Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/82/9/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 08:17:21+00:00

Document:
1. The power of attorney of a lunatic, or of one non compos mentis is void.
2. When evidence has been given tending to show the insanity of a grantor and other evidence tending to show his sanity, a medical expert cannot be asked his opinion respecting that person's sanity or insanity, forming his opinion from the facts and symptoms detailed in the evidence.
3. Such a witness may be asked his opinion upon a case hypothetically stated, or upon a case where the facts are certain and found, but he will not be allowed to determine from the evidence what the facts are and to give his opinion upon them.
4. Under the California statutes of limitations, a plaintiff in ejectment who has established a legal title in himself, is presumed to have had actual possession of the land within five years next prior to the commencement of his suit unless an actual adverse possession by another is affirmatively proved.
3, 1850, in a proper book deposited in the office of the recorder of the County of San Francisco.
Hall afterwards was sent to a lunatic asylum near Philadelphia. While there, he executed, on the 27th of December, 1852, a power of attorney to one Harris, his brother-in-law, to sell this land. The power was acknowledged in the usual form before one Broadhead, a commissioner for California, resident in Philadelphia, who went to the asylum, saw Hall, read the power of attorney to him, asked him if he understood it, which he said he did, and that he desired the land sold for the benefit of his wife and children. Under this power, the land was conveyed to persons who afterwards conveyed to Dexter, the defendant.
records, deposited in the office of the Recorder of the County of San Francisco on or before April 3d, 1850, should, for all purposes contemplated by the ordinance, be decreed to be the possessors of the land granted, although it might be in the actual occupancy of persons holding the same adverse to the grantees. As the lot granted to Hall was within this description, the ordinance assured to him whatever right and title the city then had, and confirmed, so far as the city could confirm it, the alcalde's grant.
Subsequently, on the 11th of March, 1858, the legislature of the state passed an act ratifying and confirming what the city councils had done by the Van Ness ordinance, and on the 1st of July, 1864, Congress enacted that all the right and title of the United States to the lands within the corporate limits of the City of San Francisco, as defined in the act incorporating the city, passed by the Legislature of California April 15, 1851, were thereby relinquished and granted to the city for the uses and purposes specified in the ordinance thereof, ratified by an act of the legislature of the state, approved on the 11th of March, 1858, excepting, however, from the relinquishment certain parcels not included in the grant to Hall.
Hall died in 1860 in the asylum, leaving his widow already mentioned, and four children; all minors at that time, the eldest being twenty years old, the next seventeen, the next fifteen, and the youngest nine.
In 1866, Mrs. Hall and these children (the youngest not yet being of age, and suing by a guardian), brought the ejectment mentioned as this suit.
premises shall be presumed to have been possessed thereof within the time prescribed by law, and the occupation of such premises by any other person shall be deemed to have been under and in subordination to the legal title unless it appear that such premises have been held and possessed adversely to such legal title, for five years before the commencement of such action."
"In any action which shall be commenced more than one year after this act takes effect for the recovery of real property situated in the City and County of San Francisco or for the recovery of the possession thereof, none of the provisions of the act entitled &c., passed March 11, 1858 [the act already referred to, [Footnote 3] as of that date. -- REP.], and none of the provisions of either of the orders or ordinances therein recited or referred to, shall be deemed to give, confirm, or otherwise aid the right or title set up or claimed by any party unless such party, his ancestor, predecessor, or grantor shall have had actual possession of the land in dispute within five years next before the commencement of such action, the time already elapsed when this act takes effect to be included in the computation."
"the time during which such inability shall have continued shall not be deemed any portion of the period of limitation, established in the said act, to which this is supplementary."
"No action for the recovery of real property or for the recovery of the possession thereof shall be maintained unless it appear that the plaintiff, his ancestor, or grantor, was seized or possessed of the premises in question, within five years before the commencement of such action; provided however that an action may be maintained by a party claiming such real estate, or the possession thereof, under title derived from the Spanish or Mexican governments, or the authorities thereof, if such action be commenced within five years after final confirmation of such title by the United States or its legally constituted authorities."
The plaintiffs having shown Hall's paper title, including the Van Ness ordinance, and the statutes of California, and of the United States in aid thereof, having shown also the death of Hall, and their own heirship under the laws of California, rested.
"That the plaintiffs relied on the grant from Leavenworth, alcalde, upon the Van Ness ordinance, and the laws of California, and of the United States in aid thereof. That having commenced their action more than one year after the Act of California, approved March 5, 1864, and entitled 'An act to limit the time for the commencement of civil actions in certain cases,' took effect, they must show an actual possession of the premises in themselves or their ancestors, within five years next before the commencement of this action, which they had failed to do."
The court, however, refused so to charge, and the case, under exception to the refusal, proceeded.
