7 Watts 516
Decided September 15, 1838
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1838-09-15
John C. Kelsey and wife against James Badger and others. The plaintiff gave in evidence a legal title to the land for which this ejectment was brought. The defendants relied upon a title regularly vested in them by a sale of the land for laxes. The original title was granted to John Pearson, a soldier. He died in 1782, having devised the same to Marcy Pearson.
Decided 1838-09-15
¶1By the words of the acts of 1780 and 1785, a donation tract is exempt from taxation, at furthest, during the lifetime of the original grantee; and it is immaterial therefore whether the devisee, in this instance, took by descent or purchase; in either case the privilege of the grantee was at an end, and the land at his death became taxable.
¶2Judgment affirmed.