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64 Fla. 81

Gordon v. Lowe

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided June 15, 1912

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1912-06-15

<p>Appealed from the Circuit Court for Santa Rosa County.</p> <p>The facts in the case are stated in the opinion of the court.</p>

Relies on Tedder v. Fraleigh-Lines-Smith Co.

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Decided 1912-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently May 1939

4 state decisions

20191219201930decided

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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Whitfield, C. J.

¶1In an action of ejectment the plaintiffs recovered judgment and the defendants took writ of error. The plaintiffs claimed as the heirs of the patentee of the land from the United States. It is contended that the proofs do not show the death of the patentee. The action was begun by William Wiggins, the patentee, as sole plaintiff. Subsequently his death was suggested and his heirs were substituted as plaintiffs in his stead as provided by the statute. No contest was made as the statute contemplates, and the order adjudging the death of the sole plaintiff and substituting his heirs as his legal representatives was duly made upon proper notice. This sufficiently adjudicates the death of the original plaintiff for the purposes of this proceeding.'

¶2The defendants claimed a conveyance had been made by the patentee to their ancestor, but no proper evidence of such conveyance was offered. Oral testimony that a deed of conveyance was reported to have been made is incompetent to show title. See Harris v. Butler, 52 Fla. *83253, 42 South. Rep. 186. No title in the defendants by adverse possession was shown, and the legal title of the plaintiffs as the heirs of the patentee properly prevailed There was no error in directing a verdict for the plaintiffs since there was no evidence upon which a verdict could lawfully have been rendered for the defendants. Tedder v. Fraleigh-Lines-Smith Co., 55 Fla. 496, 46 South. Rep. 419.

¶3The judgment is affirmed.

Taylor, Shackleford, Cockrell and Hocker, J. J., concur.
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