248. Scribere est agere. To write is the same thing as to act.
A deed in writing is, at the present time, sufficient to effect the transfer of property, without any actual livery of seisin.
* 249. Seisina (non jus) facit stipitem. Seisin (not the law) makes the root of descent.
This was formerly a most important maxim, but the doctrine is exploded by the Inheritance Act, 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 106, which enacts that “Descent shall in all cases be traced from the last purchaser, whether he may or may not have actually obtained possession.” The purchaser is defined by the Act as being the last person who had a right to the land who cannot be proved to have acquired the land by descent, or by certain means which render the land part of, or descendible in the same manner as other land acquired by descent (e.g., escheat, partition, or enclosure). Under the old law no one could be such an ancestor as to have descent traced from him, unless he had been in actual possession of the land, or in receipt of the rents and profits prior to his death.
250. Semper in dubiis benigniora praeferenda. In doubtful matters the more liberal (constructions) are to be preferred.
(See Max. No. 26.)
251. Semper in obscuris quod minimum est sequimur. In obscure (constructions) the law follows that which is least obscure.
(Williams v. Crosling, 3 C. B. 962, and Max. No. 26.)
252. Semper praesumitur pro negante. Presumption is ever in favour of the negative.
The “onus probandi” lies on the plaintiff (see Maxs. Nos. 24 and 69). It is also to be remembered that every one is presumed in law to be innocent until the contrary is proved.