84 Md. 170 | Md. | 1896
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This case involves the title of the appellants to certain property situated in Baltimore City. It appears that in 1793 Englehard Yeiser, one of the trustees of the Lutheran Congregation in Baltimore-Town, in consideration of 775 pounds current money conveyed the lot in question to John Shriver and others, trustees of the said Lutheran ° Congregation, in trust for the use and uses of the High German Lutheran inhabitants in Baltimore-Town forever, who do or shall hold to the said confession of faith, &c. Upon a part of the lot
The deed from Englehard Yeiser was in contravention of Article 34 of the Declaration of Rights of 1776 and was therefore void. Grove et al. v. Trustees of the Disciples, 33 Md. 45; Trustees of Catholic Cathedral Church v. Manning, 72 Md. 116. The grantor in that deed and those who could claim under him, therefore, never lost their right of entry, and consequently the Statute of Limitations commenced running against him and them at once, and has been running up to the present time. “ The deed, even if void,
The appellants and those under whom they claim having had open, public, notorious and adverse possession for more than one hundred years, their title is complete. The counsel for the appellee insisted at the argument that the possession could not be adverse as against the heirs to the reversion ; because, claiming under the deed from Yeiser, they could not at the same time repudiate it. The cases cited to sustain this position, however, are those in which a part^claiming under a deed undertakes to set up rights inconsistent with its provisions. As in Campbell v. Shipley, 41 Md. 96, where an assignee of a lease undertook to set up a title by possession as against the landlord. Or where a party attempts to repudiate the contract by which he enters, in order to set up an adverse holding, as in Dean v. Brown, 23 Md. 16; Kelso v. Stiger, 75 Md. 402. In this case the claim of the appellants is not inconsistent with the deed. An entry under a claim of title is generally sufficient to constitute adverse possession whether the title be valid or not. Casey's Lessee v. Inloes, 1 Gill, 501; Gump v. Sibley, supra.
Decree reversed and cause remanded. ■