Sargeant v. the State Bank of Indiana

53 U.S. 371, 13 L. Ed. 1028, 12 How. 371, 1851 U.S. LEXIS 665
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedMarch 18, 1852
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 53 U.S. 371 (Sargeant v. the State Bank of Indiana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sargeant v. the State Bank of Indiana, 53 U.S. 371, 13 L. Ed. 1028, 12 How. 371, 1851 U.S. LEXIS 665 (1852).

Opinion

*378 Mr. Justice DANIEL

delivered the opinion of the court.

The facts upon which this case is founded are' to the effect following. The legislature of Indiana, having by a law bearing date on the 20th January, 1826, laid off and established the county of Tippecanoe in that State; by the same act appointed four commissioners for the purpose of selecting and establishing a seat of justice for the county thus created, in conformity with the provision. of another statute of the State, passed on the 14th of January, 1824, entitled “ An act establishing seats of justice in new counties,.” and with the provisions of other acts amend- ' atory of the law last mentioned. Pending the investigation of the commissioners who took upon themselves the fulfilment of the duties prescribed by the statutes above mentioned, proffers were.made to them by various persons, proprietors of land in ■and adjacent to the town of .Lafayette, of certain lots and parcels of land as donations to the county of Tippecanoe, and amongst these proffers was that of the land involved in this suit, then held by.Samuel Sargeant, from whom the lessors of the plaintiffs deduce their title. The commissioners having accepted the donations offered as above mentioned, and selected the town of Lafayette as the seat of justice for the county of Tippecanoe, took from the»several donors their joint and several title-bond, dated May 4th, 1826, in the penalty of ten thousand dollars payable to the board of justices of the county to be thereafter organized, with condition that these obligors should convey by deed with general warranty to the board of justices, on the 1st day of October, 1826, the lots and parcels of land contained in their respective donations within the town of Lafayette, and took also the separate bond of Samuel Sargeant, conditioned to convey at the same period, by a like deed to the board of justices, another parcel of land of ten acres, adjoining the town, as in the conditions annexed to those bonds set forth. The board of justices appointed by the Governor of Indiana for the county of Tippecanoe, was organized on the 8th day of July, 1826, and on that day received the report .of the commissioners appointed by law to select the’seat of justice for the county of Tippecanoe, and at the same time received and accepted the joint and several ■obligation of Samuel Sargeant and others above mentioned; and also the separate bond of Samuel Sargeant, conditioned for the execution of a deed with general warranty to the board of justices for the tract of ten acres of land as before referred to, the said Samuel Sargeant having been chosen their clerk by the board of justices, entered upon the record their acceptance of the title-bonds given by himself and others in his own handwriting. Samuel Sargeant having died before the execution of any deed either by the obligors in the joint and several bond, *379 or by Sargeant alone, in pursuance of his separate obligation, proceedings were instituted at the November term, 182?, of the Circuit Court of the county of Tippecanoe, for the appointment of a commissioner, for the purpose of conveying'to the board of justices the title and interest held by Samuel Sargeant in his ■lifetime in the lots and parcels of land mentioned in the joint and several bond of Sargeant and others, and in the ten acres of land mentioned in the separate title-bond executed by Sargeant. The Circuit Court appointed Richard Johnson a commissioner, in conformity with the application, and this commissioner, conjointly with' all the obligors except Sargeant, executed to the board of justices a deed with general warranty for the lands mentioned in the joint and several bond, and a separate deed for the ten acres of land described in the bond given by Sargeant individually. • The proceedings of the Circuit Court of Tippecanoe, upon the petition of the board of justices, and the conveyances ordered by that court, took place in the years 1826 and 1827, and are of record.

In the year 1846, the lessors of the plaintiffs, representing themselves to be heirs at law of Samuel Sargeant, instituted' this their action of ejectment against the State Bank of Indiana, as the tenant in possession of lots No. 90 and 132, situated in the town of Lafayette. The said defendant also deducing title mediately from Samuel Sargeant, by purchase from the board of justices for the county of Tippecanoe, no question therefore is raised upon the validity of the title as originally existing in Samuel Sargeant.

At the trial, the lessors of the plaintiffs having introduced evidence to show the death of Samuel Sargeant on the 31st of July, 1826, and that the said lessors were his heirs at law, and evidence also of the value of the property in dispute, there rested then cause.

The defendant then offered in evidence the report of the commissioners appointed under the act of the legislature of January. 20th, 1826, to locate the seat of justice for the county of Tippecanoe ; the record of the appointment and qualification of the board of justices for the said county in July, 1826 ; the delivery to them and their acceptance of the title-bonds from the locating commissioners; their petition to the Circuit Court in order to obtain a conveyance of the lands mentioned in the title-bonds; the record of the proceedings of the Circuit Court of Tippecanoe upon the petition of the board of justices, and the conveyances to them made in pursuance of the judgment of that court, as comprised in the foregoing statement of facts. Upon the evidence thus submitted the jury found a verdict for the defendant.

*380 The questions presented for our consideration by this record arise upon exceptions to the rulings of the court refusing certain instructions asked by the plaintiffs with regard to the evidence adduced by the defendant, and in charging the - jury upon the law applicable to that evidence as expounded by the. court. Thus the plaintiffs prayed the court to instruct the jury,— 1, That the title-bonds given in evidence by the defendant were void as against Samuel Sárgeant and his heirs for want of an obligee in existence capable of being contracted with at the time of the delivery of these bonds.

2. That the title-bonds are a nullity as against the said Sargeant and his heirs.

3. That the record and proceedings of thé Tippecanoe Circuit Court arid the commissioners’ deed in pursuance thereof are wholly void, and did not divest the title of Samuel Sargeant’s heirs.

4. That the certified copy of the notice and proof of publication' given in evidence by the plaintiffs, is a part of the record of the proceedings of the Tippecanoe Circuit Court, and as such, may explain and qualify the statement in the record, that proof was made that “ due and legal notice had been given.

These several instructions the court refused to give, but charged the jury that the said record of Tippecanoe Circuit Court was not void, and that the proof produced and given- in evidence as aforesaid by the defendant was competent to prove a dedication to ppblic use, and the title of the premises in controversy out of the lessors of the plaintiffs, it was agreed by the parties in this case that the printed statutes of Indiana, so far as they are applicable to the case, should be deemed and taken as parts of the record in -this cause, and be so considered by this court.

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Bluebook (online)
53 U.S. 371, 13 L. Ed. 1028, 12 How. 371, 1851 U.S. LEXIS 665, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sargeant-v-the-state-bank-of-indiana-scotus-1852.