Tucker v. Wimpey
Tucker v. Wimpey
Opinion of the Court
This case, being an action of complaint for land to recover fractional lot number 261 in the 12th land district of Houston County, was before this court on a former occasion. Tucker v. Wimpey, 155 Ga. 118 (116 S. E. 315). The judgment of the trial court was then reversed, because the judge erred in rejecting an administrator’s deed offered in evidence by the plaintiffs, and in granting a nonsuit. On a subsequent trial in the court below, the plaintiffs introduced the administrator’s deed and other muniments of title showing a complete' chain of title extending from the State to the plaintiffs. One of the muniments of title in the plaintiffs’ chain was a deed from Daniel Adams to John G. White.
1. “Possession under a duly recorded deed will be construed to extend to all the contiguous property embraced therein.” Civil Code (1910), § 4167. Applying this law it has been held: “Where a deed properly recorded conveyed five contiguous lots, describing them by their numbers and naming the aggregate quantity of land conveyed, the whole, although called in the deed ‘five tracts or lots of land . . containing 202-1/2 acres each,’ may be considered as one entire tract, the boundaries of which are the original lines on the margins of the tract as established by the State when the lots were laid off in the original survey. Possession under such a deed of a part of the land thus conveyed will embrace the whole tract described in the deed.” Johnson v. Simerly, 90 Ga. 612 (16 S. E. 951); Baxter v. Mattox, 106 Ga. 344 (32 S. E. 94); Durham Coal & Coke Co. v. Wingfield, 142 Ga. 725 (83 S. E. 683); Rowe v. Henderson Naval Stores Co., 143 Ga. 756 (85 S. E. 917). The request to review and overrule the foregoing decisions, in so< far as they decide the principle quoted above, is denied.
2. The defendants, in support of their answer setting up title to the land by prescription based on seven years adverse possession under color of title, introduced: (1) a certified copy of a bond for title from James B. M!oore to W. E. Wimpey, one of the defendants, which was executed May 26, 1911, and recorded June 11, 1911, more than seven years before commencement of the suit on Eebruary 25, 1921; (2) a deed from Moore to Wimpey, executed to comply with the bond for title, November 5, 1915, which was less than seven years before commencement of the suit. Other documentary evidence was introduced showing claims of title in defendants’ predecessors prior to the date of the bond for title. The bond for title included the lot number 261 and other land, describing the property to which it referred as follows: “A certain tract or parcel of land situated, lying, and being in the County of Houston, State of Georgia, and being whole lots numbers 212, 249, 250, 251, 253, 252, 256, 257, 213, and containing two hundred, two and one half acres each, and aggregating 1822-1/2 acres. Also the following portions of lots, to wit: 181 acres of lot No. 254, 198 acres of lot No. 255, 160 acres of lot No. 261, 140 acres .of lot No. 262, 25 acres of lot No. 263, 70 acres of lot No. 156; said fractions of lots containing seven hundred and seventy-four acres. All of said lots and fractions of lots lying and being in the original twelfth land district of Houston County, Georgia, except lot No. 156, which lies in the 11th land district of Houston
3. The written bond for title and deeds relied on as color of title distinguish the whole lots from the fractional lots, and under application of the principle stated in note 1, supra, do not purport to refer to the fractional lots as forming with the whole lots one entire body of land, but purport to show that the whole lots were conveyed as one body and the fractional lots were conveyed separately.
4. The actual possession of parts of the whole lots would not, under such color of title, extend by construction to the fractional lots.
5. Concerning the fractional lot number 261, a witness testified that it “is known as a swamp lot, and no cultivation on it. This lot does not touch any land that is cultivated at the present time. It is in the extreme corner of the other lands shown on this plat, across to one side and on the river.” Another witness testified: “I think there has been cultivation on lot 261, but not in recent years. . . There are no buildings on it.” Another witness (Steve Lawson) testified: “Mr. John R. Wimberly first owned the Durham Place. . . The ‘old nest egg’ is on that lot [261], . . This lot . . was a part of the Dur
6. The evidence did not demand a finding setting up a title by prescription, and it was erroneous for the judge to direct a verdict for the defendants. Judgment reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. We concur in the result reached by the court, but dissent from the rulings made in headnotes 3 and 4. The instruments referred to in headnote 3 conveyed one tract of land composed of the whole and fractional lots therein referred to as constituting
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.