Wilson v. Iseminger

Syllabus

<p>The seventh section of the act of Pennsylvania of April 27, 1855, is as follows: “ That in all cases where no payment, claim, or demand shall have been made on account of or for any ground rent, annuity, or other charge upon real estate for twenty-one years, or no declaration or acknowledgment of the existence thereof shall have been made within that period by the owner of the premises, subject to such ground rent, annuity, or charge, a release or extinguishment thereof shall be presumed, and such ground rent, annuity, or charge shall thereafter be irrecoverable: Provided, That the evidence of such payment may be perpetuated by recording in the recorder of deeds’ office of the proper county the duplicate of any receipt therefor, proved by oath or affirmation to be a true copy of that signed and delivered in the presence of the payer and witnessed at the time by this deponent, which recorded duplicate or the exemplification of the record thereof shall be evidence until disproved; and the evidence of any such claim or demand may be perpetuated by the record of any judgment recovered for such rent, annuity, or charge in any court of record, or the transcript therein filed of any recovery thereof by judgment before any alderman or justice of the peace, which record and judgment shall be duly indexed: Provided, That this section shall not go into effect until three years from the passage of this act.” Held, that this was not an act or law impairing the obligation of contracts within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States.</p>