94 Ga. 584 | Ga. | 1894
The object of the petition was, to obtain damages for the cutting of timber on land lot-137 in the 9th district of Telfair county,' to enjoin defendants from further trespassing, and to require them to produce their title to be cancelled as fraudulent and void. There was a verdict for the plaintiff, and defendants moved for a new trial, which was denied, and they excepted. The abstract of title attached to the petition was: plat and grant from the State to Peter J. Williams; certified copy of a deed from Williams to Colby, Chase and Crocker, dated February 28,1834, conveying said lot with others;, affidavit of plaintiff as to loss of the original of this deed; decree of the United States circuit court of the southern district of Georgia, in the case of G. E. Dodge v. Briggs et al., decreeing the title to said lot with others in G. E. Dodge; and deed from G. E. Dodge to plaintiff, conveying said lot with others, since that decree. The motion for new trial alleged, beside the general grounds, that the court erred in admitting in evidence-the record in the case in which said decree was rendered, over objection that defendants were not parties nor privies thereto, and not bound by the recitals in the decree, and that said recitals were not evidence, the deeds mentioned therein being-the highest and best evidence of their execution. The bill on which this decree was rendered was instituted- by G. E. Dodge against Briggs, Hall and Sleeper, the heirs at law of Colby, Chase and Crocker, and many other defendants; it not appearing that the present defendants or any one under whom they claim were among said parties. The bill alleged that G. E. Dodge was the owner of large tracts of land including the lot in dispute in the present ease; that his title originated in grants from the State to Peter J. Williams; deed from Williams to Colby, Chase and
