Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/356

 344 FEDERAL REPORTER. in tail died on January 15, 1877. A daughter, Ida E. Bragg, one of the plaintiffs in the ejectment suit, was born August 6, 1855. The interest of said Ida in said lands was not con- veyed by either deed, and at the death of her father she owned an undivided fourth of the land now in question. �Joshua L'Hommedieu conveyed said land to the plaintiff and others, his partners in business, by warranty deed, dated December 6, 1850, subject to a mortgage of $450 to the state of Connecticut. This mortgage was quitclaimed on January 8, 1862; the land was remortgaged to the state to secure the payment of the same sum on January 3, 1852; and this last mortgage was quitclaimed on August 10, 1853. �On or about August 25, 1863, the plaintiff and his part- ners conveyed said land to Turner & Day, the plaintiff con- veying by deed of warranty. On February 15, 1865, the said Turner & Day and Edward G. iiungerford, who had theretofore become a partner with the other grantors, con- veyed by quitclaim deed the whole of the land in question to the plaintiff, who has ever since been in possession thereof, in the actual and honafide belief that it was his aetual estate in fee-simple. �In January, 1877, Henry W. Ely, Esq., of Westfleld, Mas- sachusetts, as attorney for Mrs. Bragg, notified the plaintiff of her claim of title to said property. At or about the same time, similar notifications were given to the other occupants of the land originally conveyed to Joshua L'Hommedieu, and which had now become subdivided, and was owned by 16 or 18 reputed owners. Much of the land was now improved. Dwellings, two factories, and a church were upon the prop- erty. These owners held a meeting, and appointed a com- mittee or agent to examine the question of title. He em- ployed counsel, who reported that the claim was entirely without foundation, The plaintiff consulted the same law- yer and received the same opinion. The committee visited Westfield, saw Mr. Ely and the relatives of Mrs. Bragg, and obtained the idea, from these and other conversations, that the claim would not be pursued, and that it was an attempt to extort money without right, and so reported to the plaintiff. ��� �