Taylor & Crate v. Asher
Taylor & Crate v. Asher
Opinion of the Court
This cause is before me for final decree. The plaintiff claims to own a tract of land on the waters of Straight creek, in Bell and Harlan counties, in this district, containing
There is evidence tending to show that, at the time these separate tracts come into the one ownership, the outside boundary of them, treated as a whole, was marked; but, whether such was done "or not, it, from that time, had an outside boundary which was marked and well-defined, made up of the outside boundaries of the parcels on the outside. But no description of such outside boundary was obtained until just shortly before the bringing of this suit, when a survey was made for that purpose, and it is described by that boundary in the bill herein. In the deeds from Howard and the lumber company to the partnership, and from it to plaintiff, and in such leases as were made, of necessity the land was described by the separate boundaries. There was no description of the single boundary of the entire body of land in existence to be used.
Of this land 468 acres in different parcels were cleared land. From the purchase by Howard and the lumber company down to January-28, 1910, when that out of which this litigation has arisen began to be done, continuously, they and their successors, the partnership of Taylor & Crate and plaintiff, had tenants — according to plaintiff’s claim from 5 to 10 — living on the land, and on that date plaintiff had as many as 14 tenants so living. In 1906 the defendant A. J. Asher obtained a deed for the land, covered by a patent for 100,000 acres of land, which emanated from the commonwealth of Kentucky to Boyd Dickerson on a survey made March 4, 1845, from the parties owning the patent. This patent was senior to all the patents under which the grantors in the deeds to Howard and the lumber company claimed, except one or two, which covered only a small portion of the lands thereby so conveyed.
Having reached the conclusion that this patent covered the bulk of the tract of land claimed by plaintiff — i. e., all except a small portion on its west side — and that by reason of its seniority he was owner of the bulk thereof, said defendant determined to assert his right of ownership out of the courthouse. He caused a body of men to enter upon the land to procure from the plaintiff’s tenants living on portions
One of these was the defendant Ephraim Thompson, who lived on the head of Baker’s branch of Stony fork of Straight creek, and the other the defendant Thomas Farrell, who lived at the mouth of Coon branch of Stony fork. The defendant A. B. Asher, a brother of the defendant A. J., moved into the Farrell house, and the defendant Grant Sizemore moved into the Thompson house. These two, in so doing, were acting on behalf of thq defendant A. J. Asher. Thereupon he, with a large force of men, including his codefendants, commenced to cut and make into staves the dak timber on the land, and had succeeded in so doing as to about 200 trees, when, on March 4, 1910, this suit was brought.
The relief thereby sought was an injunction against the further cutting and removing of timber from the land, and for an accounting for that already cut. An injunction was also, sought against interfering with the other tenants of plaintiff on the land, and from the surrender of the possession of such portions thereof as had been obtained in the manner stated to others than plaintiff.
The first question presented for determination is as to the court’s jurisdiction of the case. It was raised on demurrer to the bill, and it is strenuously urged on behalf of the defendants that this is not a case for the interposition of a court of equity. The sole basis of the position is that the defendant A. J. Asher was in possession at the time the suit was brought of at least the two houses occupied by the defendants A. B. Asher and Grant Sizemore. It may be conceded that a court of equity is without jurisdiction to enjoin one in possession of land, chiefly valuable for its timber, from cutting and removing same at the instance of one claiming the land, unless such claimant has first brought an action at law to recover the possession of the land, in which case a suit in equity may be brought, as ancillary thereto, to enjoin the cutting and removing, of the timber pending the action at law. Such may be said to be the effect of the decision in the case of Erhardt v. Boaro, 113 U. S. 537, 5 Sup. Ct. 565, 28 L. Ed. 1116.
I come, then, to the merits. The plaintiff questions whether the Dickerson patent covers more than about 40 acres of the land in dispute. This is a very interesting question, but I do not feel called on to decide it. I will do no more than to say that it seems to me that the only possible locations are the one claimed by plaintiff and the one suggested by defendants, which calls for reversing the ninth, eighth, seventh, and sixth lines until you come to Cumberland river, and then crossing that river with the fifth line, and that of the two plaintiff’s is the more plausible. I do not feel called on to decide this question, because I am constrained to hold that, even if the true location thereof is as claimed by defendants, the plaintiff and not the defendant A. J. Asher is the owner of the whole of the land in dispute. It is possible to make this out in two ways. One is that the Dickerson patent, so far as it covers the land in dispute, is a junior patent, and the defendant A. J. Asher, therefore, having no right whatever therein, the mere possession on the part of plaintiff constitutes it the true owner as against the defendant. It is clear that it is junior as to the larger portion of the land in dispute, even if defendants’ location of the Abraham Morehouse patent be the true one. It is junior as to so much thereof as is north or northwest of the last or south line of the Ben Say patent, the location of which must be accepted as claimed by the plaintiff; and it is junior as to so much thereof as would be covered by the Joseph Carey 5,000-acre patent, on the basis that defendant’s location of the Morehouse patent.were the true one.
