US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS
IRVINE V. IRVINE, 76 U. S. 617 (1869)
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Irvine v. Irvine, 76 U.S. 9 Wall. 617 617 (1869)
Irvine v. Irvine
76 U.S. (9 Wall.) 617
Syllabus
1. When one makes a deed of land covenanting that he is the owner, and subsequently acquires an outstanding and adverse title, his new acquisition enures to the grantee on the principle of estoppel.
2. Where a person has bought land and paid for it, the deed subsequently made in consequence does not confer a new title on him, but confirms the right which he had acquired before the deed was made.
3. The Acts of September 4, 1841, § 12, 5 Stat. at Large 456; of May 29th, 1830, 4 id. 420; and January 23d, 1832, ib. 496, relate to preemptive chanrobles.com-red
rights conferred upon actual settlers, and do not apply to a case where the entry has not been made under any of them.
4. The deed of an infant purporting to convey lands operates to transmit the title, and is voidable only, not void.
5. Although it is not necessary to the affirmation of an infant's voidable deed that there be an act of affirmance by him, after he comes of age, as solemn in character as the original act itself, still mere acquiescence without anything else, is not generally sufficient evidence of affirmance. Any ratification or affirmance of a clear and unequivocal character, showing an intention to affirm the deed, is, however, enough.
6. Where the infant, having come of age and entered into partnership with third persons, took a lease for his firm of one part of the property which as an infant he had conveyed, from the person to whom he had so conveyed that part with other parts, the lease is proper to go to the jury, on a suit by the infant for these other parts alone, to show an affirmance of his deed for the whole; and with such evidence before the jury a court rightly refused to charge that the evidence showed no affirmance. Whether it did show an affirmance or not was, with this lease before them, matter for the jury to decide.
7. A court properly declines to give instructions on a hypothetical state of facts.
Benjamin Irvine brought ejectment against his brother John Irvine, to recover from the said John possession of certain lots. He put in evidence a patent (founded on a preemption certificate) from the United States to him, dated 8th October, 1849, and embracing the lots in controversy. The patent recited full payment by the said Benjamin, "according to the provisions of an act of Congress of the 24th of April, 1820."
The defendant then offered in evidence a deed of conveyance from the plaintiff to him, dated 8th May, 1849, of the same premises as were described in the patent. To this evidence the plaintiff objected, because the deed, having been executed before the patent was issued, did not convey the estate which the plaintiff acquired by the patent.
To understand the ground of the plaintiff's objection here, and particularly his first request, hereafter mentioned, for instructions to the jury, it is necessary to state that the 12th chanrobles.com-red
section of an Act of Congress, of September 4, 1841, [Footnote 1] referring to preemptive rights conferred upon actual settlers (and which apparently reenacted one of May 29, 1830, [Footnote 2] which had been modified by one of January 23, 1832 [Footnote 3]), thus prescribed:
"That prior to any entries being made under and by virtue of the provisions of this act, proof of the settlement and improvement thereby required shall be made to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the land district in which such lands may lie, . . . and all assignments and transfers of right hereby secured prior to the issuing of the issuing of the patent shall be null and void."
The court overruled the objection of the plaintiff, and admitted the deed offered; the plaintiff's counsel excepting.
The defendant having further put in evidence, under objection from the plaintiff's counsel, the certificate of the register of the contents of the records of his office, rested his case.
The plaintiff was then himself examined as a witness, and stated that when he executed the deed of May 8, 1849, he was under 21 years of age, and that he was really forced by his brother, the defendant, who was 16 years his senior, to execute the instrument. There was no doubt as to the plaintiff's infancy at the time when he executed this deed. It appeared that the plaintiff had made preemption of the land; that he paid for it on the 21st of February, 1849, and took an informal receipt for it of that date, which was subsequently replaced by a formal duplicate, but of what date did not appear.
The plaintiff then rested, and the defendant put in evidence certain evidence, which tended to show that he had employed the plaintiff as his agent to enter the land for him, and that he, the plaintiff, had paid for it with money of the defendant entrusted to him for that purpose, entering it in his own name, and promising to convey it to the defendant. chanrobles.com-red
He also put in evidence a written lease, dated 8th day of May, 1854, from him, defendant, John Irvine, to the plaintiff himself and two other persons doing business as a firm, of a certain warehouse, situated on a parcel of the land described in the patent, and in the deed of the 8th May, 1849, but not on any part of the premises described in the declaration. There was also evidence of the plaintiff's having been in the neighborhood of the property when valuable improvements were put on a portion of it, though not the part for which this suit was brought; and also some other evidence set up to show affirmance.
The defendant then rested.
Upon the case already stated, and with the statute of September 4, 1841, presented to the court, the plaintiff requested the court to give to the jury the instructions as hereinafter numbered, to-wit:
"1st. That the deed in evidence from the plaintiff to the defendant, dated 8 May, 1849, did not pass the estate acquired subsequently under the patent from the government to the plaintiff, even assuming the majority of the plaintiff at the time of its execution."
But the court declined so to instruct the jury.
"2d. If the jury find that the said deed was executed by the plaintiff while under age (and the evidence is uncontroverted on this point), the said deed is void."
But the court declined so to instruct the jury.
