Hollars v. Rains
Hollars v. Rains
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the Court by
Reversing.
On January 1, 1844, a patent was issued to- Thomas Decker for one hundred acres of land. Appellants claim under this patent. On August 13, 1855, a patent was issued to Jesse Miller for two hundred acres of land. Appellees claim under this patent and claim that the land in controversy is not included in the Decker patent. The question presented is, therefore, the proper location of the Decker patent. It is conceded that the Miller patent covers the land in controversy, hut that patent is void insofar as it lapped on the Decker patent. The controversy is- roughly illustrated in the following map:
As the survey calls to run with Dean’s line up the branch to the beginning, the beginning comer must be in Dean’s line. Dean’s line does run up the branch. The location of Dean’s line is undisputed. The line from (8) to (1) does not run up the branch or with Dean’s line. It runs a few yards with a branch and then runs over two ridges.
In Albertson v. Chicago Veneer Company, 177 Ky. 292, this court, citing a number of previous opinions, thus stated the rule as to the location of a survey which calls for the lines of an older patent:
“If a prior survey is called for in a patent, as its boundary, and the lines of the prior survey are established lines, then they control the boundary lines of the subsequent survey, which calls for them.”
The rule is based on the known fact that persons taking up land adjoining an older patent aim to run with the lines of that patent to avoid conflict with it and to avoid leaving out a strip of land between the new survey and the old.
It is very common in Kentucky patents that the closing line or lines should be designated as mnning with the older patent to the beginning, where the beginning corner is in one of the lines of the old patent. The rule, as above quoted, has so often been declared that it is not now open to question. In a few cases the surveyor’s plot and other circumstances have been held sufficient to show that the surveyor thought that the line he indicated was the line of the old patent, when in fact it was not a line of that patent. But nothing of this sort is shown
The court should have instructed the jury peremptorily that the Decker patent and the deeds under which appellants hold include the land in controversy.
Thomas Decker on September 29, 1848, conveyed to Jesse Miller the land covered by his patent. While Miller held this land he obtained the two- hundred acre patent above referred to, and after this he conveyed by warranty deed on October 13,1865, the Decker tract to Riley Parnell, under whom appellants claim. If on another trial there is evidence sufficient to take the case to the jury on the question of adverse possession, the court will instruct the jury as to the extent of possession of Miller’s vendees under the warranty deed. Richie v. Owsley, 137 Ky. 68, 143 Ky. 1; Hopson v. Cunningham, 161 Ky. 162, Caughlin v. Wilson, 167 Ky. 44.
As the judgment must be reversed for the reason above given, and the evidence as to adverse possession is reported in abstract and the facts are not sufficiently shown to enable the court to intelligently pass on it, the question of the sufficiency of the evidence to take the case to the jury thereon! is reserved.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded for a new trial.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.