Skinner v. Campbell (44 Fla. 723, 1902)

3?er Curiam.

'The appellants filed a bill in equity in the Circuit ’■Court ,of Santa Rosa County against appellees to re-strain* alleged trespassing by the latter upon a tract of -land) there situated described as the “Mary Weaver-Grant” by the cutting of pine timber thereon, appellants alleging .ownership thereof and that it was wild, unoccupied and unimproved land. The defendants (appellees 'here) in their answer merely denied that the complainants (appellants here) owned the lands, and averred .title in themselves. Testimony was taken before a master and reported to the court and on final hearing thereon, a final decree was rendered" dissolving a temporary injunction theretofore granted and dismissing the bill. From this decree the complainants below have taken their appeal, and assign as error the dissolution of their injunction and the dismissal iUty or oomp&teney of any testimony, oral or documentary, found in the record as evidence unless the record .affirmatively shows that the objection thereto was presented to the chancellor and expressly ruled upon by him in the court below at or before the final hearing of the -cause. Every paper purporting to be evidence found ■copied by the clerk into the record in chancery causes will be presumed by this court to have been offered in 'evidence in the court below.” There is no doubt that the certified copies of the two deeds mentioned, if admissible and competent, as under the above rule they must be presumed to be, were sufficient to establish a transfer of Neil Campbell, Sr.’s, title to McWlftcter and Christian Campbell and their grantee Jernigan, provided there was a valid judgment as a basis for the execution sale, lit is likewise true that the other evidence, if admissible and competent, was sufficient to establish, a judgment of the Circuit Court as a basis for the execution sale. It follows, therefore, under the application of the above quoted rule, that the appellants did establish such a title to the premises as to entitle them to an injunction restraining the appellees or defendants from trespassing on the lands, and that the court below erred in dissolving the injunction and dismissing the bill, as there was .no sufficient evidence in denial of the title thus shown to have been in complainants to have authorized a decree in favor of the defendants.

The dtecree of the Circuit Court is reversed with directions to- permit the complainants by appropriate proceedings, if they shall be so advised, to establish, if they can, copies of the lost or destroyed originals of the judgment and execution in favor of Christian Campbell against Neil Campbell, Sr., and of the deed by A. B. Dixon as sheriff to Christian Campbell and George G. McWhorier in pursuance of the execution sale made by such sheriff, and of the deed from! Christian Campbell and George G. McWhorter to William' Y. Jernigan, and to defer the final hearing of this caus’e for a reasonable time to permit such establishment proceedings to be instituted and determined, and in the event such lost or destroyed documents shall be successfully established, that the complainants be permitted to introduce them it. evidence herein, and for such further proceedings as may be consonant with equity practice. It is further adjudged that the appellees do pay the costs of this appeal.