ejectment
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 66 U.S. 459 - McCool v. Smith · 1861Most cited · 68 citing opinions
title at commencement rule
The rule of the common law is inflexible, that a party can recover in ejectment only upon a title which subsisted in him at the time of the commencement of the suit.
How the Supreme Court has restated “ejectment”
Each Supreme Court definition of “ejectment,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “ejectment”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “ejectment” — 108 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1786–1861
- ORIGINAL
Ejectments are possessory actions; and in England it is necessary to shew a possession within twenty years.
It is undoubtedly true, that upon common law principles the legal title should prevail in the action of ejectment, upon the same grounds that the legal right prevails in other actions in Courts of Law... But in other states, the Courts of Law proceed upon other principles. In the action of ejectment, they look beyond the grant, and examine the progressive stages of the title, from its incipient state, whether by warrant, survey, entry, or certificate, until its final consummation by grant; and if found regular and according to law, in these progressive stages, the grant is held to relate back to the inception of the right and to have dignity accordingly.
looking beyond grant in some states
That the action of ejectment is a fictitious action, and is moulded by courts to subserve the purposes of justice in a manner peculiar to itself, is admitted, but its professed object is to try the titles of the parties and the jury are bound to pass upon those titles, as they are established by the evidence before them.
fictitious action