In 1818, Herman and Hannah Le Roy commenced a lawsuit against their son, Herman Le Roy, Jr. The matter, in reality, was not a contested one. Rather, it was a means by which their son, a wealthy New York City merchant, conveyed property to his mother, Hannah. The suit was a way for Herman Le Roy, Jr. to convey clear title to the lands to his mother.
The type of action they filed was an action then known as "the fine". Before about 1833, the fine was a fictitious personal action that the parties "settled" and presented to the court for approval of the settlement. The defendant in such an action was called the "Deforciant" because the fictitious action was premised around the fiction that the defendant seller of land was unjustifiably using force to prevent the buyers from possessing the land -- deforcing them from the land. The purchasers brought an action begun by writ of covenant against the seller of the land. The parties then applied to the court for approval of a compromise of the action. Typically the seller would admit that the land belonged to the purchasers because the seller had made a gift of the land. The "fine" was the payment for the land. The terms of the settlement were recorded in court records and public notice of the settlement was provided typically by publication in local newspapers.
According to the eighth edition of Black's Law Dictionary (2004), "[t]he fine owed its popularity as a means of conveyancing to two factors, neither of which was present in the standard method of conveyance by means of feoffment. First, the enrolling in the court records provided evidence of the transaction which was both permanent and free from the danger of forgery. Secondly, the effect of the fine was to set running a short period of limitation at the expiration of which all claims to the land were barred. It was this second aspect which made the device attractive as a means of 'barring' fees tail." (quoting Butt, Petter, Land Law, pp. 102-03 (2d ed. 1988).
A series of identical notices of the fine filed by Herman and Hannah Le Roy appeared in
The New-York Evening Post beginning in November 1818. The notice provides an important historical record of the lands that Herman Le Roy, Jr. owned and conveyed to his parents. For this reason, the notice is reproduced below in its entirety.
"SUPREME COURT.
Herman Le Roy and Hanna his wife, Plaintiffs.
vs.Herman Le Roy, Junior,
Deforciant.
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PUBLIC notice is hereby given, pursuant to the statute in such case made and provided, that in the Supreme Court of Judicature of the People of the State of New-York, held at the city of New-York on the first Monday of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, before Smith Thompson, Ambrose Spencer, William W. Van Ness, Joseph C. Yates, and Jonas Platt, Esquires, Justices of the said Supreme court a fine with proclamations of the lands and tenements hereinafter mentioned was levied and acknowledged between the parties aforesaid, which fine is to the effect following to wit. West Chester County, to wit. This is the final agreement made in the Supreme court of Judicature of the People of the State of New York, at the city of New-York, on the first Monday in May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, before Smith Thompson, Ambrose Spencer, William W. Van Ness, Joseph C. Yates, and Jonas Platt, Esquires, Justices of the said Supreme court, and others then and there present, between Herman Le Roy and Hannah his wife, Plaintiffs, and Herman Le Roy, Junior, of the city and state of New-York, merchant, deforciant of all those to messuages and three hundred and fifteen acres of land, meadow, pasture, wood, salt meadow, sedge, marsh, and land covreed with water, with the appurtenances, situate at Pelham, in the county of West Chester being a certain farm of land consisting of three several tracts, pieces or parcels, butted and bounded as follows, that is to say, First, all that certain tract, piece or parcel of land, meadow, pasture, salt meadow, sedge, marsh, and land covered with water, lying upon the southerly side of the highway leading through Pelham aforesaid, from the bridge at the mouth of East Chester Creek to New Rochelle. Beginning at the corner where the division line between the said farm and the farm of captain Joseph Sackett crosses the said highway, thence running southerly with the said division line to the mouth of a small stream or run of fresh water which flows from a spring on the northerly side of the said highway near the place of beginning and discharges itself into Pelham Bay, or that part or arm of the East River or Long Island Sound which separates a certain island called 'Hunters Island' alias 'Hendersons Island' alias 'Appleby's Island' from the main land, then running along the middle of the channel formed by the said stream of fresh water through the sedge or marsh belonging to John Hunter, thence running southerly and westerly with the said low water mark, and the sedge or marsh of the said John Hunter, to a point where the said low water mark diverges from the land of the said John Hunter, thence still running southerly and westerly along the shore of the said bay, river or sound, at and with the said low water mark, to the mouth or entrance of a small salt creek, flowing from the said bay, river or sound into the main land, and which creek is the boundary of land belonging to James Harvey, thence running up and along the middle of the said creek to the aforesaid highway, and thence running easterly with the said highway to the place of beginning -- Secondly, and also all that other tract, piece or parcel of land, meadow, pasture and wood, lying on the northerly side of the said highway, and opposite to the tract, piece or parcel above described, butted and bounded as follows, viz. : beginning at the corner where the division line between the said farm and the aforesaid farm of the said Joseph Sackett crosses the said division line and following the several courses thereof to land of George Crawford, then running with the last mentioned land to a road called 'Pelham road,' leading from the before mentioned highway to the West-Chester turnpike and thence running southerly with the said Pelham road to the junction with the first mentioned highway, and thence running easterly, with the said highway, to the place of beginning -- Thirdly, and also all that certain other tract, piece or parcel of land, meadow, pasture, wood, salt meadow, sedge, marsh, and land covered with water, lying and being also upon the northerly side of the first mentioned highway, and also opposite to the tract, piece or parcel first above described, butted and bounded as follows, via : Beginning at the northerly side of the said highway, at the corner where the said highway crosses the little salt creek before mentioned by salt meadow now or late of Elbert Roosevelt ; thence running up and along the middle of the said creek, to a piece of salt meadow, now or late of Moses Clark, David Clark and Ransom Burtis ; thence running along and around the last mentioned peice of salt meadow following, the several courses of the boundary thereof, to the middle of the said salt creek, at the north-westerly end or side of the said piece of salt meadow ; thence running up and along the mideel of the said salt creek, to a piece of salt meadow, now or late of the heirs or devisees of William Bailey, deceased ; thence running with the last mentioned piece of salt meadow, to salt meadow and land, now of George Crawford ; thence running with the last mentioned salt meadow and land, to the Pelham road before mentioned ; thence running southerly with that road to its junction with the last mentioned highway, and thence running westerly with the highway to the place of beginning ; and which three tracts, pieces or parcels, contain together in all three hundred and fifteen acres of land, meadow, pasture, wood, salt meadow, sedge, marsh, and land covered with water, be the same more or less : Whereupon a plea of covenant was summoned between them in the same court, that is to say, that he the said Herman Le Roy, junior, hath acknowledged the said tenements, with the appurtenances, to be the right of her the said Hannah, as those which the said Hannah hath of the gift of the said Herman Le Roy, junior, hath remised and quit-claimed from him the said Herman Le Roy, junior, and his heirs, to the said Hannah, and her heirs forever ; and more over the said Herman Le Roy, junior, hath granted for himself and his heirs, that he will warrant to the said Hannah and her heirs, the aforesaid tenements, with the appurtenances, against all persons forever. And for this acknowledgement, remise, quit-claim, warranty, fine and agreement, the said Herman Le Roy and Hannah his wife, have given to the said Herman Le Roy, junior, thirty-five thousand dollars ; and that the said fine was proclaimed the first time in the said supreme court, on the seventh day of May, in the year first above mentioned. Dated the fourteenth day of November, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen.
HERMAN LE ROY,
HANNAH LE ROY,
HERMAN LE ROY, junior.
Towr, attorney. no 15 Mlaw 5w"
Supreme Court,
The New-York Evening Post, Nov. 23, 1818, p. 4.
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