Polk v. Windel

19 F. Cas. 940, 2 Overt. 433

• Court: U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Tennessee
• Decided: June 15, 1817
• Status: Published

Opinions

TODD, Circuit Justice.

The supreme court of the United States has determined that the state of North Carolina had no power, after the cession, to issue grants for lands within the ceded territory, unless where some incipient right previously existed. In this cause, then, it would be competent to inquire whether there was an entry previous to the cession, or whether the warrant was a forgery. But this must be ascertained by legal evidence; what would be competent evidence on a scire facias by the state to repeal a grant, or in equity, might be receivable here. But the evidence offered, in my opinion, is neither relevant or competent. Suppose this was an indictment for the alleged forgery. The original books, if under the control of the court, ought to be produced. They might be produced on a subpoena duces tecum to the secretary. It is true, as has been argued, that every forgery includes a fraud, but it is not true e converso. There are but a few excepted cases in which we can go. beyond the grant for the purpose of avoiding it. And where forgery is recognized as one, it is that offense, technically speaking. To infer it from the fact that different warrants were to be found in the secretary’s office of the same number would be dangerous in the extreme; that he would not permit the jury to-infer it. and considering the practice of making entries in Carter’s or Washington county entry taker’s office, no such inference could be drawn from the copies proposed, if received.