Central Pennsylvania Lumber Co. v. Bristol

Citations

• 250 Pa. 61
• 95 A. 383

Syllabus

<p>Real property — Ejectment—Evidence—Treasurers’ deeds — Acknowledgment in open court — Prothonotaries’ records — Estoppel-Privity of estate.</p> <p>1. While it is well settled that deeds executed by a county treasurer for land sold for taxes must be acknowledged in open court, the fact of such acknowledgment may be proved not merely by the minutes of the general proceedings in a court, but by any other books in the prothonotary’s office which supplement the court minutes and which are in pari materia therewith.</p> <p>2. Where in an action of ejectment certain deeds executed by the county treasurer for land sold for taxes formed links in plaintiffs’ chain of title, and where it appeared from the minutes of the prothonotary that on the date of said deeds the treasurer of the county acknowledged certain deeds in open court, but the different tracts of land sold were not specifically named in the minutes, another book kept by the prothonotary marked “Treasurers’ Deeds” and containing a complete record of the acknowledgment in open court of each particular tráct sold by the treasurer, including the land in controversy, was properly admitted in evidence and the judge to whom the ease was submitted for trial without a jury did not err in drawing the inference from the records that the deeds had been properly acknowledged by the treasurer in open court.</p> <p>3. Where the owners of a tract of land have conveyed a certain number of acres thereof by a general warranty deed to grantees, whose title is subsequently determined to be invalid in an action of ejectment, and thereafter such grantees reconvey the land to their grantors, such grantors will be estopped by the first deed from asserting that they did not have good title to the land described therein and by the second deed from asserting that their rights are not affected by judgment entered in the action of ejectment.</p> <p>4. The owners of certain land embraced in land office warrant No. 4635 conveyed seventy acres