Sands v. Kagey

Citations

• 150 Ill. 109
• 36 N.E. 956

Syllabus

<p>1. Ejectment — legal title and right to possession, essential to recovery. The general rule is, tliat in ejectment the legal title must prevail. But sucli is not always the case. The landlord, though the owner of the fee, can not recover against his tenant occupying under a lease, where there has been no forfeiture of the conditions of the lease.</p> <p>2. So an assignee of a note secured by mortgage, in possession of the mortgaged premises, can not be turned out of possession in an action of ejectment brought by the mortgagee. An ejectment can not be maintained against an occupant of real estate so long as he is lawfully in possession, nor can the holder of the legal title recover if the legal right to the possession is in another.</p> <p>' 3. The action of ejectment proceeds for the possession of the premises, claiming that they have been unlawfully entered into and unjustly withheld. Facts which go to disprove these make a legal defense.</p> <p>4. It has been held that where a party has entered into possession under a contract of purchase, made valuable improvements, paid taxes, exercised acts of ownership over the property and paid the amount contracted to be paid, these are facts which may be proven, and amount to a defense in an action of ejectment brought by the vendor against the vendee.</p> <p>5. In 1854 the owner of a tract of land gave a bond to a railway company for the conveyance of a strip for a right of way as soon as the line of the road should be located, and authorizing the company to enter and occupy. In 1872-the railway company took possession of the land without any objection by the owner of the legal title, and complied with its contract, and used the right of way up to 1891, when a grantee of the original owner brought ejectment s Held, that the plaintiff could not recover.</p> <p>6. Possession — notice of equities. The possession by a railway cornpany of its right of way, by operating its trains over the same, is notice to the world of the