Ward v. Cochran

Citations

• 150 U.S. 597
• 14 S. Ct. 230
• 37 L. Ed. 1195
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2409

Syllabus

<p>An express order of court during the judgment term, continuing a cause for the purpose of settling, allowing, signing, and filing a bill of exceptions, and the settlement and allowance and filing of the bill, during the terms to which the continuance was made, takes the exceptions out of the operation o'f the general rule that the power to reduce exceptions to form and' have them signed and filed is, u'nder ordinary circumstances, confined to the term at which the judgment is rendered.</p> <p>A bill of exceptions which, in so far as it relates to the charge, specifies with distinctness the parts excepted to, and the legal propositions to which exceptions are taken, is sufficient.</p> <p>A defendant in ejectment who relies on adverse possession during the statutory period as a defence must show actual possession — not constructive — and an exclusive possession — not a possession in participation -with the owner, or others.</p> <p>When a special verdict is rendered, all the facts essential to entitle a party to a judgment must be found.</p> <p>A judgment rendered on a special verdict failing to find all the essential facts is erroneous; and consequently a special verdict in an action of ejectment, which finds that the grantor of the defendant entered into possession of the land in controversy under a claim of ownership. and that he remained in the open, continued, notorious, and adverse possession thereof for the period of .sixteen years, when he sold and transferred the same to the defendant, who remained in open, continuous, notorious, and adverse possession of the same under claim of ownership down to the present time, is defective in that it does not find that the adverse possession was actual and exclusive.</p>