Buchanan v. Hedden

• Citation: 85 S.E. 417,169 N.C. 222
• Decision Date: 25 May 1915
• Docket Number: 590.
• Parties: BUCHANAN v. HEDDEN ET AL.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina

85 S.E. 417

169 N.C. 222

BUCHANAN
v.
HEDDEN ET AL.

No. 590.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

May 25, 1915

Appeal from Superior Court, Jackson County; Justice, Judge.

Action by M. Buchanan against E. C. Hedden and another. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal. No error.

A judgment for plaintiff in ejectment is conclusive on defendant and persons claiming under him.

J. Frank Ray and H. G. Robertson, both of Franklin, for appellants.

Coleman C. Cowan, of Sylva, and Manning & Kitchin, of Raleigh, for appellee.

WALKER, J.

This is a civil action for the recovery of 640 acres of land. Plaintiff introduced evidence of a grant, No. 144, from the state for the land in dispute, to J. F. Foster, and mesne conveyances showing that W. N. Hedden had acquired the title so granted. He then showed a judgment of the superior court of Jackson county, rendered in a civil action, wherein he was plaintiff and W. N. Hedden was defendant, at spring term, 1897, involving title to the land described in grant No. 144, by which it was adjudged that the said W. N. Hedden was not the owner of the said land, but that the plaintiff was the owner thereof, and that a writ of possession issue to put him in possession of the same. This established that the title was in the plaintiff to this suit, so far as the parties thereto are concerned, and at least prima facie. Mobley v. Griffin, 104 N.C. 112, 10 S.E. 142; Campbell v. Everhart, 139 N.C. 503, 52 S.E. 201. The defendants assert title to the land under a mortgage made by W. N. Hedden to Frank B. Mayer, a power of attorney of Frank B. Mayer to E. C. Hedden, authorizing him to sell the land under a power contained in the mortgage, a sale thereunder, and a deed by E. C. Hedden, in his own name, to Sarah C. Hedden, one of the defendants. The power of attorney, which was offered in evidence, had been acknowledged in Maryland before George Wells, clerk of the circuit court of Anne Arundell county, by Frank B. Mayer, who executed the letter of attorney, and a certificate of said clerk was annexed, but it was never passed upon by the clerk of the superior court of Jackson county, N. C., and was placed on the registry of that county without, as appears, his authority or order. The deed, therefore, was not properly registered (Revisal, § 999; Lumber Co. v. Branch, 158 N.C. 251, 73 S.E. 164), and was not, therefore, evidence. "Until a deed is proved in the manner prescribed by the statute, the public register has no...