Richard Gregg and Charles Ballance, Plaintiffs In Error v. Robert Forsyth

• Decision Date: 01 December 1860
• Citation: 16 L.Ed. 731,65 U.S. 179,24 How. 179
• Parties: RICHARD GREGG AND CHARLES BALLANCE, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, v. ROBERT FORSYTH
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

65 U.S. 179

24 How. 179

16 L.Ed. 731

RICHARD GREGG AND CHARLES BALLANCE, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, v. ROBERT FORSYTH.

December Term, 1860

THIS case, like the preceding, of which it was a branch, was also brought up by writ of error from the Circuit Court of the United States for the northern district of Illinois, and was argued together with it by the same counsel.

Mr. Justice CAMPBELL delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action of ejectment for a lot of land in the city of Peoria, in the State of Illinois, commenced by the defendant in error against the plaintiffs in error.

The title of the plaintiff in the Circuit Court is shown by a patent of the United States in favor of the legal representatives of Antoine Lapance, who was an inhabitant or settler within the purview of the act of Congress approved 3d March, 1823, entitled 'An act to confirm certain claims to lots in the village of Peoria, in the State of Illinois,' which patent bears date the first day of February, 1847, and is founded upon an official survey of the first of September, 1840. The plaintiff deraigned his title from the patentees. In tracing his title he read a document relevant to the cause from a volume of American State Papers, Public Lands, selected and edited under the authority of the Senate of the United States, by its Secretary, and printed by Duff Green. This was objected to, and the question reserved by the defendants. The volumes of the American State Papers, three of which were published by Duff Green, under the revision of the Secretary of the Senate, by order of the Senate, contain authentic papers which are admissible as testimony without further proof.

Watkins v. Holman, 16 Pet., 25. The plaintiff read a copy of a deed from the the public records, the original of which was not in the possession of the plaintiff, and which, upon inquiry of the persons with whom it had been deposited, he was informed had been lost. This testimony authorized the admission of the copy as evidence. The deed in question had been regularly recorded. No suspicion attached to the instrument, and there was no reason to suppose that the better testimony was fraudulently withheld or could have been obtained by further inquiry. Minor v. Tillotson, 7 Pet., 99.

He also read in evidence a record of a suit of partition in the Circuit Court of Peoria county, which resulted in a decree of sale of the interests of a number of the parties, under which the plaintiff derived his title as a purchaser. The defendants objected to the record and deed of sale, because the sale had not been conducted with regularity, and the decree of sale had been rendered against infants, by default, and because it did not prescribe the manner of the sale. These, with other objections, were properly overruled by the Circuit Court. The defendants were strangers to these proceedings, and cannot be allowed to object to a result of which the parties to the decree have not complained.

The title of the defendants consisted of a patent from the United States to the defendant, Ballance, in January, 1838, for a fractional quarter section of land that includes the lot in controversy, and containing a saving of the rights of any and all persons claiming under the act of Congress of 3d March, 1823, entitled 'An act to confirm certain claims to lots in the village of Peoria, in the State of Illinois.' He made proof that he had resided on this quarter since 1844, and had cultivated portions of it for a long time previously, and had before and since that date let other portions of it to tenants who occupied it under him, and that the particular lot in controversy had been occupied by one of these tenants, who had upon it a distillery. Among other instructions, the defendants requested the court to charge the jury, 'that if they should believe from the evidence that said Ballance, being in possession under the title he has exhibited, leased the particular spot of ground in controversy to Almiron S. Cole more than seven years before the commencement of this suit, and that...