20 Ky. 50 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1826
The appellee brought an ejectment, and exhibited in evidence a patent from this commonwealth, granted in pursuance of a certificate granted by the county court, covering the land in controversy. The appellant gave in evidence, a junior grant to himself; issued under the same laws, and proved a possession under it, sufficient in time to toll the lessor’s right of entry. To avoid the bar, and show himself within the saving of the statute of limitations, the appellee proved his infancy, and that he was not more than twenty-three years old at the time of the trial. To defeat this exception, the appellee gave in evidence, the certificate granted by the county court, to the appellee, dated in 1805. The admission of this evidence, as competent for the purpose of avoiding the grant of the appellee, or depriving him of the exception of infancy in the act of limitation, was objected to by the appellee. The appellant insisted upon the admissibility of the evidence, and that it either shewed the grant of the appellee to be a fraud upon the law, and therefore void, or if this was not the consequence, that it estopped the appellee from proving himself an infant of tender years when his certificate and grant emanated, as he now does, to avoid the act of limitations. The jury found a special verdict, and by consent, those points were reserved, and the judgment was to pass according to the opinion of the court thereon.
The court rendered judgment for the plaintiff below, and the defendant has appealed, and presented the same points for our consideration.
We conceive that the certificate of claim, granted by the county court, could not be given in evidence to shew the grant to the appellee to be void in law. We need not say, that in no case, the certificate or entry could be given in evidence, in affirmance of a
The only exceptions to this general rule which occurs to the court, is the case of grants issued under statutes, which under certain circumstances declare them void. Such instances occur in the case of Dallam vs. Handley, 2 Marsh. 418. Atchley vs. Latham, 2 Litt. Rep. 363.
The only use which could be made of these certificates. in opposition to this grant, was to show that the lessor of the plaintiff had obtained his certificate. and consequently his patent contrary to the directions of the law, which gave birth to these claims. That law forbade the grant of a certificate to any person under eighteen years of age. But for this purpose the proof was inadmissable. The act must be considered as directory to the officers of the government engaged in granting these claims, and for a violation thereof, they may be responsible; but grants issued in violation of these directions, cannot be impeached or declared void in such a collateral way as this case presents.
The remaining inquiry is, as the lessor of the plaintiff imposed upon the organs of government, by representing himself at the date of his certificate to be at least eighteen years of age, and thereby obtained his claim, can lie be permitted now, to show that he was not that old at that period, or is he estopped to prove the contrary, by the representation thus made?
Admitting that the lessor of the plaintiff did impose upon the organs of government, by misrepresenting his age, when he obtained his certificate, we cannot
The claim of the appellant, so far as it appears to have any legality, has originated since the appellee’s imposition upon the goverment, by acts entirely uninfluenced by that imposition, therefore, he cannot rely on an estoppel against the appellee.
The judgment is correct, and must be affirmed with costs.