Case ID: scl_18/html/0101-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Harper J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Nathan Sims v. James Meacham.
    After twenty years possession of lands a grant will be presumed, but in the absence of other evidence, the date of the grant cannot be referred to an earlier period than the commencement of the possession.
    Recitals in a deed are evidence only against the maker, and those who claim under him. So where an old deed under which plaintiff claimed, recited aNorth-Cavoiinagrant of a specified da'e ; and there was proof that the public records of North-Carolina for that year were lost, so thht an office copy could not he produced : Held, that it was insufficient, as against third persons, to raise the presumption of a grant of that date.
    It is no objection to the admission of a deed at the trial, that it was not produced at the survey. Vide Frean, ads Cruikshanks. 3 M’C. 84.
    Where there are interfering claims to land without any actual possession of the disputed parcel, the rule of law is that the possession shall be adjudged in him who has the right.
   Per Harper J.

confirming the decision, and approving the instructions to the jury, of Mr. Justice Johnson, at Union, August Term, 1830.

Johnson J. concurred. O’Neall J. having been of counsel in the cause, gave no opinion.