"4th. A deed of land executed by an infant may be avoided by the infant after he becomes of age, at any time within the period of the statute of limitations, which in this state is twenty years; that is, he may in such case in this state avoid his deed at any time within twenty years after he becomes of age."
And the court instructed the jury that such was the law, unless the infant had previously ratified the deed.
"5th. Such avoidance may be by another deed of same land to
another grantee after the infant becomes of age, or it may be by suit, or by other similar unequivocal act."
And the court so instructed the jury.
"6th. In case of sale or deed of real estate by an infant, there must be some act of affirmance by him after he becomes of age, as solemn in character as the original act itself; otherwise the deed may be avoided by him at any time before the statute of limitations bars him. Mere acquiescence, however long, if short of the statute of limitations is not sufficient. The act of confirmation must be of such solemn and undoubted nature as to establish a clear intention to confirm the deed after a full knowledge that it was avoidable."
The court declined to instruct the jury that the act of affirmance must be as solemn in character as the original deed itself; but stated that mere acquiescence was not of itself sufficient evidence of affirmance, and that the ratification or affirmance must be of a clear and unequivocal character, showing the intention of the infant to confirm his deed.
"7th. There is no evidence whatever of any affirmance of confirmation of the deed in this case by the plaintiff after he became of age, of the nature and character required. The evidence in this case shows no affirmance of this deed by the plaintiff after he became of age."
But the court declined so to instruct the jury.
"8th. No agency or trust binding on the plaintiff has been shown to have been created or to have existed between the plaintiff and defendant during the infancy of the former. No contract is binding on the infant made during his infancy except for necessaries."
The court instructed the jury that the latter portion of this request was true, and that although an agency or trust could not be created binding upon the infant, still if there was subsequent ratification by the infant of acts done during his infancy he would be bound by them. chanrobles.com-red
"9th. Even had the plaintiff been of full age when the defendant gave him the money to enter the land, as the defendant testifies, and directed him, as the defendant testifies, to enter the land for defendant, and the said plaintiff had entered the land in his own name, still the defendant could not have compelled in law or equity the plaintiff to convey the property to said defendant."
The court declined to so instruct the jury upon the ground that it was admitted by the defendant that the plaintiff was not of full age when the money to enter land was given him, and consequently that this request had no application to the case in hand.
"10th. No trust has been shown in this case between the parties to this suit by which the defendant could have enforced a conveyance of the land from the plaintiff to him."
The court declined to instruct the jury as above as above requested, but said that there had been evidence on the part of the defendant going to show that the plaintiff was employed to enter the land in question, and although an infant, as he afterwards affirmed, his acts would be bound by it.
"11th. Even if the plaintiff had entered the land as agent of the defendant, and had entered it in his own name contrary to instructions of his principal, yet if the defendant afterwards approved of such entry, such approval was a ratification of said entry."
The court instructed the jury that this might be true, but that the evidence showed that the infant had conveyed the land after entry by him, and that it was for the jury to say whether he had ratified his deed.
"12th. No acts of affirmance by the plaintiff have any bearing in this case, except they relate to the property described in the declaration, and all evidence on this point, except as to the lots described in the declaration, must be excluded and disregarded by the jury."
But the court declined so to instruct the jury.
To these refusals and instructions the plaintiff excepted. chanrobles.com-red
The court then further instructed the jury as to the 4th, 5th, and 6th of the said instructions so prayed by the plaintiff as aforesaid:
The question here is not whether there has been an avoidance. The defense is that the deed has been ratified by the plaintiff. I am of the opinion that the ratification should be, if not equally solemn, of a clear and unequivocal character, showing the intention of the party to confirm the deed. An avoidance may be by a deed to a third party, or, as held in this country, in other ways. But the deed from the plaintiff to the defendant was not void; it was simply voidable, and passed the title absolutely, until by some adequate act he affirmed it. The question is has it been disaffirmed or ratified by the plaintiff since he came of age? All the facts in proof, such as leasing part of the property, remaining in the vicinity a long time without asserting his claim while valuable improvements were being put on the property, are to be considered by the jury in deciding whether there has been a ratification by the plaintiff; but mere acquiescence does not amount to a ratification. The authorities are somewhat conflicting as to what is necessary to constitute an avoidance. Lord Lyndhurst was of opinion that a deed was necessary to avoid a deed given while under age. I think that this doctrine is perhaps sound, and ought to have been held in this country; but it has been held in this country that an infant may avoid his deed by going upon the land, or by bringing suit &c. And with the foregoing qualification, the 6th instruction asked by the plaintiff's counsel is correct, with the exception that the counsel has reversed the application of the law in his proposition. The act of avoidance and not the ratification is what the law requires to be equally solemn with the conveyance.
To which instructions, insofar as they differed from, or changed or qualified the instructions prayed for by the plaintiff, the plaintiff excepted.
And the court further instructed the jury that there had been evidence on the part of the defendant going to show that the plaintiff was employed as an agent to enter the land in question, and although an infant, if he afterwards affirmed his agency, he would be bound by the terms of such agency. To which instruction the plaintiff's counsel excepted. chanrobles.com-red
Verdict and judgment having gone for the defendant, the plaintiff brought the case here on error. chanrobles.com-red
