Goff v. Cole
Goff v. Cole
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the'court.
The contention of the counsel for appellant is correct, and the decree of the court below is erroneous to the extent complained of. Inez Cole was not entitled to partition, on the state of facts disclosed in the record, of the 347 acres of land conveyed away to G. W. Joiner and Stephen Brown by George Watts, attorney in fact of Benjamin F. and Elizabeth J. Martin, in the year 1873. These lands are not shown by
Equally unsatisfactory is the effort to maintain the right to partition of these particular 347 acres by Inez Cole on the ground of notorious adverse possession, for more than ten years, in Elizabeth J. Martin’and her heirs. The evidence as to possession is almost wholly the merest hearsay. And it is, moreover, so vague and indefinite as to forbid its application specifically to these lands whose title is disputed. The full extent and effect of the evidence is that Benjamin E. Martin said he was in possession of the Sunflower lands. What the nature and character of these 347 acres — whether wild or in cultivation, whether improved and inhabited or part of a wilderness — or what the nature and extent and character of the supposed possession, is not discoverable from the testimony taken in the case.
This is not a case where the defendant is seeking to defeat the action by showing an outstanding title in some third party. It is a case in which, as the proofs now stand, he seeks, and successfully, to show that the person demanding
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- J. M. Goff v. Inez Cole
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- p Partition. Relief. Title of complainant. In partition proceedings, where complainant’s title is denied, and the record shows that an ancestor, under whom she claims, once owned the land, but had conveyed it away, though there is ground for conjecture that it was re-acquired by the ancestor, if the evidence does not establish this, complainant must fail. 2. Same. Limitation. Adverse possession. Evidence. And, in such case, where it is claimed that the ancestor had title by limitation, based upon adverse possession, if the evidence of possession is in great part hearsay, and is so vague as to prevent its application to the land in question, relief will be denied. Without title, complainant cannot succeed. Griffin v. Sheffield, 38 Miss., 359, distinguished.