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53 Mich. 575

Hendricks v. Rasson

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided April 30, 1884

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1884-04-30

<p>Adverse possession — Delivery of deed.</p> <p>1. A husband cannot hold adversely to his wife premises of which they are in joint occupancy as a family.</p> <p>2. The record of a deed is not conclusive proof of its delivery.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1884-04-30

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently March 1946

7 state decisions

201884189019001910192019301940decided

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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Campbell, J.

¶1Plaintiff brought ejectment for certain lands in Wayne county, and [defendant] prevailed. Both parties claimed under a title granted by the United States to Richard Sutliff. Plaintiff claimed under Minerva Sutliff, to whom, it was insisted, Richard deeded in 1857. Defendant claimed under a deed from Richard Sutliff to Burritt Sutliff in 1858.

¶2There was an issue presented to the jury allowing them to pass upon' an adverse possession in Burritt and those in his line of title. But we find no foundation for any theory that could possibly make out any such claim, except by eking out his period of possession by making his father, Richard Sutliff, an adverse holder against his wife, Minerva, during their married life and family occupancy. This is not within any rule.

¶3The only question which was open for serious controversy was whether the deed to Minerva was ever operative. If it *577was, then plaintiff made ont a good case. If not, then the judgment for defendant was right.

¶4It appeared that Richard made and recorded the deed to his wife. But it further appeared that he got it back when recorded; and there was evidence tending to show that he retained it and never delivered it, and that she never knew of it during his life-time, and denied claiming any interest in it. There were facts enough on both sides to have the question laid before the jury, unless the mere fact of recording is conclusive, which there is no rule of law to maintain. The jury found it was never delivered. This being so, the finding is conclusive, unless there were errors in receiving testimony, and we see nothing of that sort in the case which could have affected this question.

¶5The judgment must be- affirmed.

The other Justices concurred.
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