Clark ex rel. Townsend-Bower Co. v. Cochran

Citations

• 79 Fla. 788
• 85 So. 250

Syllabus

<p>1. In an action of ejectment the rule is that the plaintiff must recover if at all upon the strength of his own title and not on the weakness of his adversary’s title; but if the plaintiff traces his title from the government he need not show possession by intermediate grantors.</p> <p>2. In an action of ejectment involving the title to lands em braced in what is known as the “Forbes Purchase,” a large tract of land lying between the St. Marks and Apalachicola rivers in the State of Florida and granted by the Seminole Indians and confirmed by the Spanish Government to Panton, Leslie & Company and John Forbes & Company, the patent fr.om the United States Government to Colin Mitchel and Robert Mitchel issued in the year 1842 pursuant to certain decrees of confirmation of the claim of Colin and Robert Mitchel to the lands described, is sufficient to establish title to the lands described in Colin Mitchel and other named patentees at the date of the patent.</p> <p>3. In an action of ejectment involving the title to any such lands copies of deeds of conveyance and other documents tending to show a transfer of the title to the lands from Colin Mitchel and others to the Apalachicola Land Company are admissibly as ancient documents.</p> <p>4. Certified copies of the record of decrees in chancery in a cause in which Trustees of the Apalachicola Land Company were defendants appointing a receiver of the company with power to sell the lands in like manner as the Trustees had been authorized to do under the company’s articles of association, such orders bearing dates from 1857 to 1880, and appearing of record in the Clerk’s offi;ce for Franklin county, are admissible in evidence as ancient documents in an action of ejectment involving the title to lands embraced in the description of lands contained in the patent from the United States Government to Colin Mitchel and others.</p> <p>5. Where the secretary and treasurer of a corporation testifies that it is his duty as such off