Case Name: Charlotte Roe, plaintiff in error, vs. John C. Maund, defendant in error
Court: Supreme Court of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1873-01
Citations: 48 Ga. 461
Docket Number: 
Parties: Charlotte Roe, plaintiff in error, vs. John C. Maund, defendant in error.
Judges: 
Reporter: Georgia Reports
Volume: 48
Pages: 343–344

Head Matter:
Charlotte Roe, plaintiff in error, vs. John C. Maund, defendant in error.
(Atlanta,
January Term, 1873.)
1. Deeds — Priority of. — When there are two deeds executed at different times by the same vendor to different vendees, and both are recorded, but neither of them within twelve months from its execution, the oldest, deed has priority over the one subsequently executed.
2. New Trials — Sufficiency of Evidence to Sustain Verdict — Case at Bar. — Under the evidence in this case, the Court below should have granted a new trial.
New trial. Deed. Registry. Ejectment. Before Judge Sessions. Appling Superior Court. March Term, 1872.
■ John C. Maund brought complaint against Charlotte Roe, for lot of land number three hundred and twenty-five, in the second district of Appling county, containing four hundred and ninety acres. The defendant plehded a prescriptive title.
The facts of this case were as follows: Both parties claimed under a grant to James Phillips, dated April 27th, 1839. Plaintiff held under a deed from Phillips to W. B. Gideon, dated November 5th, 1843, and the defendant under a deed from the grantee to Robert Flurnoy, dated in June, 1839. Neither of these deeds were recorded within twelve months. *The Court charged the jury, “that the plaintiff could not recover on the weakness of the defendant’s title, but on the strength of his own; that neither deed from the grantee being recorded in time, die oldest would prevail.”
The jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff. The defendant moved for a new trial because the verdict was contrary to the evidence and the charge of the Court. The motion was overruled and defendant excepted.
W. B. Gaued'en, by brief, for plaintiff in error.
J. C. Nichoes, by Z. D. Harrison, for defendant in error.
Deeds Priority of. — Where in a contest between two deeds from the same grantor executed at different times and conveying the same lands, it appears that neither of such deeds was recorded within the time prescribed, nothing more appearing the older will prevail. Lee v. O’Quin, 103 Ga. 361, 30 S. E. Rep. 356, citing principal case with approval.
New Trial. — “A defendant in ejectment may defeat a recovery against him by showing a paramount outstanding title to the premises in a third person, and it is not at all necessary that he should introduce evidence connecting his possession with taht title.” Jenkins v. Southern R. Co., 109 Ga. 41. 34 S. E. Rep. 355, citing with approval Lease.

Opinion:
Trippe, Judge.
The principle that the oldest deed has precedence over a subsequent deed, when neither is registered within twelve months of its execution, although the junior deed be recorded first, has been decided and recognized in 10 Georgia, 253; 13, Ibid., 1; 25 Ibid., 648 ; 29 Ibid., 440 ; 33 Ibid., 565; See Code, section 2663.
There was no evidence in the record to show that the title which was conveyed out of the grantee by the oldest deed should not prevail. The plaintiff .could recover only on the strength of his own title, and if defendant showed a prior deed from the grantee to another vendee, it was evidence that there was a better title than plaintiff's vendor held.
Judgment reversed and new trial granted.