{
  "id": 2086711,
  "name": "WILSON R. SUTTON vs. STEPHEN WESTCOTT, Sen'r",
  "name_abbreviation": "Sutton v. Westcott",
  "decision_date": "1856-06",
  "docket_number": "",
  "first_page": "283",
  "last_page": "284",
  "citations": [
    {
      "type": "nominative",
      "cite": "3 Jones 283"
    },
    {
      "type": "official",
      "cite": "48 N.C. 283"
    }
  ],
  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "N.C.",
    "id": 9292,
    "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina"
  },
  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 5,
    "name_long": "North Carolina",
    "name": "N.C."
  },
  "cites_to": [],
  "analysis": {
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:04:13.305795+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "WILSON R. SUTTON vs. STEPHEN WESTCOTT, Sen\u2019r."
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Nash, C. J.\nThe sole question upon which the case is before us, is upon the correctness of his Honor in ruling out the paper purporting to be the last will of Stephen \"Westcott, under which the defendant claimed title to the locus in quo.\nThe paper offered in evidence purports to be a copy of the last will of Stephen Westcott. There was no evidence that the original paper had ever been proved before any Court. The copy is taken from the will\u2019s book of the proper County, but by what authority it was put there, does not appear. The registration of the original was of no more effect than would be the registration of a deed, which had not been duly .proved.\nIt was contended that the paper writing was, at any rate, good as color of title. It could have no such effect. If the original, executed according to the statute, had been produced, and been duly proved on the trial, or if never proved and registered, its absence had been properly accounted for, and the paper offered been properly proved to be a true copy, it (the copy) might have been received as color of title. A copy of a deed can never be considered as color of title until it is shown that a deed did exist of which it is a true copy; so, neither can a copy of an alleged will. See Commissioners of Beaufort v. Duncan, 1 Jones\u2019 Rep. 239 ; Callender v. Shermam, 5 Ire. Rep. 711; Drake v. Merrill, 2 Jones\u2019 Rep. 374. There is no error.\nPer Curiam.\nJudgment affirmed.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Nash, C. J. Per Curiam."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "No counsel appeared for the plaintiff in this Court.",
      "Jordan, for defendant."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "WILSON R. SUTTON vs. STEPHEN WESTCOTT, Sen\u2019r.\nTlie recording of a will without any evidence that the same had boon proved before the proper tribunal, amounts to nothing, so that a copy taken from the will-book of such a writing, does not constitute color of title.\nAction of Trespass, quare da-usum fregit, tried before his Honor, Judge Manly, at the Spring Term, 1856, of Currituck Superior Court.\nThe defendant claimed title to the locus in quo, and offered a paper writing purporting to be a copy from the will-book, of the last will of Stephen Westcott. There was no proof that this instrument had ever been proved, and no verification offered of it on the trial, as an original paper, or as a copy of a paper whose absence was accounted for. Upon the copy offered in evidence was entered, \u201c Recorded and examined, 9tli day of September, Anno Dom., 1807,\u201d \u201c Attest. T, Baxter, Clerk pro tem to which was further added this certificate: \u201cI, Joshua W. Baxter, Clerk of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, of the County and State aforesaid, do hereby certify, that the foregoing is a full, true, and perfect copy of a certain will, made by Stephen Westcott, on the 10th day of August, 1807, and recorded in the will-book from 1719 to \u25a0 1810, in my office.\u201d Attested by the Clerk, with the seal of tire Court, and dated May 21, 1856.\nHis Honor, on argument, refused to admit the proof offered; for which the defendant excepted.\nVerdict for the plaintiff. Judgment and appeal.\nNo counsel appeared for the plaintiff in this Court.\nJordan, for defendant."
  },
  "file_name": "0283-01",
  "first_page_order": 293,
  "last_page_order": 294
}