Smith v. Laatsch

Citations

• 114 Ill. 271

Syllabus

<p>1. Ejectment—evidence—title from a common sowce. In actions of ejectment, where both parties claim from a common source of title, the plaintiff will only be required to show a good and connected chain of title from the common source down to himself, to entitle him to recover. If the plaintiff shows the better title, though not altogether free from objections, he will be entitled to recover, unless a paramount outstanding title is shown in another.</p> <p>2. Where the defendant files an affidavit denying that he claims title from the same source as the plaintiff, the latter may show that he does so claim, by introducing in evidence the various deeds connecting him with such alleged common source; and it is no objection to the exercise of this right that the evidence offered also proves the defendant’s title to be worthless. If the defendant does not deny claiming under the source named, the plaintiff need not prove that fact.</p> <p>3. It was not the purpose of the legislature, in adopting the 25th section of the Ejectment act of 1872, to hold the plaintiff absolutely bound by the denial of the defendant that the parties claimed from a common source, where a counter-affidavit is filed, and thereby cut off his common law right to show that the two chains of title did run back to a common source. The sole purpose of that section was to relieve the plaintiff, in cases of thig kind, from the burden of proving the defendant’s chain of title as well as his own, unless the defendant should deny, by counter-affidavit, that he claimed from the alleged common source, in which event the burden would still remain upon the plaintiff, just as it did before, of proving both chains of title, running back to a common source.</p> <p>4. In this case the plaintiffs filed an affidavit that they and defendants claimed title under a common source,—the father of the plaintiffs. The defendants denied this fact, and stated that they claimed under a deed from A B to C D, and a deed from the