Heacock v. Lubuke

Citations

• 107 Ill. 396
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 276

Syllabus

<p>1. Btjbnt Recobds act—petitioner need not be in possession. Under what is known as the “Burnt Records act, ” the petition to establish title need not show that the petitioner is in possession of the land, or that it is vacant and unoccupied, as is required on bill to quiet title. Section 16 of that act expressly authorizes the petitioner to make all persons in possession, or claiming an interest in the land, parties defendant, thus creating a clear and marked distinction between a case under that act and a bill to quiet title.</p> <p>2. Same—act not unconstitutional. The Burnt Records act is not unconstitutional, as depriving the parties of a trial by jury, but is a valid law.</p> <p>3. Evidence—sufficiency—to establish the execution of a deed. In a proceeding under the Burnt Records act to establish title to land under a deed destroyed by fire, the petitioner proved by a clerk of an abstract firm, whose business it was daily to make abstracts of all deeds filed for record in the county, that a warranty deed from the defendants, husband and wife, to the party under whom petitioner claimed title, No. 113,008, was filed for record September 16, 1871, consideration $500, giving a description of the land conveyed; that the deed was dated September 14, 1871, but that there was an error in the year, being 1801, and that the deed was properly acknowl-, edged. He testified from the minutes he made the next day after the deed was filed. A partner of the grantee also testified that the husband obtained a loan of the grantee, and gave this deed as security for the money, and that he thought the wife also executed it in his office and in his presence, and that the deed was then taken to an officer to be acknowledged. Petitioner also put in evidence an abstract of title made for the defendants in due course of business, and which was in their possession. This showed the deed dated September 14, 1801, recorded September 16, 1871, from the defenclants to the same grantee: Held,