Thayer v. Smith

Decided October 15, 1821

Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · decided 1821-10-15

This was a writ of entry in the post, wherein the demandants claim an undivided moiety of several parcels of land in Roxbury, and count on the seisin of Benjamin Baker, their ancestor, and upon a disseisin by one John Baker. Trial upon the general issue, before Wilde, J., at the last February term in this county.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1821-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently May 1877

6 state decisions

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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Curia.

¶1A bare entry, although in the presence of witnesses, is not sufficient for the purpose of foreclosing an equity of redemption. The entry must be open, and peaceable, and actual posses*349sion must be taken. The object intended by the law is, that the mortgagor may know when the three years commence, beyond which his right to redeem will cease.

¶2The memorandum placed upon the record can make no difference. As it is not required by law to be recorded, the mortgagor had no reason to inquire at the registry for it. Nothing short of actual notice to the mortgagor will supply the want of a continued possession. The demandants having shown no legal right to the demanded premises, the tenant is entitled to

¶3Judgment on the verdict.