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4 N.H. 171

Emerson v. Murray

Superior Court of New Hampshire

Decided September 15, 1827

Superior Court of New Hampshire · decided 1827-09-15

This was a writ of entry in which the demandant counted upon the seizin of his testator in fee and in mortgage of a tract of land in Hampstead. The cause was tried here upon the general issue at February term, 1827, when the court directed a nonsuit subject to the opinion of the court upon the following case. John Murray being seized of the demanded premises by deed dated the 28th April, 1821, conveyed the same to the testator, True, in fee.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1827-09-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently December 1932

5 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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Richardson, C. J.

¶1delivered the opinion of the court. An endorsement made upon an instrument before it is executed may be parcel of the obligation. It was very anciently so decided, in the case of Brooke v. Smith, Moor *172670, the action was debt upon an obligation the condition of which was to save certain lands harmless from all in-cumbrances made by the obligor, and upon the bach there was a memorandum written, that the condition should not extend to an extent of a statute acknowledged by the obli-gor to a certain person. And because the extent was prosecuted, the obligee brought debt against the executor of the obligor, who’ pleaded the condition and the memorandum ; and the question was, whether the memorandum was parcel of the condition added as an exception ? The court held the memorandum to be parcel of the condition, because it was “ an explanation in writing of the intent of the parties written before the sealing of the obligation.”

¶2The same principle has been often recognized in more modern times. 6 D. & E. 737, Steadman v. Purchase; 8 D. & E. 483, Burgh v. Preston; 1 Starkie’s N. P. R. 162, Lyburn v. Warrington; 14 East, 568, Weeks v. Maillardet; 6 Mod. 237, Cook v. Remington; 4 Mass. Rep. 245, Jones v. Fales.

¶3But we are of opinion that the endorsement in this case, which is found upon the deed, cannot be considered as parcel of the deed until it is shown affirmatively to have been upon the instrument when executed. As this was not shewn at the trial, the deed must be considered as a conveyance of the land absolutely, and the demandant cannot, as executor, maintain this action.

¶4Judgment on the nonsuit.

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