61 Pa. 168 | Pa. | 1869
The opinion of the court was delivered, March 1st 1869, by
The defendant claimed title to the premises under a deed dated January 6th 1847, and recorded the next day, from B. Lee to Margaret Yocum, the mother of the plaintiff, and a conveyance of the same by Margaret Yocum to Samuel Butcher, the defendant, dated January 3d 1848, and recorded the 11th February 1848.
On the part of the plaintiff it clearly appeared that these premises were the property of James Yocum, the husband of the said Margaret Yocum, and that he died on 9th September 1846, leaving a widow and a child, the present plaintiff, a boy a few years old. The first three exceptions, which are the subject of the first three specifications, were to matters showing the nature of the title of the decedent Yocum, and were clearly evidence in the cause. The 4th specification of error raises the real question in the case; it is that the court erred in refusing to charge as requested in defendant’s 3d point, and in telling the jury “ that if they should find from the evidence that Joseph Huston was the grandfather of Edmund G. Yocum, the plaintiff, and that before Butcher bought the property he was distinctly informed by Huston that no title could be made for the property, except through the Orphans’ Court, because James Yocum, owned the property at his death and had died intestate, leaving two children, of whom the plaintiff was one, such notice was not to be regarded as coming from a stranger and is sufficient to have put Butcher on inquiry as to the title of any one else offering to sell it.” The verdict of the jury found the facts required by the charge of the court, and the evidence was clear, distinct and positive on the question of notice. The only point open is whether the court were right in saying that notice by the grandfather was not to be regarded as coming from a stranger.
In 1 Story’s Equity, by Judge Redfield, § 400 b, it is said: “ And this is not indispensable .to the validity of notice of an equitable interest, that it should come from the party or his agent, it is sufficient if it be derived aliunde ; provided it be of a character likely to gain credit.” This seems also to be the opinion of the learned
We cannot doubt that the grandfather in this case was a proper person to give notice to the defendant Butcher, of the title of his infant grandchild to the property he was about to purchase.
There is nothing in the 5th and 6th errors.
Judgment affirmed.