M'Donald v. Mulhollan
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR to the common pleas of Bedford county. This was aii action of ejectment by George Mulhollan, Jun., against Owen M’Donald and James Fenlon, for a tract of land. The plaintiff claimed under a warrant to George John, for four hundred acres, dated the I2th of March 1794, and the purchase-money, paid by James Wilson the 12th of August 1794, who, on the 15th of August 1794, mortgaged it, with other lands, to Kearny Wharton and others.
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ERROR to the common pleas of Bedford county. This was aii action of ejectment by George Mulhollan, Jun., against Owen M’Donald and James Fenlon, for a tract of land. The plaintiff claimed under a warrant to George John, for four hundred acres, dated the I2th of March 1794, and the purchase-money, paid by James Wilson the 12th of August 1794, who, on the 15th of August 1794, mortgaged it, with other lands, to Kearny Wharton and others. The plaintiff then offered in evidence a judgment on the said mortgage, confessed the 6th of August 1821, by Thomas M’Kean Pettit, administrator of James…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Gibson, C. J.
The judgment on the mortgage could be avoided collaterally, but for collusion; and, in the absence of proof of it, the legal presumption is in favour of its fairness. The indication of collusion) which is said to have met the eye of the court, is the time, twenty-seven years, which elapsed betwixt the date of the mortgage and the judgment on it. But we know not what intermediate payments may have appeared, or what other circumstances may have been called in aid to rebut the presumption of payment. Beside, this presumption, though a legal…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- Cluggage v. Lessee of DuncanSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1814
3Cited by2 opinions
- Whitcomb v. HoytSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1858
- Jacobs v. FigardSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1855