47 Neb. 592 | Neb. | 1896
October 3,1891, an action of ejectment was commenced by the plaintiff against Joseph S. Kragseow in the district court of Douglas county the
In the brief filed for plaintiff there is a statement of some facts which serves, and is almost necessary, as an introduction, in order to a proper understanding of the other and further facts and questions developed by the evidence as offered and introduced or rejected during the trial. We will, for this, statement, quote from the brief: “Prior to the 1st day of August, 1886, the Omaha Real Estate & Trust Company purchased the tract of land on which Saunders & Himebaugh’s Addition to Walnut Hill was, after said purchase, situated, and laid out and platted said addition upon said tract, and duly dedicated the same. On August 1, 1886, the said Omaha Real Estate & Trust Company sold and conveyed the premises in controversy in these actions, as well as a large number of other lots in said addition, to the Pleasant Hill Building Association, a corporation of Douglas county, Nebraska. On that day the Omaha Real Estate & Trust Company loaned to the Pleasant Hill Building Association sixteen thousand one hundred and seventy-five ($16,175) dollars, and took the notes of said last named corporation therefor, bearing interest at eight and ten per cent, and, as security for the payment of said notes, received from said corporation a mortgage for said amount upon the property in controversy in these suits, as well as the other property
The Court: “I will allow you to trace the title from the government down to Baker if you want to. I will allow you to introduce the original deed from the Omaha Real Estate & Trust Company to the Pleasant Hill Building Association, if you can, but inasmuch as you say that in no manner you expect to prove the witnessing of the deeds is different from what has been shown.”
Mr. Coveil: “And further, if the original deed to the Pleasant Hill Building Association cannot be found, I ask to show by parol evidence, in consequence of ambiguity in the deed, that the deed was actually made to the Pleasant Hill Building Association, instead of to the Pleasant Hill Association, by reason of ambiguity in the deed.”
The Court: “You can introduce what you stated — rchain of title from the government down to A. H. Baker, and the original deed, if you can, for the purpose of showing whatever the deed may show.”
There was then offered in evidence a certified copy of a patent from the United States to Samuel Conger, a certified copy of the record of a deed from Conger to Enos Lowe,t and a certified copy of the record of a deed from Enos Lowe and wife to Roswell G. Pierce. To this last deed, when of
“Objection by defendant, first, as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial; second, for the reason that counsel for the plaintiff only asked permission of this court at the time these cases were being decided by his honor and at the close of his decision to simply make a record here showing title from the government down to Baker, and also asking the privilege to offer in evidence the original deed from the Omaha Real Estate & Trust Company to the Pleasant Hill Building Association, and permission having been given by the court simply for those two purposes and no other.”
The Court: “The court only gave permission that in these four cases, after having announced the opinion of the court against the plaintiff when the case was regularly reached' on the 27th day of March, 1893, counsel for the plaintiff then requested that the plaintiff be permitted to introduce evidence of title from the government down to Baker and the original deed from the Omaha Real Estate & Trust Company to the Pleasant Hill Building Association, that leave was granted after the judgment had been announced by the*604 court plaintiff in those four cases, and the court will not now permit evidence to be introduced other than as that requested by the counsel for plaintiff and sustains the objection going into the evidence sought by these interrogatories. Plaintiff excepts.
“Plaintiff offers to prove by this witness that the defendants in the several actions in which we are seeking to introduce testimony claim under the Pleasant Hill Building Association and to be in possession of the premises in controversy in this action under the Pleasant Hill Building Association by virtue of contracts of sale for the premises involved in this action executed to them by the Pleasant Hill Building Association; and this offer is made of proof by this witness because he knows the fact, having seen the contracts himself in the hands of the defendants to this action, whom he has stated that he knew.”
The same objection was made to the offer as to the question, and this further: “And for the additional reason that the testimony offered is not the best evidence, the contracts themselves being the best evidence.” The objections to question and offer were sustained.
Before proceeding with the examination and discussion of the alleged errors of the trial court, relied upon by counsel for plaintiff in the argument herein, it may be as well to state that defendants did not offer any proof of title, but rested their rights and relied upon possession of the premises. This, in actions of ejectment, they could do, as it is the rule therein that the plaintiff must recover upon the strength of his own title or right and cannot rely upon the weakness of that of his adversary the defendant. (Gregory v. Ken
*606 “Sec. 4. If executed and acknowledged or proved in any other state, territory, or district of the United States, it must be executed and acknowledged or proved either according to the laws of such state, territory, or district, or in accordance with the law of this state, and such acknowledgment shall be made before and certified by any officer authorized by the laws of such state, territory, or district to take and certify acknowledgments, or by a co.mmissioner of deeds appointed by the governor of this state for that pui’pose.
“Sec. 5. In all cases provided for in section four of this chapter (if such acknowledgment or proof is taken before a commissioner appointed by the governor of this state for that purpose, notary public or other officer using an official seal) the instrument thus acknowledged or proved shall be entitled to be recorded without further authentication; Provided, That in all other cases the deed or other instrument shall have attached thereto a certificate of the clexxk of a court of record or other proper certifying officer of the county, district, or state within which the acknowledgment or proof was taken, under the seal of his office, showing that the person whose name is subscribed to the certificate of acknowledgment was, at the date thereof, such officer as he is therein represented to be; that he is well acquainted with the handwriting of such officer; that he believes the said signature of such officer to- be genuine, and that the deed or other instrument is executed and acknowledged according to the laws of such state, district, or territory.”
To which we will add the following from section 13 of the same chapter:
*607 “Sec. 13. Every deed acknowledged or proved, and certified by any of tbe officers before named, including the certificate specified in section five of this chapter, whenever such certificate is required by law, may be read in evidence without further proof, and shall be entitled to be recorded,” etc.
