Sessions v. Tensas River Planting Co.
Sessions v. Tensas River Planting Co.
Opinion of the Court
The property in dispute in this case is a tract of 797 acres of wooded swamp land. Plaintiff traces title to the patentee. Defendant claims title by the prescription of 10 years. According to the registered titles the land is bounded on the east and south by the Beilina plantation. Defendant claims that by deeds translative of property it formed part of Beilina plantation for more than 10 years before the filing of this suit. This plantation was originally owned by Frederick Stanton. At his death it passed to his heirs, and all the sales that have since been made, except the recent ones to defendant and its immediate author in title, have been among the descendants of Stanton, or, in other words, in the family. Plaintiff contends that of the three essentials for the prescription of 10 years, namely, title, possession, and good faith, defendant has not one.
“Until Ms possession is disturbed he does not have to concern himself with any claims that other people may be recording against his property. Registry is for the benefit of those who wish to contract with reference to property— to inform them of the condition of the title to the property with reference to which they are about to contract — and was never designed to operate as a means of disturbing or ousting the possession of the owner of the property.”
See, also, 1 R. C. L. 729; 2 C. J. 239; and also the following, cited in plaintiff’s brief, but which we have not taken the trouble to verify: Turner v. Moore, 81 Tex. 206, 16 S. W. 929; St. L., I. M. & S. R. R. v. Moore, 83 Ark. 377, 103 S. W. 1136, 119 Am. St. Rep. 142; Bailey v. Carleton, 12 N. H. 9, 37 Am. Dec. 190; Steedman v. Hilliard, 3 Rich. (S. C.) 101; Schmitt v. Traphagen, 73 N. J. Eq. 399, 69 Atl. 189, 133 Am. St. Rep. 739; McNeeley v. South. Penn. Oil Co., 52 W. Va. 640, 44 S. E. 508, 62 L. R. A. 562; Arnold v. Abeles, 98 Ark. 367, 135 S. W. 833.
The receivers of the defendant company have been made parties to this suit.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- SESSIONS v. TENSAS RIVER PLANTING CO.
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- 5 cases
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- Syllabus
- (Syllabus by Editorial Staff.) 1. Adverse Possession Evidence of the occasional cutting of cord-wood would not support a finding of title by prescription, where the witnesses were not positive whether the wood was taken from the land in dispute or from an adjoining plantation. 2. Adverse Possession That some of the neighbors thought a tract of wooded swamp land formed part of an adjoining plantation was not an act of possession, nor was the fact that cows were allowed to roam in the swamp. 3. Adverse Possession To acquire title by prescription, under the principle that possession of part with title to the whole is possession of the whole, the. lands'of which a part is possessed must be the lands sought to be acquired by prescription, and not some other land.