Kimball v. Semple

Acknowledgment op Deeds out op this State.—A Master in Chancery is not one of the officers authorized by law to take the acknowledgment of deeds out of this State, and within any other State.

Certificate op Acknowledgment op Deed.—A certificate of acknowledgment to a deed must state that the maker of the deed is either known to or proven to the officer taking the acknowledgment to be the person who executed the same; and if it state that he is proven to be the person who executed the same, it must also state that it was by the sworn testimony of a credible witness, giving the name of the witness.

Description op Land in Deed.—In order to give a proper construction to a description of property conveyed by a deed, the Court will place itself, as nearly as possible, in the position of 4he contracting parties, and their intent will be ascertained in the same manner as in the ease of any ofher contract, and if, when the Court has placed itself in that position, the intent of the parties is not apparent from the deed, it is to be sought by a resort to the rules of construction which give greater effect to those things about which the law presumes the parties are least liable to mistake. Arbitrary rules of construction are not to be invoked, if the intention of the parties can be plainly discovered without their aid.

Warranty in Deed conveying Grantor's Interest in Land.—Where a deed, conveying to the grantee whatever interest the grantor then has in the land mentioned in the deed, contains a covenant that the grantor will “ warrant and defend the premises conveyed from and against all or any incumbrances, claims, or demands created, made, or suffered by, through, or under him, and against none other,” the warranty in the deed attaches itself to the interest conveyed, and not to the land itself, and does not estop the grantor from setting up an after acquired title, nor does it cause an after acquired interest of the grantor to feed the estoppel, and inure to the benefit of the grantee.

Construction op Deed bounding Land on a River.—L. executed to W. .a deed, conveying all his estate, right, title, etc., in and to an undivided half of nine Spanish leagues of land on the Sacramento River, described as “ commencing at a point on the said river two Spanish leagues in length along the said river below a point on the same made by the intersection with the river of the lower or southerly boundary line of a tract of land on said river, known as the Rancho of Larkin's children; thence running southerly, (its eastern boundary for the whole length being the said river) nine Spanish leagues, more or less,” to the southern boundary of the Jimeno grant, and back from the river one league more or less, the whole length of the tract conveyed. The grantor further recited in his deed that he meant and intended to convey all his rights, etc., in and to the Jimeno grant, “with the exception of a tract of two Spanish leagues in length, along and with said river, on the upper or northerly part of said Jimeno grant.” Held, that the surrounding circumstances showed that the parties did not contemplate an accurate measurement of the land, and that the place of beginning to survey the nine leagues conveyed is to be ascertained by measuring two leagues in length from the southern boundary of Larkin's children's rancho in a straight line, without following the meanderings of the river, to such point on the river as the straight line two leagues in length would strike it, and that the land conveyed extended down the river nine leagues more or less from the point of beginning, following the meanderings of the river to the southern boundary of the Jimeno grant.