In support of the defendants’ contention that the excluded conveyance was not. authenticated as by law required, we are referred especially to section 36 of this same chapter, 73, which is as follows: “When any deed or other instrument shall be proved or acknowledged, or any oath or affirmation shall be taken before any commissioner appointed by virtue of this chapter, before it shall be entitled to be used, recorded, pr read in evidence, in addition to the preceding requisites there shall be subjoined or affixed to the certificate signed and sealed by each commissioner as aforesaid a certificate under the hand and official seal of the secretary of Nebraska certifying that such commissioner was, at the time of taking such proof or acknowledgment, or of administering such oath or affirmation, duly authorized to take the same, and that the secretary is acquainted with the handwriting of such commissioner, or has compared the signature to' such certificate with the signature of such commissioner deposited in his office, and has also compared the impression of the seal affixed to such certificate with the impression of the seal of such commissioner deposited in his office, and that he verily believes the signature and the impression of the seal of the said certificate to be genuine.”
The three or four preceding sections of the chapter are in reference to the appointment of
“Section 1. Be it Enacted by the Council and House of Representatives of the Territory of Nebraska, That section five of chapter twelve of an act entitled ‘An act to revise and consolidate the laws of a general nature passed at the second session of the legislative assembly of this territory’ is hereby amended so as to read as follows, namely: In all cases provided for in section four of this act (if such acknowledgment or proof is taken before a commissioner appointed by the governor of this territory for that purpose, notary public, or other officer using an official seal) the instrument thus acknowledged or proven shall be entitled to be recorded without further authentication. * * *
*609 “Sec. 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.
“Approved February 13, 1865.”
It is strenuously argued by counsel for plaintiff that the passage of this act operated a repeal by implication of the section now numbered 36, then numbered 42 of chapter 12, which required the certificate of the secretary of state to be attached to the acknowledgment of a deed taken before a cómmissioner of deeds. It is clear that there was an irreconcilable conflict- between section 42 of chapter 12 and section 5 as- amended by the later act, that they could not both stand and be enforced, for, if a deed was .executed and acknowledged before a commissioner of deeds and presented for record without the certificate of the secretary of state, it would be sufficiently authenticated under the provisions of section 5 as amended, but its record necessarily denied if the provisions of section 42 (now 36) were enforced, and the last act, or the amended section 5 prevailed, and the other section was repealed by implication. (State v. Howe, 28 Neb., 618.) Sections 4 and 5, as enacted January 26, 1856, were as follows:
“Sec. 4. If acknowledged or proved in any other state or territory or district of the United States, it must be done according to the laws of such state, territory, or district, and must be acknoAvledged or proved before any officer authorized to do so by the laws of such state, territory, or district, or before a commissioner appointed by the governor of this territory for that purpose.
“Sec. 5. In cases provided for in the last section, unless when taken before such commissioner, the deed shall have attached thereto a*610 certificate of the clerk or other proper certifying officer of a court of record of the county or district within which it was taken, under the seal of his office, that the person whose name is subscribed to the certificate of acknowledgment or proof was, at the date thereof, such officer as he is therein represented to be; that he is well acquainted with the handwriting of such officer, and that he believes the signature of such officer to be genuine^ and that the deed is executed and acknowledged, or proved according to the laws of such state or territory.” (Session Laws, 1856, p. 80, ch. 31, secs. 4, 5.)
: Section 4 was again enacted in the same terms, February 15, 1864. Section 5 was at the same date again enacted with the following changes: “In place of the words ‘unless when taken’ the words ‘except where such acknowledgment is taken’ were used, and also the words ‘or state’ were inserted after the word ‘district,’ and the words ‘within which the acknowledgment was taken’ were substituted for the words ‘within which it was taken.’ ” Section 4 was again enacted unchanged February 12, 1866, and section 5, as amended February 13,1865 (the amendment we have hereinbefore noticed), was also again enacted February 12, 1866, but the section in regard to the authentication of a conveyance acknowledged before a commissioner of deeds by the certificate of the secretary of state also appeared in the Revised Statutes of 1866 as section 41 of chapter 43 thereof. The sections 4 and 5 hereinbefore referred to were, by such numbers, sections of this same chapter, and there was the same conflict between the provisions of section 41 and section 5 as had existed as they appeared
It is further insisted in this connection by counsel for plaintiff that by the second section of an ■act passed June 13, 1867, to amend section 38 of chapter 43 of Revised Statutes of 1866, entitled “Real Estate,” now section 33, chapter 73, Compiled Statutes, and a part of section 4357 of Cob-bey’s Annotated Statutes of 1893, which reads as follows: — -“All acts performed in pursuance of the laws of this state or of the laws of the territory of Nebraska, by commissioners of deeds heretofore appointed by the gOArernor of the territory of Nebraska shall be deemed and held to be valid and binding in law” (Session Laws, 1867, special session, p. 52, sec. 2),— has made binding and legalized all deeds acknowledged before commis
. In the case of Hoadley v. Stephens, 4 Neb., 431, in which the question of whether a deed executed in Virginia and acknowledged before a justice of the peace there would be received in evidence in
A certified copy of the record of a deed executed by the sheriff of Douglas county, purporting to convey the title of Roswell G. Pierce to Joel S. Smith, was offered, and immediately following this a certified copy of a deed which recited that the grantor’s name was Joel S. Smith,
' The determination of the further question of the competency as evidence of the deeds attested by a stockholder of the grantor or grantee, and acknowledged before a stockholder, is not necessary to a decision of the case and we need not now discuss or settle it. If it was error to exclude the deed, it was error without prejudice, as the proof of the chain of title was broken and incomplete before these deeds were reached.
There is one further matter of complaint urged in behalf of plaintiff, viz., that the trial court
Affirmed.