Risdon v. Davenport

Citations

• 4 S.D. 555
• 57 N.W. 482
• 1894 S.D. LEXIS 8

Syllabus

<p>1. Affirmative matter in a answer may be alleged “upon information and belief” with the same effect as in a complaint.</p> <p>2. The rule that a defendant cannot raise an issue by denying “knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief” concerning a fact of which the law charges him with knowledge has no application, to affirmative matter in an answer.</p> <p>3. Where the law prescribes the manner in which a court or a special tribunal may acquire jurisdiction of subject matter or person, jurisdiction can be acquired in no other manner.</p> <p>4. A decision or judgment of a court or special tribunal without jurisdiction is void.</p> <p>5. If the commissioner of the general land office has power to vacate the entry of a pre-emptor, and cancel his final receipt, -where the proofs upon which it was issued were regular and sufficient upon their face, ho can only exercise such power wh^n acting judicially, and he can only act judicially upon persons and matters over which he has acquired jurisdiction in the manner prescribed by the law and rules of the interior department of the United States.</p> <p>6. An answer which states that the defendant’s mortgogor then duly qualified; entered a parcel of land then subject to such entry, as a pre-emption under the laws of the United States; settled upon it; made proofs regular and sufficient upon their face, which were accepted by the register and receiver of the local land office; paid for such land, and received a final receipt or certificate of purchase therefor, which he duly recorded in the proper register’s office, which entry and receipt were afterwards attempted to be cancelled by the commissioner of the general land office without notice to said entryman or opportunity to be heard, — states a good defense to an action by a subsequent patentee to set aside a mortgage, executed prior to such attempted cancellation, by the entryman holding such final receipt or certificate of purchase.</p> <p>(Syllabus by the courc