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105 Ark. 314

Edwards v. Bond

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided November 18, 1912

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1912-11-18

Appeal- from St. Francis Chancery Court'; Edward D. Robertson, Chancellor; An instrument, absolute on its face, is presumed by law to be what it purports to be, and to overcome this presumption the evidence must be clear, unequivocal and convincing. 88 Ark. 299; 75 Ark. 551.

Relies on Hays v. Emerson · Rushton v. McIllvene

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

affirmed · Decided 1912-11-18

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently November 2013

13 state decisions

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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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Kirby, J.

¶1This is a suit in chancery to declare a deed, absolute on its face, a mortgage, for an accounting and redemption of the land conveyed, and from a decree in favor of appellee, refusing to grant the relief prayed, this appeal comes.

¶2The testimony is in sharp conflict, and it may be that there is a bare preponderance of it in favor of appellant.

¶3The deed being absolute in form, the burden was upon appel’ant to show that it was a mortgage, the law presuming that an instrument is what it appears on its face to be, an absolute conveyance; and, in the absence of fraud or imposition, the proof to overcome this presumption and establish its character as a mortgage must be clear, unequivocal and convincing. Hays v. Emerson, 75 Ark. 551; Rushton v. McIllvene, 88 Ark. 299.

¶4We are unable to say that the chancellor erred in holding the evidence insufficient to overcome the presumption arising from the deed of absolute conveyance, that it is what it purports to be, and the decree is affirmed.

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