United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Webb v. Den, 58 U.S. 17 How. 576 576 (1854)

Webb v. Den

58 U.S. (17 How.) 576

Syllabus

In 1839, the Legislature of Tennessee passed a law containing the following provision, namely:

"That whenever a deed has been registered twenty years, or more, the same shall be presumed to be upon lawful authority, and the probate shall be good and effectual, though the certificate on which the same has been registered, has not been transferred to the register's books, and no matter what has been the form of the certificate of probate or acknowledgment. "

Page 58 U. S. 577

A deed to "the legatees and devisees of the late Anthony Bledsoe," which was certified by the register of Maury County, Tennessee, to have been recorded there in January, 1809, was, under the authority of this statute, properly admitted in evidence, although informalities existed with respect to its being proved, and with respect to the acknowledgment of a feme covert.

So, also, the deed is effectual, under the circumstances of the case, to transfer a fee simple estate to the legatees and devisees of Anthony Bledsoe, whose will was in evidence. The deed was a release of the bare legal title to equitable owners in fee, on partition between them as tenants in common. The old common law rule as to the distinction between releases from one joint tenant to another, and from one tenant in common to another, is not applicable.

A defendant in ejectment cannot object to the production in evidence of one of the muniments of the plaintiff's title, because it was "res inter alios acta."