Holmes v. Johnson
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Error to the District Court of Philadelphia. This was an action of ejectment brought in -the court below to January Term 1862, by Severn Johnson, Samuel Johnson, James Johnson, Rachel Ann Johnson, James Ballard, and Julia Ballard, -Ballard, Anna Maria Jenkins, Mary Hammond, and-Nancy Cooper, against Philip Holmes, James Johnson, Harriet Copeland, and John D. Rex, to recover a lot of ground and the improvements thereon erected, situate on the south-east corner of Quince and…
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Error to the District Court of Philadelphia. This was an action of ejectment brought in -the court below to January Term 1862, by Severn Johnson, Samuel Johnson, James Johnson, Rachel Ann Johnson, James Ballard, and Julia Ballard, -Ballard, Anna Maria Jenkins, Mary Hammond, and-Nancy Cooper, against Philip Holmes, James Johnson, Harriet Copeland, and John D. Rex, to recover a lot of ground and the improvements thereon erected, situate on the south-east corner of Quince and Locust streets, Philadelphia. The defendants above named were, at the time of'bringing suit, tenants of the property…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered, March 10th 1862, by
Read, J.
The plaintiff and defendants in this case are all coloured persons, and, on the trial below, the defendants offered to prove, “ That in the region from whence these people came, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, it is not the custom for coloured people to form legal marriages; that marriage among them is the exception and not the rule; that the majority of them cohabit promiscuously, and that this mode of promiscuous cohabitation is the custom there among free coloured persons as well as slaves;” which offer the court rejected.
A…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Burr v. SimSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1839
- Hamilton v. Annapolis & Elk Ridge Rail RoadCourt of Appeals of Maryland · 1852
3Cited by4 opinions
- Cameron v. Carnegie Trust Co.Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1928
- Francis v. FrancisSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1897
- Jaskalski v. Pennsylvania Slovak Roman & Greek Catholic UnionSuperior Court of Pennsylvania · 1916
- Estate of Kustel, Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco1884