Dexter v. Hall

• Decision Date: 01 December 1872
• Citation: 15 Wall. 9,82 U.S. 9,21 L.Ed. 73
• Parties: DEXTER v. HALL
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

82 U.S. 9

21 L.Ed. 73

15 Wall. 9

DEXTER v. HALL.

December Term, 1872

ERROR to the Circuit Court for the District of California, in which court Mary Hall and her four children brought ejectment against Henry Dexter; both parties claiming under John Hall, who died intestate; the plaintiffs as his widow and children; the defendant as his grantee. The case was thus:

On the 30th of December, 1848, T. W. Leavenworth, then alcalde of San Francisco, granted to Hall, a lieutenant of our navy who happened to be in service off San Francisco, a piece of land, part of the pueblo lands situate within the corporate limits of the city as defined in 1851, east of Larkin and north of Johnson Street. The deed was duly recorded before April 3d, 1850, in a proper book deposited in the office of the recorder of the county of San Francisco.

Hall afterwards was sent to a lunatic asylum near Philadelphia. While there he executed, on the 27th of December, 1852, a power of attorney to one Harris, his brother-in-law, to sell this land. The power was acknowledged in the usual form before one Broadhead, a commissioner for California, resident in Philadelphia, who went to the asylum, saw Hall, read the power of attorney to him, asked him if he understood it, which he said he did, and that he desired the land sold for the benefit of his wife and children. Under this power the land was conveyed to persons, who afterwards conveyed to Dexter, the defendant.

Subsequently to the grant made by the Alcalde Leavenworth to Hall, the claim of San Francisco to her pueblo lands was submitted to the Unted States Board of Land Commissioners, and on the 3d of October, 1854, confirmed. An appeal was taken to the District Court, and thence transferred to the Circuit Court, where, on the 18th of May, 1865, the claim of the city to the lands, including the lot now in controversy, was confirmed. And this decree of the Circuit Court was affirmed by this court, the mandate having been sent down and filed February 4th, 1867. On the 20th of June, 1855, a city ordinance, known as the Van Ness ordinance, was passed, by which the city relinquished and granted all her right and claim to the lands within her corporate limits, as defined by the charter of 1851, to the parties in actual possession thereof, by themselves or tenants, on or before January 1st, 1855, provided such possession was kept up until the introduction of the ordinance into the common councils, or, if interrupted by an intruder, had been, or might be recovered by legal process. The ordinance also declared that all persons who held title to lands within said charter limits, lying east of Larkin Street, and northeast of Johnson Street, by virtue of any grant by any ayuntamiento, town council, or alcalde of the pueblo after the 7th of July, 1846, and before the incorporation of the city, which grant, or a material portion of which, was recorded in a proper book of records, deposited in the office of the recorder of the county of San Francisco on or before April 3d, 1850, should, for all purposes contemplated by the ordinance, be decreed to be the possessors of the land granted, although it might be in the actual occupancy of persons holding the same adverse to the grantees. As the lot granted to Hall was within this description, the ordinance assured to him whatever right and title the city then had, and confirmed, so far as the city could confirm it, the alcalde's grant.

Subsequently, on the 11th of March, 1858, the legislature of the State passed an act ratifying and confirming what the city councils had done by the Van Ness ordinance, and on the 1st of July, 1864, Congress enacted that all the right and title of the United States to the lands within the corporate limits of the city of San Francisco, as defined in the act incorporating the city, passed by the legislature of California April 15th, 1851, were thereby relinquished and granted to the city for the uses and purposes specified in the ordinance thereof, ratified by an act of the legislature of the State, approved on the 11th of March, 1858, excepting, however, from the relinquishment certain parcels not included in the grant to Hall.

Hall died in 1860 in the asylum, leaving his widow already mentioned, and four children; all minors at that time, the eldest being twenty years old, the next seventeen, the next fifteen, and the youngest nine.

In 1866 Mrs. Hall and these children (the youngest not yet being of age, and suing by a guardian), brought the ejectment mentioned as this suit.