"From the facts stated in these depositions and the symptoms stated, what, in your opinion, was the state of Hall's mind December 27, 1852, as to sanity or insanity?"
The plaintiffs objected to the witness expressing any opinion founded on the testimony adduced on both sides, and the court sustained the objection; permitting the witness, however, to give his opinion upon the testimony adduced by the plaintiffs. The witness then stated, under the defendant's exception to the ruling, that in his opinion as a medical man of large experience, from the facts and symptoms detailed by the plaintiffs' witnesses, Hall was capable of doing business and of executing a power of attorney before, at, and after December 27, 1852, and that such a case of insanity as his appeared to have been, rarely occurred without lucid intervals.
The defendant in rebuttal offered to prove that he had purchased the premises in good faith, for a full consideration, and without notice of the alleged insanity of Hall. But the court rejected the testimony.
1st. Of fact. Whether Hall was sane or insane, when he executed the power of attorney.
2d. Of law. If he was insane, whether the instrument was void or voidable only.
and no title could be transferred under it. In that case, the plaintiffs are entitled to a verdict. It matters not, if such were the case, what consideration may have been paid to the attorney, or with what good faith the parties may have purchased. The instrument in such case is no more to be regarded as the act of Hall than if he was dead at the time of its execution."
The jury found for the plaintiffs; thus finding that Hall was insane.
The case was now here on error, the charge, as just mentioned, as to the effect of insanity, if found, on the power of attorney, being the great question in the case; assignments of error being also made in regard to the question which the court allowed to be put to Dr. Elliot, the medical expert, and to other matters of evidence, and to the refusal of the court to direct the jury when the plaintiffs first rested, that the verdict should be for the defendants.
The case, on the great point of it -- the effect of an insanity, which, after the verdict of the jury, was to be regarded, of course, as admitted -- was interestingly argued and with a close examination of the authorities.
The prominent question in this case is whether a power of attorney executed by a lunatic is void, or whether it is only voidable. The circuit court instructed the jury that a lunatic or insane person, being of unsound mind, was incapable of executing a contract, deed, power of attorney, or other instrument requiring volition and understanding, and that a power of attorney executed by an insane person or one of unsound mind was absolutely void. To this instruction the defendant below excepted, and he has now assigned it for error.
may choose to avoid it? If this may be, efficacy is given to a form to which there has been no mental assent. A contract is made without any agreement of minds. And as it plainly requires the possession and exercise of reason quite as much to avoid a contract as to make it, the contract of a person without mind has the same effect as it would have had he been in full possession of ordinary understanding. While he continues insane, he cannot avoid it, and if therefore it is operative until avoided, the law affords a lunatic no protection against himself. Yet a lunatic, equally with an infant, is confessedly under the protection of courts of law as well as courts of equity. The contracts of the latter, it is true, are generally held to be only voidable (his power of attorney being an exception). Unlike a lunatic, he is not destitute of reason. He has mind, but it is immature, insufficient to justify his assuming a binding obligation. And he may deny or avoid his contract at any time, either during his minority or after he comes of age. This is for him a sufficient protection. But as a lunatic cannot avoid a contract, for want of mental capacity, he has no protection if his contract is only voidable.
"As to others, there is a great difference between an estate made in person and by attorney, for if an idiot or non compos mentis makes a feoffment in fee in person and dies, his heir within age, he shall not be in ward, or if he dies without heir the land shall not escheat; . . . but if the feoffment is made by letter of attorney, although the feoffor shall never avoid it, yet after his death, as to all others, in judgment of law, the estate is void, and therefore in such case, if his heir is within age, he shall be in ward; or if he dies without heir, the land shall escheat."
Such also is the rule as stated in Fitz Herbert's Natura Brevium. [Footnote 7] This is plainly a recognition of the principle that the letter of attorney of an idiot or lunatic is void, though he may not be permitted himself to assert its nullity. His heir, and all others, may. The doctrine is also asserted that as against the heirs of a lunatic his deed is invalid, and this, we think, has been steadily maintained in England.
"there is a difference between a feoffment and livery made propriis manibus of an infant and the bare execution of a deed by sealing and delivery thereof, as in cases of grants, surrenders, releases &c., which have their strength only by executing them, and in which the formality of livery of seizin is not so much regarded in the law, and therefore the feoffment is not void, but voidable; but surrenders, grants &c., of an idiot are void ab initio."
The case is a leading one, and it is in some respects more fully reported in Salkeld. [Footnote 10] There, it appears not only that the distinction mentioned is recognized, but that Holt, C.J., declared the deed of a person non compos mentis to be void; that if he grants a rent and the grantee distrains for arrears, he may bring trespass; that his letter of attorney, or his bond, are void because, as he stated, the law had appointed no act to be done for avoiding them. Thompson v. Leach has never been disturbed, and, so far as we know, has never been doubted. It was followed by the case of Yates v. Boen, in Strange, [Footnote 11] which was an action of debt upon articles. The defendant pleaded "non est factum," and offered to give lunacy in evidence. Upon the authority of Thompson v. Leach and Smith v. Carr, decided in 1728, the evidence was received.
