Dessaunier v. Murphy’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Mere possession unaccompanied by other circumstances, cannot afford a conclusive presumption of title unless continued for the length of time and under the circumstances prescribed by the Statute of Limitations (when it has that effect by mere force of the statute, as a conclusive presumption, declared by the Legislature) although when connected with other circumstances, it may justify a jury in presuming a conveyance, or the court in deducing a legal presumption of the transfer of the right, according to the character and weight of these circumstances. In the present case the material fact beside ‘the long continued possession;’ is the alleged sale made or completed by the guardian of the ancestor about 1782 and the payment at that time of the purchase móney, evidenced by the receipt recited in the deed of 1811; and if this fact were established, it might then be proper to advise a jury to presume a conveyance of the title from any proper party, pursuant to and in confirmation of the sale, even against married women;- or the court, it may be, would be warranted in deducing a legal presumption of some transaction, sufficient to pass the formal title.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Jones v. Kirk