At the time of the suit there were certain acts of California in force, as follows:

1st. An act of April 22d, 1850,¹ 'defining the time for commencing civil actions.' The 9th section of this act read thus:

'In every action for the recovery of real property or the possession thereof, the person establishing a legal title to the premises shall be presumed to have been possessed thereof within the time prescribed by law, and the occupation of such premises by any other person shall be deemed to have been under and in subordination to the legal title, unless it appear that such premises have been held and possessed adversely to such legal title, for five years before the commencement of such action.'

2d. An act of March 5th, 1864,² 'to limit the time for the commencement of civil actions in certain cases.' This act read as follows:

'In any action which shall be commenced, more than one year after this act takes effect, for the recovery of real property situated in the city and county of San Francisco, or for the recovery of the possession thereof, none of the provisions of the act entitled, &c., passed March 11th, 1858 [the act already referred to,³ as of that date.—REP.], and none of the provisions of either of the orders or ordinances therein recited or referred to, shall be deemed to give, confirm, or otherwise aid the right or title set up or claimed by any party, unless such party, his ancestor, predecessor, or grantor shall have had actual possession of the land in dispute within five years next before the commencement of such action, the time already elapsed when this act takes effect to be included in the computation.'

In this act there was no provision saving the rights of minors or persons otherwise under disabilities. However, an act passed April 4th, 1864,⁴ supplementary to the original act, did make an exception in favor of such persons, including persons 'within the age of majority,' and enacted that 'the time during which such inability shall have continued shall not be deemed any portion of the period of limitation, established in the said act, to which this is supplementary.'

Intermediate between these acts was a third one, that of April 11th, 1855,⁵ to amend an act entitled 'An act defining the time for commencing civil actions,' passed April 22d, 1850. This intermediate act provided that

'No action for the recovery of real property, or for the recovery of the possession thereof, shall be maintained unless it appear that the plaintiff, his ancestor, or grantor, was seized or possessed of the premises in question, within five years before the commencement of such action; provided, however, that an action may be maintained by a party claiming such real estate, or the possession thereof, under title derived from the Spanish or Mexican governments, or the authorities thereof, if such action be commenced within five years after final confirmation of such title by the United States or its legally constituted authorities.'

The plaintiffs having shown Hall's paper title, including the Van Ness ordinance, and the statutes of California, and of the United States in aid thereof, having shown also the death of Hall, and their own heirship under the laws of California, rested.

The defendant then requested the court to charge the jury that upon these facts he was entitled to a verdict upon the following grounds:

'That the plaintiffs relied on the grant from Leavenworth, alcalde, upon the Van Ness ordinance, and the laws of California, and of the United States in aid thereof. That having commenced their action more than one year after the act of California, approved March 5th, 1864, and entitled 'An act to limit the time for the commencement of civil actions in certain cases,' took effect, they must show an actual possession of the premises in themselves or their ancestors, within five years next before the commencement of this action, which they had failed to do.'

The court, however, refused so to charge, and the case, under exception to the refusal, proceeded.

In this further progress of it, certain depositions of persons resident at Philadelphia (in an asylum near which city it will be remembered that Hall had been confined), were read; some tending to show that on the 27th December, 1857 (the date of execution of the power of attorney under which the land had been sold to the defendants or his grantors), Hall was sane, and others tending to show that he was insane. All these depositions being read the defendants called Dr. Elliot, a physician of San Francisco, who had been long in practice, and was still in practive, and asked him this question (he having read carefully all the testimony in the case relating to Hall's sanity and insanity):

'From the facts stated in these depositions and the symptoms stated, what, in your opinion, was the state of Hall's mind December 27th, 1852, as to sanity or insanity?'

The plaintiffs objected to the witness expressing any opinion founded on the testimony adduced on both sides, and the court sustained the objection; permitting the witness, however, to give his opinion upon the testimony adduced by the plaintiffs. The witness then stated, under the defendant's exception to the ruling, that in his opinion as a medical man of large experience, from the facts and symptoms detailed by the plaintiffs' witnesses, Hall was capable of doing business, and of executing a power of attorney before, at, and after...