Quinn v. Eagleston

Citations

• 108 Ill. 248
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 76

Syllabus

<p>1. Ancient deeds—of the proof of their existence for thirty years. Certain deeds purporting to have been executed in 1832 and 1839, but not acknowledged according to law, were admitted in evidence in behalf of the plaintiff in an action of ejectment, as ancient deeds, on proof that they had been actually recorded in the proper county twenty-nine years before the commencement of the suit in which they were received, and they being shown to have been in the possession of the party in possession of the land before the plaintiff, and to have remained with him until his death, and it being shown that one of the deeds had been recorded more than forty years before the suit was brought: Held, in the absence of evidence of fraud or suspicious circumstances, that this was satisfactory proof that the deeds had been' in existence for thirty years, and entitled them to be read in evidence as ancient deeds.</p> <p>2. Evidence—declarations and statements as part of the res gestee. On a question of a boundary line, when it appears that a prior owner, since deceased, built his fence á rod within his lines, the declarations of such person, while the owner and in possession of the land, explanatory of his intention in leaving a strip of land open, is properly admitted in evidence in behalf of a person claiming under such prior owner, as part of the res gestee, as accompanying the act of throwing the strip open and keeping it open.</p> <p>3. So on the question of the boundary line between two tracts of land, where the owner of one tract left a strip on one side of it a rod wide uninclosed, and the owner of the adjoining tract, in 1831, joined his fence around the other tract to that, the declarations and statements of such latter party at the time of taking possession of his tract and joining his fence to that on the adjoining premises, was held proper evidence in favor of his grantee, as accompanying his acts and going to show the character of the act 'as being hostile or otherwis