Deininger v. McConnel

Citations

• 41 Ill. 227

Syllabus

<p>1. Deed—acknowledgment—record—curative law. Where two deeds made by a patentee to different persons, for the same piece of land, in October 1818, and acknowledged in the State of New York, the first before a commissioner, on the 13th of March, 1819, and recorded at Edwardsville the 3d of January, 1820, the latter in date acknowledged before a notary public, on the 14th day of October, 1818, the date of the deed, and again on the 29th of that month, before a commissioner, and was recorded on the 19th of January, 1819, both executed and acknowledged and recorded before the adoption of the curative act of December 30,1822,—Held, that as neither deed was so acknowledged as to entitle it to record, the effect of that act was to record both at the same instant of time, and left the operation of the deeds as at common law, and that the first executed passed the title to the land described in it, which was an undivided half of the tract.</p> <p>2. Same. Where an acknowledgment bears a date subsequent to that of the execution of the deed, it does not rebut the presumption that the deed was delivered on the day it bears date.</p> <p>3. Same — seal to copy. Where a certified copy of deed is produced as evidence, and the word “seal,” surrounded by a scroll, is found where a seal is' usually placed, as the recorder in making a copy never attaches a seal of wafer or wax, the presumption will be indulged, that the original was properly sealed.</p> <p>4. Evidence — lost deed, affidavit. Where an affidavit states that the original deed was not, or ever had been, in the possession of the party offering the copy, or in his power or control, or that of his agent or attorney, held, this was a compliance with the statute and authorized the reading of the certified copy in evidence.</p> <p>5. Conveyance—recording—retrospective law. A law not retrospective in terms, cannot be held to operate on previous transactions; so an act which declares that deeds not proved or acknowledged so as t