Texas Land Co. v. Williams

Citations

• 51 Tex. 51

Syllabus

<p>1. Authentication of deed for record.—A deed purporting to have been proved for record September 15, 1845, before Samuel Nelson, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States,‘the certificate not being under the seal of the court of whicli he was a justice, and his official character not being certified to by the President, and recorded May, 1846, was not duly recorded under the registration laws then in force or under the act of May 12,1846.</p> <p>2„ Absence of official seal.—The absence of a seal to the officer’s certificate of proof of a deed for record, rendered the certificate invalid.</p> <p>3. Subsequent legislation on defective certificate.—An authentication of a deed defective at the time of its record, is not cured by subsequent legislation adopting the form used.</p> <p>4. Evidence—Grantee may prove his deed.—The grantee in a deed may be called to prove an examined copy of a deed made to him, the original being lost and the subscribing witnesses being dead or out of the State.</p> <p>5. Practice—Immaterial errors.—The Supreme Court will not revise the action of the District Court, in giving or refusing instructions, unless, when applied to the facts, there is manifest injury to the rights of the party complaining.</p> <p>6. Limitation of ten years.—See facts where it was held that the court improperly charged, that if defendant had ten years’ actual adverse possession of the land on which he resided before the bringing of the suit, the jury should find that he was entitled to six hundred and forty acres out of the tract sued for.</p> <p>7. Entry under color of title—Constructive possession.— Where entry is made upon land under color of title, whether by tito owner in person or by a tenant, the party entering acquires constructive possession, if there is no conflicting possession, to the extent of the boundaries in the title under which he enters.</p> <p>8. Constructive possession.—The extension of this constructive possession to such lim