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50 N.C. 302

Phillips v. . Houston

Supreme Court of North Carolina

Decided June 5, 1858

Supreme Court of North Carolina · decided 1858-06-05

AotxoN of detinue, tried before Caldwell, J., at the last Spring Term of Duplin Superior Court.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1858-06-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently September 1979

1 federal appellate · 10 state decisions

201858186018701880189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

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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Battle, J.

¶1 In the case of Hall v. Harris, 5 Ire. Eq. 303,\ it was said by the Court, that the delivery of a deed “ depends upon the fact that a paper, signed and sealed, is,put out of the possession of the maker.” That, we think, is the true test, and if it appear that the ¡grantor, or donor, has 'parted with the possession of the instrument to the grantee or donee, or to any other person for him, the delivery is complete, and the title of the property granted, or given thereby, passes. But it will be otherwise, if the grantor or donor retain any control over the deed; as if he, when he hands it to a third person, request him to keep it and deliver it to the person for whom it is intended, unless he shall call for it again. These principles will be found to govern all the cases, beginning/ with Tate v. Tate, 1 Dev. and Bat. Eq. 22, running through Baldwin v. Maultsby, 5 Ire. Rep. 505; Snider v. Lockenour, 2 Ire. Eq. 360; Ellington v. Currie, 5 Ire. Eq. 21; Roe v. Lovick, 8 Ire. Eq. 88; Gaskill v. King, 12 Ire. Rep. 211, and Newlin v. Osborne, 4 Jones’ Rep. 157, down to Airey v. Holmes, ante, 142. Tried by the above mentioned test, the delivery of the deed, in the present case, must be declared to be complete. The donor handed the paper, signed a/nd sealed, to a third person, for the use of the donee, without any reservation whatever, and when it was returned to her, she immediately handed it to another person, for the donee, without the slightest intimation that she was to have any control over it. The delivery, however, was perfect, when the instrument was handed to the first person, and it made no difference whether it was registered before or after the donor’s death. His Honor was right in giving judgment for the plaintiff, and the judgment must be affirmed.

¶2 Pee CueiaM, Judgment affirmed.

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