Games v. our or New onnmns. 33
complainant, who, afte1· 47 years of resistance, calls it into a court of
equity, and shows that it is the author of this deliberately unjust and
1ong·continued disposssession, a compensation equal to her established
pecuniary loss. '
In the light of these twofold liabilities of the defendant, I will con-
sider the master’s report as to the revenues which were and could E
have been derived., His report enables the court to come to a con- Q
clusion on the subject from two distinct processes, sustained by two
distinct resources of testimony. .
_ As to the improved property, from an examination of 64 different
squares and lots, upon the testimony derived largely from the tenants
themselves, he shows, after allowing for all expenditures for ameliora-
tions and taxes, and interest upon the same, a net income, averag-
ing 13 per cent. upon 70 per cent. of the price ofadjudication at the
public auction at which the defendant sold the same in 1837. This,
of course, would be a net annual income of over 9 per cent. upon the
entire price. As to the unimproved property, he finds as a fact that
it was capable of yielding a revenue from that which so many lots
upon the same tract did yield, and states it as at least 5 per cent.
upon 70 per cent. of the adjudicated price at said public sale. The
evidence fully establishes a further fact that the sole reason which
prevented the improvement of the unimproved lots was a fear on the
part of pretended owners and of the public that the title of the com-
plainant was well founded. Now, if the improved yielded an annual
income of upwardsof 9 per cent. net, taking the value as the full price
of adjudication, and the unimproved would have been improved but
I i for the doubt which the defendant’s wrong inspired as to the title, it
follows that 5 per cent. net, at the very lowest, would have been real-
ized, not upon 70 per cent., but upon 100 per cent. of the price of
public adjudication.
The second source of evidence upon this point is the sale upon
ground rents of property within the city limits and its suburbs. In
49 instances of ground rent reserved by the city, and 46 other cases
of ground rent reserved by Daniel Clark, in most cases, for the period
of 29 years, some of which still continue, the yearly rent was 6 per cent.
Upon the fixed value. The rate at which these ground rents were con-
temporaneously established and continued, by which the income was
fixed for long periods, furnishes a sound, independent standard, and
corroborates the inference drawn from the 64 cases into which inquiry
_ was made by the master, that the fructual value was considerably above
5 per cent. upon the ascertained value of the land. The case shows
3. great fact, which fortifies the conclusion drawn from these facts
7 found by the master. _
What the value of this Blanc tract should be held to be when it 1S
TBS3rd6d as a capital from which an income is to be held to have
been derivable, is additionally and independently established by the
v.17,no.1—3