Johnson v. Jarvis

• Decision Date: 04 May 1915
• Docket Number: 1291.
• Citation: 223 F. 756
• Parties: JOHNSON et al. v. JARVIS.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

223 F. 756

JOHNSON et al. v. JARVIS.

No. 1291.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

May 4, 1915

E. D Talbott, of Elkins, W. Va., and C. M. Murphy, of Philippi W.Va. (B. M. Hoover, of Elkins, W. Va., on the brief), for appellants.

W. B Maxwell, of Elkins, W. Va., for appellee.

Before PRITCHARD, KNAPP, and WOODS, Circuit Judges.

WOODS Circuit Judge.

In this suit to have defendants' claims to a tract of land known as lot 56 adjudged invalid as a cloud on the plaintiff's title, the District Court granted the relief asked for. Careful consideration of the record, in the light of the argument of counsel, leads to the affirmance of the judgment on the reasoning of the District Judge. There are two points however, to which it may be well to make special reference. The plaintiff claims under a grant from the state to Claiborne made in 1797. The defendants claim under a grant from the state made in 1850. The junior grant overlaps the senior by 64.35 acres claimed by the defendant Harris and 126.45 acres claimed by the defendant Johnson, and this is the land in controversy.

1. The defendants insist that the plaintiff failed to establish one link of his chain of title under the Claiborne grant. This land, with other lands, in all 52,000 acres, was conveyed by Claiborne to John Hopkins and George Pickett, July 5, 1798. The plaintiff could show no better proof of title out of Pickett and Hopkins than a deed dated April 18, 1835, purporting to convey the entire fee in 4,000 acres, including the land in dispute, signed 'Thomas Green, by His Attorney in Fact, William McCoy,' and containing these recitals:

'This indenture made this 18th day of April, in the year eighteen and thirty-five, between William McCoy, who acts in this transaction as attorney in fact for Thomas Greene who is granted trustee attorney in fact for the heirs of George Pickett now deceased last of the city of Richmond, in the state of Virginia, of the one part and Israel Baldwin of Preston County, in said state of Virginia of the other part.

'Witnesseth, That the said McCoy acting as above named and being thereunto authorized by certain deeds powers of attorney, and as will more fully appear being recorded in the office of the Clerk of the County Court in the County of Preston aforesaid, hereby for a valuable and full compensation to him.' etc.

No authority from the heirs of Pickett to Thomas Green, nor from Green to McCoy, was produced, and no deed was produced conveying the one-half interest of Hopkins. There was evidence, however, that there had been entry and continuous possession of lands embraced in the deed by successive grantees to the present time, and that the records of the county of Preston where the lacking powers of

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