Case Name: The State, for the use of Jacob Messick's Administrator, v. Wilson Messick and others, Terre-tenants
Court: Delaware Superior Court
Jurisdiction: Delaware
Decision Date: 1857
Citations: 1 Houst. 347
Docket Number: 
Parties: The State, for the use of Jacob Messick’s Administrator, v. Wilson Messick and others, Terre-tenants.
Judges: 
Reporter: Delaware Reports
Volume: 6
Pages: 347–348

Head Matter:
The State, for the use of Jacob Messick’s Administrator, v. Wilson Messick and others, Terre-tenants.
A receipt under seal is conclusive, and cannot be contradicted by paroi evidence.
Scire facias on a recognizance in the Orphans’ Court, upon the appraisement and acceptance by Wilson Messick of the intestate real estate of Jacob Messick, deceased. On the trial, the defendants produced and gave in evidence the following receipt, under the hand and sea] of Jacob Messick: “Received, January 17, 1849, of Philip Short, the sum of sixty-nine dollars and thirty-six cents, in full of all the part and claim that I had in my father’s land, and also my mother’s dower;” which they insisted was conclusive, and could not be contradicted by paroi evidence.

Opinion:
The Court
charged the jury, that a receipt under seal is conclusive, and cannot be controverted; but it was for them to say whether the sum stated in the receipt to have been received of Philip Short, was applicable to the recognizance. If it was, it was conclusive, and could not be contradicted by paroi evidence. Outten v. Knowles et al., 4 Harr. 533; 5 Saund. Pl. & Ev. 749.