Ejectment — Title not reaching back to sovereign — Possession of grantor in chain of title — Necessity of showing.
1. In an action of ejectment where the title asserted does not reach back to the sovereign of the soil, at least one of the grantors in the chain of title must be shown to have been in possession, at or near the time the deed was executed. [53]
Ejectment — Evidence — Pleadings — Statutory law — Act of May 8, 1901, P. L. 143.
2. Evidence, in trial of an action of ejectment, must, under section 2 of Act of May 8, 1901, P. L. 143, be limited to issues raised by the pleadings. [59]
Deeds — Construction — Grant of land bordering on flats — Express exception of flats — Boundary — Grant to "top of river bank" — Artificial dyke — Courses in deed.
3. An express exception is required in a grant of land bordering on river flats, or some unequivocal declaration or certain immemorial usage, to limit the title of the owner in such cases to the edge of the river. [55-6]
4. A grant of land to the "top of a river bank" which is washed by high tide passes title to the flat land though the bank referred to is an artificial dyke and the courses in the deed extend to the center of the top of the dyke. [56]
Real estate — Possession — Flat land.
5. Possession of firm or meadow land is possession of the flat land between high and low water mark bordering thereon. [55]
Argued December 1, 1932.
PER CURIAM, January 3, 1933:
The judgment is affirmed on the opinion of the learned trial judge of the court below.