Holbrook v. Gouveneur

Citations

• 114 Ill. 623
• 3 N.E. 220

Syllabus

<p>1. Limitation—under act of 1839, as to vacant and unoccupied land— entry under color of title—evidence—presumption. Where a defendant in ejectment shows the payment of all taxes on the land, under color of title, for seven consecutive years while the land was vacant and unoccupied, and he is found or shown to be in possession when the action was brought, it will be presumed that his possession was under his color of title, especially when that fact was not disputed on the trial.</p> <p>2. And where a party, as a condition to his being let in as a defendant in an action of ejectment brought in 1866, was required to admit by his plea that he was in possession of the premises when the suit was brought, and it was admitted that the land was vacant until the year 1862, when the plaintiff, without objection, read in evidence the return on the declaration, which showed that the defendant, another party, was then in possession, and judgment was for the defendant, it was held, that the judgment should not be reversed on the ground of the slightness of the evidence showing the defendant’s actual possession under color of title before suit brought.</p>