16 Pa. 232 | Pa. | 1851
The opinion of the court was delivered June 2, by
Of the thirteen supposed errors assigned in this record, but four have been pressed upon our attention with any show of confidence. Of these, three present but a single point, and may therefore be considered together.
The leading question in the cause was as to the proper location of what is called the “ Clement Stocker” tract, in the block of surveys made under the warrant issued on the application of Aaron Levy, in 1792. The survey of that tract calls for, as conterminous, the tracts returned in the names of Henry and John Harris, and the court instructed the jury that if unrestrained by actual marks of survey found upon the ground, the “ Clement Stocker” must be permitted to extend to the surveys called for as adjoining, unless by so doing the relative position of the other tracts of the block would be disturbed and deranged; that the “ Henry Harris” survey being under an older warrant, and having a conceded location, the tract in dispute must be taken as adjoining it, if this pre
The other exception principally urged was that taken to the admission of what is known as the book of the treasurer of Centre county, containing lists of unseated lands situate in that county liable to taxation. The defendant below claimed that the Stocker tract was situate principally on the east side of the Mushannon Creek, which there divides Centre and Clearfield counties; while the location assigned to it by the plaintiff below threw the greater portion of it to the west side of the stream. It seems the custom in that district of country is to levy the tax of unseated tracts of land in that county in which the larger part of it may be found to lie. In this discussion as to locality, it became of importance to show in which of the counties the larger portion of the disputed tract actually is. As one means of making this manifest, the plaintiff below offered the deposition of the treasurer of Clearfield county; but it was objected, the best evidence of the unseated lands' returned in Clearfield for taxation was the treasurer’s book. The court was of this opinion, and accordingly rejected the deposition. After this, the book of the treasurer of Centre, being duly proved,
The remaining errors, but faintly pressed on the argument, are sufficiently answered by the printed remarks submitted for the defendant in error, except the tenth, which is not there noticed. It avers the court erred in refusing to set aside the service of the writ of summons issued in this case. Were this now assigned as error, the record presents no ground upon which the court could with propriety have interfered with that service. The sheriff’s return is regularly made of a regular service, and there is absolutely nothing to contradict it or to call it into question. As for the bill of exceptions signed on the hearing of the rule to show cause, because of the rejection of Sheriff Musser’s testimony, by which it was intended to contradict the return, it is enough to say it is a mere nullity. The notion of an exception to evidence on a preliminary inquiry is indeed novel.
Judgment affirmed.