Odell v. Buck
New York Supreme Court
This was an action of ejectment, tried at the Delaware •circuit in May, 1838, before the Hon. John P. Cushman, one of the circuit judges. The plaintiff claimed under a deed to him from Levi Buck and his wife, dated March 29, 1830. The defence ■jyas, that Buck, at the time the deed was given, was incompetent to contract on the ground of idiocy or insanity.
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This was an action of ejectment, tried at the Delaware •circuit in May, 1838, before the Hon. John P. Cushman, one of the circuit judges. The plaintiff claimed under a deed to him from Levi Buck and his wife, dated March 29, 1830. The defence ■jyas, that Buck, at the time the deed was given, was incompetent to contract on the ground of idiocy or insanity. The charge of the judge was .unexceptionable, and the jury found a verdict for the defendants, which the plaintiff now moves to set.aside, as against evidence.
1Opinion of the Court
By the Court,
Bronson, J.
From the evidence, it satisfactorily appears that Buck, at the time the deed was executed, was not a 'lunatic, or one who had lost the use of that reason or understanding which he once had. His capacity for business was then very much the same that it had always been, though possibly his mental energy had diminished a little. He was riot an idiot, or “ one that hath no understanding from his nativity.” Although a man of imbecile mind, he had reason and understanding.
Fraud was not set up as a ground of avoiding the deed, but the case turned wholly on the incapacity of…
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