Yaukey v. Forney

Citations

• 231 Pa. 371
• 80 A. 879
• 1911 Pa. LEXIS 850

Syllabus

<p>Evidence — Real estate — Ejectment—Lease—Notice of prior lease— Competency of witness.</p> <p>1. The rule that the vague reports of strangers or information given by a person not interested in a property are insufficient to put a purchaser thereof on inquiry as to its title and ownership, does not apply to a notice given by the father of the holder of the paper title where it appears that the father and son had joined in executing a prior lease for the property and for many years had shared equally in the profits arising therefrom.</p> <p>2. In an action of ejectment where it appears that the holder of the paper title of the land in dispute and his father had by a written agreement under seal but never acknowledged or recorded leased the ground to the plaintiff for fifty years for the use of digging and shipping sand, the plaintiff agreeing to pay the lessors five cents per ton shipped, that the plaintiff dug and shipped sand for six years and paid the royalties in equal shares to the two lessors, and that thereafter the holder of the paper title by a written agreement leased to the defendant in possession the same tract of land, for the purpose of mining clay and sand, for five years, with an option of purchase, the father is competent to prove that he gave the present possessor notice of the former lease made to the plaintiff.</p> <p>3. Jacques v. Weeks, 7 Watts, 261, and Churcher v. Guernsey, 29 Pa. 84, commented upon and distinguished.</p>