"to constitute such unsoundness of mind as should avoid a deed at law, the person executing such deed must be incapable of understanding and acting in the ordinary affairs of life,"
and refused to charge that the unsoundness of mind must amount to idiocy. The ruling was sustained by the Court of King's Bench in Ireland, and, on writ of error, by the Exchequer Chamber. The case was then removed to the House of Lords, and the judgment was affirmed. It is therefore the settled law of England, and it has been since the decision in Thompson v. Leach, that while the feoffment of an idiot or lunatic is only voidable, his deed, and especially his power of attorney, are wholly void. And now, by act of Parliament, 7th and 8th Vict., ch. 76, § 7, his conveyance by feoffment, or other assurance, is placed on the same footing with his release or grant.
Justice remembered that an innocent conveyance, or a deed, by a lunatic was merely void, he instantly said that non est factum might be pleaded to it and the special matter be given in evidence."
"Since the time of Thompson v. Leach, [Footnote 18] it has been held that a lunatic's conveyance executed by sealing and delivery only is absolutely void as to third parties, and why not void as to the grantor? It was said to be so for the very unphilosophical reason that the law does not allow him to stultify himself -- an early absurdity of the common law which was exploded with us by Bensell v. Chancellor. [Footnote 19]"
which do not take effect by delivery of his hand (in which class he places a letter of attorney), are void. We are not aware that any different rule exists in England or in this country. It has repeatedly been determined that a power of attorney made by an infant is void. [Footnote 21] So it has been decided in Ohio, [Footnote 22] in Kentucky, [Footnote 23] in Massachusetts, [Footnote 24] and in New York. [Footnote 25] In fact, we know no case of authority in which the letter of attorney of either an infant or a lunatic has been held merely voidable.
It must therefore be concluded that the circuit court was not in error in instructing the jury that a power of attorney executed by an insane person, or one of unsound mind, is absolutely void.
upon the case on trial, though he may be asked his opinion upon a similar case hypothetically stated. [Footnote 27]"
"From the facts stated in these depositions and the symptoms stated, what in your opinion was the state of John Hall's mind on December 27, 1852, as to sanity or insanity?"
It was to this the plaintiffs objected. But the witness gave his opinion, founded on all the testimony adduced by the plaintiffs tending to show insanity, and that opinion was that Hall was capable of doing business and of executing a power of attorney. He could have said no more had he been allowed to consider the evidence given by the defendants as well as that given by the plaintiffs. The defendants therefore received no possible injury from the ruling of the court. Hence this assignment cannot be sustained.
not been enjoyed by the plaintiffs within five years next before the action was brought, and therefore they were presumed to have had such possession in the absence of evidence of an adverse possession, and no such evidence has been given. The 9th section of the act of April 22, 1850, which defined the time for commencing civil actions, expressly declares that in every action for the recovery of real property, such a presumption shall be made in favor of one establishing a legal title. In addition to this, three of the plaintiffs were minors when the title descended to them, and continued minors until within less than five years before the suit was brought, and one was a minor until 1872. The period of their disability was therefore not to be included in the statutory period of limitation.
It is probable that when the request to direct a verdict for the defendants was made, the supplementary act of April 4, 1864, was overlooked. Certainly it has not been argued here that the plaintiffs below were affected by the act of March 5 of that year. But it is claimed the plaintiffs were barred by the statute of limitations of 1855. That, however, is not before us. The circuit court was asked to give no instruction in regard to it, and none was given. Besides, so far as the record exhibits, there was no evidence of continued adverse possession during the five years next preceding the commencement of the suit.
There is nothing more in the case that requires particular notice; nothing which would justify our awarding a new trial.
Statutes of California, A.D. 1850, p. 343.
Statutes of California, A.D. 1863-4, p. 149.
Supra, p. 82 U. S. 11.
Statutes of California, A.D. 1863-4, p. 435.
Id., A.D. 1855, p. 109.
Vol. 3, page 300; see also 2 Ventris 198.
1 Dow & Clark 380.
1 Sugden on Powers 179; see also Shelford on Lunatics 257-259.
Saunderson v. Marr, 1 Henry Blackstone 75; 2 Lilly, Abridgment, 69; 1 American Leading Cases 248-259.
Lawrence v. McArter, 10 Ohio, 37.
Whitney v. Dutch, 14 Mass. 462.
Fonda v. Van Horne, 15 Wendell 636.
Sills v. Brown, 9 Carrington & Payne 601.
See the statement of the title, supra, pp. 82 U. S. 10-11. The learned judge recapitulated it in nearly the same words as there given.

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