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1 Va. 255

Butts v. Blunt

Supreme Court of Virginia

Decided November 15, 1822

Supreme Court of Virginia · decided 1822-11-15

This was an action of ejectment 'brought in the county court of Southampton, by Samuel Blunt and others, trustees of the Nottoway Indians, against Daniel Butts, for a messuage and fifty-nine acres and a half of land. The declaration laid a demise from Aaron Burr to the said trustees. An issue was made up on the plea of not guilty. The jury found a verdict for the plaintiffs, and the court rendered judgment accordingly.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1822-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently November 1873

4 state decisions

10182218301840185018601870decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1November £8th.

Judge Brooke,

¶2delivered the opinion of the court.

¶3The declaration in this case, avers the lease to have been made by Aaron Burr, to the appellees, and the plea of not guilty, puts bis title in issue. Although the act of Jeofails, prohibits any exception of form or substance to the declaration in ejectment, after issue joined, yet the court is of opinion, that it does not dispense with the rule, that the evidence must be relevant to the issue. The depositions objected to in the bill of exceptions, prove nothing in relation to the title of Aaron Burr, tbe lessor of the plaintiffs; and on that ground were improperly admitted to go in evidence to the jury.

¶4The court is further of opinion, that it not appearing by any thing in the record, in what suit or by what autho*258j-ity, they were taken, nor that the witnesses could not .... attend at the trial, (and not deciding whether they were proper evidence of boundary) that the county court erred, on that ground also, in permitting them to go to the jury,

¶5The judgments of both courts are therefore reversed, and the cause remanded; the verdict to be set aside, and a new trial to be had.

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