Flaherty v. McCormick

Citations

• 113 Ill. 538

Syllabus

<p>1. Trial by jury—constitutional right—as to cases in chancery—in partition. The provision in the constitution preserving the right to trial by jury, has no reference to cases in which courts of equity have jurisdiction. The right to such trial is confined to cases at law.</p> <p>2. A court of equity having jurisdiction, both at the common law and by statute, of suits for the partition of land, a defendant in such a suit is not entitled, as a matter of right, to demand a trial of the issues by a jury, even if there is a dispute as to the title.</p> <p>3. Limitation—twenty years’ possession of land. The actual and open occupancy of a tract of land for a period of twenty years, under a claim of ownership, whether under a paper title or not, is in this State sufficient to bar an action brought by the party holding the true title, when he is under no disability.</p> <p>4. But an adverse possession of land for twenty years, in order to defeat an action by the true owner of land, must have been hostile in its inception, and so continued without interruption for the full period of twenty years; and the possession must have been actual, visible and exclusive, and acquired and retained under claim of title inconsistent with that of the true owner. The title, however, need not be a rightful claim, nor the possession taken and continued under color of title.</p>