Guzzi v. Delaware & Hudson Co.

Citations

• 61 Pa. Super. 48
• 1915 Pa. Super. LEXIS 266

Syllabus

<p>Ejectment — Prior ejectments — Evidence—Parties—Privy in title —Equity—Jurisdiciion.</p> <p>In. a suit in equity where the real dispute is title to land it is reversible error for the court to admit in evidence the records of two prior ejectments concerning the same land in which the defendant corporation was not a party, and where a deed offered in evidence by the plaintiff showed that the defendant did not hold .anything as a privy through or under the successful party in the prior ejectments, but was in fact the grantor of the land in dispute, to such unsuccessful party. Such a deed in itself has no evidential value where it appears that it merely purported to convey “the surface or right of soil” reserving the mineral without surface support, and the plaintiff’s claim is for damages for failure to give such support.</p> <p>A privy to a judgment or decree is one whose succession to the rights of property thereby affected occurs after the institution of the suit or from a party thereto.</p> <p>Equity has no jurisdiction over a claim for damáges for failure to afford surface support, where the suit involved a dispute as to the title to the coal; but if the defendant raises no question as to the jurisdiction and submits to the trial on the merits, the court will not thereafter dismiss the bill for lack of jurisdiction.</p>