Hoover v. Pontz

Citations

• 271 Pa. 285
• 114 A. 522
• 1921 Pa. LEXIS 496

Syllabus

<p>Practice, C. P. — Trial by court — Act of April %%, 187k, P■ L. 109 —Judgment.</p> <p>1. In a trial by a court without a jury, it is error to direct a verdict and judgment at one and the «ame time; under the Act of April 22,1874, P. L. 109, judgment can be entered only after exceptions have been filed and argued.</p> <p>Actions — Contract—Sale of land — Equitable principles — Vendor and vendee — Title to land — Evidence.</p> <p>2. An action on a contract for sale of land, to recover the purchase money specified therein, is in legal effect a bill or petition for specific performance of the contract, and is governed by the same equitable principles.</p> <p>'3. If there is color of an outstanding title which may prove subgtantial, though there is not enough evidence in the instant case to enable a chancellor to say that it is so, a purchaser will not be compelled to take it and encounter the hazard of litigation with an adverse claimant.</p> <p>4. A court should never undertake to declare a title to real estate to be good and marketable, unless all the parties having a possible interest are present on the record, or, where the controlling question for determination is the construction of a written instrument, unless the document and all conceivable relevant facts are set forth in full.</p> <p>5. Where a title depends on the existence of a fact which is not of record, and requires the production of oral evidence to establish it, the ease must be very clear to justify the court in compelling the purchaser to take the title.</p> <p>Tenants in common — Hew in possession — Adverse possession— Presumption.</p> <p>6-, Where one of a numb.er of heirs enters into possession of real estate, presumptively his possession is not advere to the others.</p>