UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

GEEKIE V. KIRBY CARPENTER COMPANY, 106 U. S. 379 (1882)

106 U. S. 379

U.S. Supreme Court

Geekie v. Kirby Carpenter Company, 106 U.S. 379 (1882)

Geekie v. Kirby Carpenter Company

Decided December 4, 1882

106 U.S. 379

Syllabus

1. Under section 5 of chapter 138 of the General Laws of Wisconsin, of 1861, providing that

"No action shall be commenced by the former owner or owners of any lands, or by any person claiming under him or them, to recover possession of land which has been sold and conveyed by deed for nonpayment of taxes, or to avoid such deed, unless such action shall be commenced within three years next after the recording of such deed,"

land is to be regarded as having been sold for nonpayment of taxes; although the sum to raise which it was sold included five cents for a United States revenue stamp, to be put, and which was put, on the certificate issued to the purchaser on the sale.

2. A deed on a tax sale recites that "S. A. Coleman, assignee of Oconto County," has deposited certificates of sale showing that five parcels, each of which sold for so much, were sold "to the said Oconto County, and by its treasurer assigned to S. A. Coleman" for so much "in the whole," the total being the sum of the five several sums. The statute, c. 50, sect. 22, of the General Laws of Wisconsin, of 1859, prescribes a form of deed, and provides that it shall be "substantially" in that or "other equivalent form," showing that the land was sold for a sum named "in the whole." Held that the deed is in substantial compliance with the form prescribed.

3. A sheriff having possession of property under a writ of attachment is not bound by the judgment in a replevin suit to which he was not a party, and in which he was not served with process, and did not appear, and which he did not defend, although his under sheriff, as an individual, was a party to the suit.

4. Quaere are the waters of the Menominee River, which is the boundary between Michigan and Wisconsin, within the concurrent jurisdiction of both Wisconsin and Michigan.

5. Although there was no general verdict in this case, and no special verdict in any form known to the common law, and no waiver in writing of a jury trial, and no such finding of the court below upon the facts as is provided for by sec. 649 of the Revised Statutes, this Court, on a written stipulation filed here by the parties, agreeing upon the facts, reviewed the case on a writ of error, reversed a judgment below for the defendant, and directed a judgment for the plaintiff.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court. clubjuris

Page 106 U. S. 380


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