Defendants’ location of the Carey patent, in relation to the More-house patent, is an impossible location. It calls for its first line to run with the fourth or east line of the Morehouse patent, and the Joseph Carey 10,000-acre patent and, the Freeman patent, which also bind on that line, call for the Joseph Carey 5,000-acre patent. But the plaintiff has the best of it on the location of the Morehouse patent. The evidence is persuasive that the “noted large encampment” called for near the fourth corner was where plaintiff claims it to have been. The testimony as to the statement of William C. Farmer was competent, and it has the ring of truth in it. The place was suitable for an encampment. That claimed by defendants was not suitable. The testi
But I do not base my holding that the defendant A. J. Asher has no interest in any part of the land in dispute on this position, but on the other possible way to make this out. It is that such interest as he may ever have had therein; as well as any interest therein on account of such senior patents as there may have been covering any portion of the land in dispute, had been, prior to January 28, 1910, barred and vested in plaintiff by 15 years’ continuous adverse possession on the part of plaintiff and those under whom it claims, and in 1906, when the defendant A. J. Asher acquired the Dickerson title, it was in the adverse possession thereof, and the deed to him was therefore champertous. As to this I have not the slightest question. It is clear that there was a continuous adverse possession,' through tenants living on the land, for more than 15 years before January 28, 1910, on the part of plaintiff and those under whom it claims. It is not essential that there should have been a continuous adverse possession for that time at any particular place on the land. It is sufficient that there was continuously for that length of time an adverse possession somewhere within the boundary. That there was is without doubt.
“In the case of Fox v. Hinton, 4 Bibb, 559, it was held that, where there were two interfering patents, an entry under the junior patent on a part of the interference, with an intention to take possession of the whole, gave t9 the person making such entry the possession of the Interference, to the extent of his claim. And the only circumstance which can distinguish that case from the present is that the defendant in this case claims two surveys or parcels of land, instead of one, as was done in that case. But in principle that circumstance can make no difference. For if, where a man’s tract consists of a single parcel, he can, by entry upon a part, acquire the possession of the whole, we can perceive no reason why he may not, by entering upon one parcel, where his tract consists of several adjoining parcels, acquire the possession of the whole.”
And in Parsons v. Dills Commissioner Clay said:
The “appellants further contend that the proof of adverse possession is altogether insufficient. This contention is based on the assumption that where a deed conveys several tracts by separate descriptions, and not by one complete boundary, possession of one of the tracts for the statutory period is not a possession of the other tracts embraced in the deed. For this position there is respectable authority. 1 R. C. L. ‘Adverse Possession,’ § 45; Hornblower v. Blanton, 103 Me. 375, 69 Atl. 568; 125 Am. St. Rep. 300; Carson v. Bennett, 18 N. C. 546, 30 Am. Dec. 143; Loftus v. Cobb, 46 N. C. 406, 62 Am. Dec. 173. However, in this state, where because of peculiar conditions the plea of ad*727 verse possession is regarded with more favor, that rule does not prevail. The deed, though invalid, is evidence of the extent of possession. Where, therefore, the tracts, though separately described, are conveyed by the same person and embraced in the same deed, and are contiguous to each other, adverse possession of one of the tracts for the statutory period will extend to the whole. The owner or tenant holding under him may also move from one tract to another described in the particular deed, and the different periods of possession, just so they be continuous and aggregate 15' years, will constitute adverse possession of all the tracts described in the deed..”
The modification of the opinion on petition for rehearing in Logan v. Williams, 160 Ky. 641, 170 S. W. 22, to no extent qualified the decision in Parsons v. Dills. The statement withdrawn was not necessary to the decision of the case and might lead to confusion. There is, therefore, no escaping the conclusion that plaintiff was the owner on January 28, 1910, of the land in dispute by adverse possession. It is equally true that, if such were not the case, the defendant A. J. Asher took nothing by the deed under which he claims, because plaintiff was then in the adverse possession of the entire land in dispute.
This casé has been elaborately prepared and argued, and this opinion is possibly a poor response to the efforts of counsel, in that it goes so little into detail. But the case has been so long under submission —I have been driven from it, as it were, by reason of the size of the record and the many questions in it and press of other matters — that I do not feel justified in holding it longer to deliver a more elaborate opinion. Suffice it to say, I have considered all the questions in it carefully, and have no hesitancy in reaching the conclusion that the plaintiff is entitled to a decree permanently enjoining the defendants and for an accounting.
Reference
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- TAYLOR & CRATE v. ASHER
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