Hill v. Moore

• Decision Date: 14 November 1908
• Citation: 113 S.W. 788,121 Tenn. 182
• Parties: HILL et al. v. MOORE et al.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

113 S.W. 788

121 Tenn. 182

HILL et al. v. MOORE et al.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

November 14, 1908

Appeal from Chancery Court, Jefferson County; Hal. H. Haynes Chancellor.

Action by L. C. Hill and others against J. L. Moore and others. From a decree for complainants, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

C. T Rankin, for appellants.

Swan & Cawood, for appellees.

NEIL J.

This action was brought in the chancery court of Jefferson county to recover a part of a 15-acre tract of land described in the pleadings. The complainant deraigned a complete title from the state. The defendants, however, insist that one link in the chain of title, consisting of a clerk and master's deed, is defective, because that deed is not supported by the record of the cause in which the land was sold; hence that within the rule laid down in Castleman v. Land Co., 1 Tenn. Ch. App. 9, 12, 13, the complainant cannot recover. The case stated does fall within the authority cited, and the point would be fatal to the recovery, but for the fact that the rule referred to is met by Acts 1907, p 1131, c. 334. This act reads as follows:

"Section 1. Be it enacted," etc., "that all instruments of conveyance executed in official capacity by any public officer of this state, or by any person occupying a position of trust or acting in fiduciary relation shall be admitted, held and construed in and by the courts of this state as prima facie evidence of the facts in such instruments recited in so far as such facts relate to the execution of the power of such office or trust.

"Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, that all such instruments now of record shall be admitted, held, and construed in accordance with section 1 of this act; provided, further, this act shall not apply to any pending litigation."

The deed referred to, so far as necessary to be quoted, reads as follows:

"This indenture, made this the 21st day of January, A. D. 1902, between G. W. Holtsinger, clerk and master of the chancery court at Dandridge, for Jefferson county, Tennessee, of the first part, and J. H. Ferguson, of Jefferson county, state of Tennessee, of the second part, witnesseth that by a decree of said court, rendered at the May term, 1899, in the cause of J. H. Carey, Adm'r, et al., complainants, v. J. L. Kirby et al., defendants, and entered on page 567 of Minute Book 11, the said clerk and master did, on the 14th day of November, 1899, sell at public auction

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