Robbins v. Moore

Citations

• 129 Ill. 30
• 21 N.E. 934

Syllabus

<p>1. Purchases—with and without notice—of what notice will be imputed to him. A bona fide purchaser or incumbrancer of the legal estate in land will be protected against a prior equitable title of another of which he had no notice. So when the vendor has acquired the legal title fraudulently, or holds the legal title in trust even, the bona fide purchaser without notice of any defect in his title growing out of equities in some other person, will be protected against such equities.</p> <p>2. A purchaser of land is presumed to have notice of any defect of title apparent upon the face of his title papers or by the public records, and will be required to take notice of the title or claims of persons in possession; but he is not required to look for latent defects in the chain of conveyances, when regular on their face and apparently conveying the legal title.</p> <p>3. Limitations—of the character of possession required. In 1856 or 1857, a party, under claim of title, took possession of a tract of land by breaking about thirty acres thereof, and sowed it in wheat, but the land was not fenced, though there was a shanty on it. After the wheat crop was harvested no other acts of possession were shown until in 1871,—a period of fifteen years,—when the land was again broken and possession taken. During this period of fifteen years, neither such party nor his grantee was shown to have been in possession, and their possession, if not abandoned, was not of such open, notorious and exclusive character as the law requires: Held, that the facts failed to establish a defense in the grantee under the twenty years’ limitation law.</p> <p>4. Same—act of 1839—color of title—assignment of note and mortgage. A purchaser of land, instead of taking a deed from his vendor, took the assignment of a note and mortgage held by the latter, under which he paid taxes: Held, that the note and mortgage in the purchaser’s hands did not constitute color of title under the seven year’s limitation law