United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Cox v. Hart, 145 U.S. 376 (1892)

Cox v. Hart

No. 828

Submitted January 4, 1892

Decided May 18, 1892

145 U.S. 376

Syllabus

The granting or refusing of an application for continuance by the court below is not subject to review here.

Whether an affidavit that one of the deeds relied on in the chain of title is forged, filed in an action of trespass to try title in Texas, for the purpose of obtaining a continuance, is such an affidavit as would, under Rev.Stats. Texas, art. 2207, affect its admissibility in evidence, quaere.

When both parties in an action to try title to real estate claim under a common source of title, it is unnecessary to consider whether the deed under which the common grantor claimed was valid.

Every reasonable inducement will be made in favor of a judicial sale, so as to secure, if it can be done consistently with legal rules, the object they were intended to accomplish.

Where it is doubtful to which of two tracts of land in the same neighborhood, both the property of the execution debtor, the description in the marshal's deed applies, extrinsic evidence may be admitted to show which was intended, and the question left to the jury under proper instructions.

The Texas statutes making provision for an allowance for improvements in actions of trespass to try title are intended to secure to the possessor in good faith compensation for his improvements, either by direct payment therefor by the owner of the land or by giving him an opportunity to take the land at its assessed value, where the plaintiff elects not to pay for the improvements and keep the land; but they do not confer upon such possessor the right to an execution for the assessed value of the improvements at the expiration of a year.

Page 145 U. S. 377

The case is stated in the opinion.