Asher v. Gibson
Asher v. Gibson
Opinion of the Court
Opinion op the Court by
Affirming.
This suit was filed in the Bell circuit court to recover possession of about fifty saw logs, valued at $700.00, alleged to have been taken by appellant from a tract of land belonging to appellees. Appellant denied that the logs were taken from appellees’ land and alleged that they were cut from land belonging to him.
The appellees are the owners of a fifty-acre tract of land which adjoins a tract owned by appellant. The closing line of the fifty-acre tract is called for in the deed under which appellant claims the adjoining land. Its location is the controverted point in the pleadings. That question was submitted to a jury, which returned a ver
The testimony that is complained of was given by T. F. Gibson. It related to the beginning corner of the fifty-acre tract. That witness -was asked if he had ever seen the corner, and, over the objection of appellant,-was permitted to -answer in the 'affirmative. He was -then permitted to say where the corner was located. In response to the next-question, however, he stated that he had never seen the comer while it was standing. Later he stated that his father, who was dead, and' under whom he and the other appellees were claiming, had claimed to the point that the witness had indicated in his previous testimony as the place where the corner was located. This testimony was objected to, and it is said that its admission was not only erroneous but prejudicial. Under Stacy v. Alexander, 143 Ky. 152, and other decisions of this court construing subsection 2 of section 606 of the Civil Code of Practice, one cannot testify for himself concerning statements of, or transactions with, -another who is dead when the testimony is given. It follows, therefore, that the testimony of T. P. Gibson in this particular was inadmissible. We are, however, not prepared to say that it constituted the only evidence that authorized the submission of the case to the 'jury, or that its admission was prejudicial error in respect to its effect unon the verdict. Both of these questions will be disposed of in considering the next contention.
It is said, on the authority of LeMoyne v. Anderson, 123 Ky. 584, and numerous other decisions of this court, that appellees could only recover upon -the strength of their own title without reference to any infirmity in the title of their adversary, -and, excluding the testimony of T. P. Gibson, there was no evidence -to show that appellees’ boundary of fifty-acres included the land from which the timber was cut. We are unable to assent to this proposition, for we think there is ample evidence to show that 'the timber was cut -on appellees ’’side of the disputed line as described in their deed to the fifty-acre tract. Appellant, by answer to the amended petition, admitted that his deed called for .that line, but alleged that the call was
It is next contended by appellant that instruction No, 1 was erroneous since it submitted to the jury both the law and the facts. The instruction submitted the question as to whether the line described in appellant’s deed as running 52 degrees and 10 minutes west 1251 feet crossing the L. & N. R. R. at 1,011 feet, bearing with the railroad north 3,10 west to the east bank of Cumberland river, was or was not the line of the Renfro patent. This was the issue to which all the evidence was directed. It was not a question of law'but one of fact. The jury evidently understood that all it was to do was to locate the line between the two tracts according to the evidence introduced, and that to find that the line was located at the point claimed by appellees was a finding that they owned the timber, and to find that it was located at the point claimed by appellant was a finding that he owned the timber. The jury was conversant with the respective claims of the parties as they appeared on the maps filed in evidence, and it found that the disputed line was where appellees claimed it was. The instruction was not confusing. It submitted a question of fact upon which the jury, returned a verdict favorable to appellees.
It is finally insisted that the verdict is too indefinite to support any judgment. The verdict reads: “¥e, the jury, find for the plaintiffs according to instruction No. 1.” There is no ambiguity in this finding; it.is a clear
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.