Robinson

Ejectment for land in San Mateo county. A certificate of purchase for the lands involved herein was issued to Benjamin S. Green by the register and receiver of the land office of the United States, March 5, 1863, and a patent therefor was issued to him August 1, 1871. April 21, 1869, Green and wife mortgaged the land to C. C. Wilson and J. P. Jourdan, and in an action for the foreclosure of this mortgage, commenced September 6, 1870, a judgment ivas rendered, under which the land was sold January 2, 1872, and on the same day the sheriff’s certificate therefor filed in the office of the county recorder. July 3, 1872, the sheriff executed his deed to the purchaser, who, on the twenty-sixth day of September, 1872, conveyed his interest in the land to William Ford.

April 1, 1872, John McCombe commenced an action in the fifteenth district court in and for the city and county of San Francisco, against Green and wife, and a writ of attachment was issued therein, under which the sheriff of San Mateo county, on the next day, purported to levy upon all the right, title, and interest of Green and wife in the land. Judgment was rendered in this action in favor of plaintiff, November 5, 1880,…

Green was the owner of certain land. It was sold under foreclosure proceedings by his mortgagee. Pending the issuance of the sheriff’s *686 deed, and during Green’s possession, it was attached as Green’s property. Subsequent to the attachment Green deeded it to the defendant, Thornton, who entered into the possession thereof. The attachment proceedings ripened into a judgment, sale under execution and deed by the sheriff. Plaintiff as the holder of such deed brings an action of ejectment against Thornton, who entered under his deed from Green. Thornton pleads the statute of limitations, claiming to have held possession adversely to the world for the statutory period.

I premise a short statement of my views by suggest- -ing that the rule so often declared in the decisions of courts, that the plaintiff must recover in ejectment upon the strength of his own title, is not without exception. The principle of estoppel is often invoked, in such cases, and the defendant debarred from attacking plaintiff’s title by showing a better title in a stranger. This is always true where the claims of both parties arise from a common source.

If the leading opinion in this case holds that the…