4 Mass. 416 | Mass. | 1808
The opinion of the Court was afterwards delivered by
The demandants sued the tenant in a writ of entry, counting on their own seisin within thirty years, and demand
The tenant’s title was under a release from James Springer, who, as the tenant alleges, entered more than thirty years before, and disseised the demandants; for no evidence was given that James entered claiming any title or right to the land.
The statute of 1786, c. 13, limits the time of suing any real action by any corporation, declaring on its own seisin, to thirty years next after such seisin. And the tenant insists that, by virtue of this statute, the demandants are barred by the disseisin done to them by his releasor in 1775, which is more than thirty years before the teste of their writ.
The law upon this subject seems to be very well settled. When a man is once seised of land, his seisin is presumed to [*418] * continue, until a disseisin is proved. When a man enters on land, claiming a right or title to the same, and acquires a seisin by his entry, his seisin shall extend to the whole parcel, to which he has a right; for, in this case, an entry on part is an entry on the whole. When a man, not claiming any right or title to the land, shall enter on it, he acquires no seisin, but by the ouster of him who was seised, and he is himself a disseisor. To constitute an ouster of him who was seised, the disseisor must have the actual exclusive occupation of the land, claiming to hold it against him who was seised, or he must actually turn him out of possession,
Let us now consider the evidence, as applicable to these prin ciples. The demandants proved a title to the tenements demanded and a seisin in 1769. This seisin must be presumed to be continued until they were disseised, as they continued to claim title to the land. James Springer entered on the front lot numbered thirty-two in 1775. He continued in the occupation of that lot, improving and fencing a part, and living on it until he died; having, in
On considering the evidence, we are satisfied that the demandants were not disseised until 1792, by the entry of the tenant; that the running round the land by a surveyor, and * marking the'lines, by the direction of one who claims [*419 J no title to the land, is not such an exclusive occupation of the land, as can amount to an ouster or disseisin of the demandants. Neither can the occasional cutting of the grass on the meadow by Springer, who does not appear to have claimed the land, amount to a disseisin,
To constitute a disseisin of the owner of uncultivated lands by the entry and occupation of a party not claiming title to the land, the occupation must be of that nature and notoriety, that the owner may be presumed to know that there is a possession of the land adverse to his title; otherwise a man may be disseised without his knowledge, and the statute of limitations may run against him, while he has no ground to believe that his seisin has been inter rupted.
As the tenant set up no title prior to 1792, but relied entirely on the statute as a bar, and as it appears to us, from the facts reported, that the demandants were seised within thirty years next before the teste of their writ, we are of opinion that the conclusion made by the jury from the evidence in the cause was legal, and that their verdict must stand.
Let judgment be entered according to the verdict.
[Boston Mill Corporation vs. Bulfinch, 6 Mass. Rep. 824. — Ed.]
[Poignard vs. Smith, 8 Pick. 272. — Brimmer vs. The Proprietors of the Long Wharf, 5 Pick. 31. — Rust vs. The Boston Mill Corporation, 6 Pick. 158.— Pray vs. Pierce, 7 Mass. Rep. 381. — Ed.]
[Leach vs. Woods, 14 Pick. 461.—Ed.]
[Sparhawk vs. Bullard, 1 Metc. 95. — Barker vs. Salmon, 2 Metc 32.—Bates vs. Norcross, 14 Pick. 224. —Ed.]