Milnes v. VanGilder

Citations

• 197 Pa. 347
• 47 A. 197
• 1900 Pa. LEXIS 743

Syllabus

<p>Statute of limitations—Adverse possession— Vendor and vendee.</p> <p>The statute of limitations runs in favor of a grantor in a general warranty deed, who refuses to deliver possession to the vendee and remains for the statutory period in open, continuous and adverse possession of the land.</p> <p>Failure of the vendee in a deed of general warranty to assert his title by ejectment against the vendor in possession, seems to be an admission that he cannot. Refusal by a vendor in possession of premises to surrender them to a vendee demanding delivery, is notice to the latter to proceed to the vindication of his rights, and if he delay doing so beyond the period of twenty-one years, his deed will not prevail against his vendor’s adverse possession.</p> <p>The vendor need only defy his vendee’s right to possession by distinctly refusing it when demanded, and, if then he is not disturbed for twenty-one years, at the expiration of that period the statute protects him no less than a stranger to the title, if he can establish the kind of possession required by the law in the interval. Dean, J., dissents.</p>