office found
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 11 U.S. 603 - Fairfax's Devisee v. Hunter's Lessee · 1813Most cited · 103 citing opinions
inquest of office
the title acquired by an alien by purchase, is not divested until office found. The principle is founded upon the ground, that as the freehold is in the alien, and he is tenant to the lord of whom the lands are holden, it cannot be divested out of him but by some notorious act, by which it may appear that the freehold is in another.
How often courts cite the cases defining “office found”
Court decisions citing the 2 opinions that defined “office found” — 200 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 2 definitions, chronological · 1813–1869
A legislative act directing the possession and appropriation of the land is equivalent to office found. The sale was the public act, which is the equivalent of office found. What preceded the sale was merely preliminary, and, independently of the sale, worked no divestiture of title.