Brown v. Cole
Brown v. Cole
Opinion of the Court
This is a writ of entry brought to recover possession of a lot of land at Biddeford Pool. The defendant filed a disclaimer to all of the land that the plaintiff set out in her writ that was north of what was claimed as a conventional line, agreed upon between the parties who owned the premises before he purchased them, and he also disclaimed to all land included in the plaintiff’s declaration that was east of what he says was at one time a stone wall. The verdict was for the defendant, and the plaintiff brings the case to this court upon a motion for a new trial as against law and evidence, and upon exceptions to the refusal of the presiding Justice to give a requested instruction. The exception can not be considered. As said by the court in Jones v. Jones, 101 Maine, 450: '‘Many times the court has reiterated the rule that an excepting party, if he would obtain any benefit from his exceptions, must set forth enough'in the bill of exceptions to enable the court to determine that the points raised are material and that the ruling? excepted to are both erroneous and prejudicial. The bill of exceptions must show what the issue was, and how the excepting party was aggrieved. . . . It is not enough that the court can find all these characteristics by studying the report of the evidence in support of the motion for a new trial, when it accompanies a bill of exceptions. The bill must be strong enough to stand alone. The court, in considering the exceptions, cannot travel outside of the bill itself.” The requested instruction called for the construction by the court of a deed that is not a part of the bill of exceptions, and is not set forth therein, and we cannot tell from the bill of exceptions whether the requested instruction was right of wrong. We cannot tell from the bill of exceptions whether the court ruled upon it, or what instructions he gave the jury in regard to the words in the deed to which our attention is called in the exceptions. He may have ruled practically as the plaintiff claims that he should, and may have given instructions to the jury in practically the same language as used in the request. We can not pass upon it and say that the court was not justified in refusing to instruct the jury as requested without an examination of the deed, and so much of his instructions to the jury as referred to the point raised. See the
At the trial the presiding Justice ruled that the record title to the disclaimed premises was in the plaintiff, and that the defendant must base his claim, if any, to the title thereof, on the ground of adverse possession. No exception was taken to this ruling, and the case was tried upon the question of adverse possession to the strip of land in controversy. The only question is, was there sufficient evidence of adverse possession of the land by the defendant, and his predecessors in title, to authorize the verdict? The defendant introduced two witnesses who testified that in 1890 there was a dispute between Mr. Brown, the husband of the plaintiff under whom she claims title by will, and Charles S. Cleaves, under whom the defendant claims title, who owned the land adjoining the Brown lot as to the line on the north side. There was a good deal of feeling, and the parties went out upon the land, walked up and down and looked it over, and that Mr. Brown said, “Well I don’t claim to own any of your land, but I do claim to own the land this side of the stable, that is, north of the stable,” and he said, “Your land runs ovei here, you straighten that line out, make a straight line down there, that will satisfy me,” and that Mr. Cleaves said, “I think I own the land, but in order to satisfy you and save further trouble I will straighten it out,” and he did so. One of the witnesses, a son of Mr. Cleaves, testified that he was sent to the barn to obtain an iron rod and stone-hammer, and in the presence of both owners and by their direction he drove the iron rod at the corner of their land, as agreed upon, and it was agreed that the line should run from that iron rod to a post on the north side. These two witnesses identify the line as claimed by the defendant as the line agreed upon at that time. The iron hub was identified by them, and there is other testimony that the iron hub was there at the time of the trial, and testimony that the defendant was shown the iron hub and the post at the time he purchased his land as the true line, and that there was a wire fence from the iron hub to the post which is shown by a photograph taken at about the time he purchased. The testimony as to the establishment of the line as set forth above is only attempted to be impeached by the testimony of a witness who
There was evidence that the jury were authorized to believe, if they saw fit, that the site of the building next to the conventional
The buildings erected by Mr. Cleaves were erected before the line was agreed upon in 1890, by Mr. Brown and Mr. Cleaves, and there can be no question but that from that time to this the owners of the land have continually maintained buildings upon the’ lot purchased by Mr. Cleaves, and which they claimed includes the part of the land not disclaimed. And the question of course is whether the jury were authorized, from the evidence, to find that the plaintiff and his predecessor have been in open, exclusive, adverse possession under a claim of right for more than twenty years prior to the interruption in 1913 by the building of a fence upon the premises by the plaintiff’s authority. The witnesses for the defendant, if their testimony is true, had knowledge of the subject about which they testified, and several of them testified
Motion overruled.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.