Fitzgerald enterprise. (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1895-1912, 1911-03-09
The Brisbane Lands Again


been before the courts.
1t was about ten years ago that
George P. Northrop, of New York,
heir of Claudian B. Northrop entered
suit for the possession of the land,
quite a number of valuable lots
through this county and Worth.
Claudian B. Northrop died Feb. 26,
1865 leaving the property to two
children one of which died in infancy,
leaving GeorgeP. Northrop sole heir.
Northrop was badly in debt and on
January 5, 1857 he made an assign
ment to Edward P. Milliken to
secure his debts. On May 10, 1874,
Milliken as assignee conveyed the
land to Groover-Stubbs & Co., offs a
vannah, although he had previously
reconveyed the land to Claudian B.
Northrop, August 6, 1864, and thus
started two claimants for the prop
erty. A few days before Claudian B.
Northrop died (Feb. rs, 1869 he
made will leaving the land to his
children.
The main question for the court
to decide was whether Milliken had
reconveyed the property to Northrop
when he made the deed to Grower
Stubs & Co. Northrop claimed
that Milliken had reconveyed the
land to his father on August 6, 1854.
The present owners of the land
claim that the land was not recon-
veyed to Northrop by the assignee,
and that the deed to GrooVer-StubbS
& Co. conveyed the title to the land:
The Groover-Stubbs& Co. title had
been made the basis for numerous
deeds to various parties in this
section of the state among them the
Columbian Lumber Co., Joshua
Troup, William Fletcher, j. B.
Clements and others who had been
in peaceful possession of the prop
erty so many years that they natu-
rally resented the interpOsition of
the Northrop Claim.
Haygood & Cults undertook eject
ment suits against the several local
owners or claimants for Northrop,
and in the district courts lost out
Judge William B. Shepherd, of
Florida, presiding at Albany in the
Circuit Court of the Southern Dis
trict of Georgia, directed a verdict
against Northrop and in favor of the
4 Columbian Land Company in the
month of June '09. Soon after Judge
Spear following the rulings of Judge
Shepherd in the Columbian Lumber
Company case directed verdicts in
several other cases among them
Judge j. B. Clements and at that
time it was thought that the matter
was practically settled, but not so.
COL Eldridge Cults took the
matter to the Circuit Court of
Appeals and before Judges Pardee,
Shelby and Toulmin argued the case
in Oct. 1910 and that court in an
opinion filed Feb. 7. 1911 the
District Court was reversed and a
new trial ordered.
The Circuit Court of Appeals dis
agreed with Judge Shepherd in most
of his rulings. The court in ruling
on the claim of innocent pur-
chasers" says: The defendant claims
lIldl II 10 dill IIluONCuI pulCllCOCA
without notice, and that, therefore
the direction of the verdict was
right 1t is true that the record of
the deed in South Carolina afforded
no notice to subsequent purchasers
of the land in Georgia. Failing to
record the deed in the proper Office
in Georgia would make it lose its
priority over a subsequent duly re
corded deed from the same vendor,
taken without notice of the exist
ence of the first. Georgia Code
(1S95), 1918. The essential ele-
ments that constitute a bona fide
purchase are a valuable consider
ation,- the presence of good faith, and
the absence of notice. If the de-
PENDANT is chargeable with notice
of the prior conveyance, the fact
that it was not recorded is imma-
terial. If =, it is chargeable with