Richard Keene, Plaintiff In Error v. John Donough

• Citation: 33 U.S. 308,8 Pet. 308,8 L.Ed. 955
• Parties: RICHARD R. KEENE, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR v. JOHN McDONOUGH
• Decision Date: 01 January 1834
• Court: United States Supreme Court

33 U.S. 308

8 Pet. 308

8 L.Ed. 955

RICHARD R. KEENE, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR v. JOHN McDONOUGH.

January Term, 1834

APPEAL from the superior court of East Florida.

This case was argued by Mr Grimes, for the defendant. No counsel appeared for the plaintiff in error.

Mr Justice THOMPSON delivered the opinion of the Court.

The writ of error in this case, brings up the record of a judgment rendered against the plaintiff in error, in the district court of the United States for the eastern district of Louisiana. The plaintiff, according to the course of proceedings in that state, presented his petition to the court, stating, that on the 22d of May 1803, in virtue of a lawful purchase at public sale, duly and legally made by Don Carlos de Grand Pre, governor of the post and establishment of Baton Rouge, he became the owner and proprietor of a tract of land, appertaining to the 'testamentaria,' or successor of the deceased Poussett, particularly describing the same, (being the land in question) and annexing to his petition the document or adjudication, by which he alleges that the title to the land was vested in him, of which he was never thereafter legally divested, as he alleges.

A plea to the jurisdiction of the court was interposed by the defendant, alleging that the plaintiff was a citizen of Louisiana, of which state the defendant was also a citizen. Upon the trial of the issue joined upon this plea, the jury found that the plaintiff was not a citizen of the state of Louisiana.

The defendant then filed an answer to the petition, denying all and singular the allegations contained in the petition, and averring that the petitioner has no title whatever to the land in question. That if any such adjudication as is pretended by him ever was made, the same was afterwards annulled. And he further pleads, that he is the true and legal owner of the said tract of land, by good and valid title, and that he has had possession under the same for thirty years and upwards, &c.

The adjudication upon which the plaintiff rests, as the evidence of his title, states, that he being the last and highest bidder, the land was adjudicated to him; and he having no security to offer, he engages to execute a mortgage in trust on the property, which was accepted by the testamentary executors, on condition that he shall immediately pay to Don Thomas Durnford, one of the executors, six hundred dollars, a portion of the purchase money, to be applied to the payment of the claim of Joyce and Turnbull, against the said estate.

According to the plaintiff's own showing, therefore, his title was not absolute, but conditional; and the record contains subsequent proceedings by the executors of Poussett, to annul the former adjudication for non-fulfilment of the conditions upon which the sale was made. For this purpose a petition was...