Weems, 99 U. S. 183. There are exceptions to the ruling of the court on the admission of evidence, and instructions to the jury given and refused on this......
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...(3d Cir. 1964). The property owner's right to redemption of his property has long been recognized by the courts. See Atwood v. Weems, 99 U.S. 183, 25 L.Ed. 471 (1879); Tacey v. Irwin, 18 Wall. 549, 85 U.S. 549, 21 L.Ed. 786 (1873); Bennett v. Hunter, 9 Wall. 326, 76 U.S. 326, 19 L.Ed. 672 (......
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