Tustin v. Sammons
Tustin v. Sammons
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Plaintiffs declared in trespass : “For that -the said defendant heretofore, to wit: from the first to the sixth days of December, A. D. 1897, or near that time, with force and arms and without authority, did enter upon the plaintiffs’ land situate in Aleppo township, said county, and did then and there wilfully and maliciously remove the top rails from several posts of a fence which the plaintiff has recently built, and in other ways did injure and damage said fence.” Notice was given of the .plaintiffs’ determination to claim damages for a continuing trespass until the date of trial. There was no amendment of the plaintiffs’ statement offered or filed. According to the testimony of one of the plaintiffs, a fence which inclosed the southern side of his farm had been in existence continuously, to his knowledge, for thirty-two years. He purchased the farm from the defendant in 1879, the deed therefor having been made October 24, 1881. The fence seems to have been considered by the plaintiffs and defendant as a line fence. In his cross-examination one of the plaintiffs said: “ Q. Now, wasn’t your agreement, you were to keep that up and Mr. Sammons was to keep the piece running from there out to Weed Bryan’s? A. There was such talk as that. Q. And didn’t you do that? A. No, sir; he did not keep his up. Q. And you kept yours up, under this agreement? A. I do not know that there was any agreement. I told him I would keep up one end and he could keep up the other. Q. You kept up the end where there was a dispute? A. Yes, sir. Q. And he did not ? A. He might have laid up a rail now and then. Q. That was your end to keep up, under your agreement ? A. We never just had it divided.”
The defendant at the trial presented the following point for charge: “ William Tustin, one of the plaintiffs, having testified that a fence had stood between his land and the land of the defendant for upwards of thirty years, and had been kept up by them since he owned his land, a period of upwards of twenty years; that he, the said Tustin, had used the land up to that fence from the north side, and had had no possession of the land on the south side thereof; that Bussell Sammons, the defendant, had during the same period of time used and had the exclusive possession of the land up to that fence from the south side thereof, the said William Tustin, by moving this fence in the latter part of November, 1897, over on to the land occupied and in the possession of the defendant, which fence was promptly removed by said defendant, did not, by the removal of the fence iu the mqnner in which it was done, acquire any such
The point for charge, being based upon the testimony of one of the plaintiffs, the facts being undisputed, contained a legal proposition to which the defendant was entitled to an answer. It is not answered as a legal proposition and the defendant thereby suffered. In our opinion, this point and the defendant’s ninth point “ that, under all the evidence in this case, the verdict of the jury should be for the defendant,” should have been affirmed. The discussion of the question raised by these two points and the result reached thereby avoids the necessity for the discussion of other questions involved in the answers to the points of both defendant and plaintiffs which are set forth in other assignments of error. In Wilkinson v. Connell, 158 Pa. 126, the ground upon which a plaintiff in trespass must base his right to recover is clearly stated: “ To enable a plaintiff to maintain this action (trespass quare clausum fregit) he must have the possession, actual or constructive, of the close which he alleges has been invaded. If the land entered by the trespasser is unimproved, possession will be presumed to accompany the title, and this constructive possession will support an action. If the land is improved, that fact shows that it is in the actual possession of some one. In such case the plaintiff cannot rest on his title but must show his possession.” “ Possession of the locus in quo of a trespass is the test of the right to sue for it. For an injury to wild land the owner may maintain an action by showing his title to it, but this is on the principle that the law gives him a constructive possession. When another person has the actual occupancy, the exhibition of a paramount title is not sufficient to sustain trespass, either against the disseisor or against any
It is unnecessary to consider the remaining assignments of error, although it will be seen from what has been said that a number of them would be necessarily sustained. Judgment reversed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting:
This action of trespass was brought on February 8, 1898. In their statement filed on the same day the plaintiffs alleged that the defendant, “ from the first to the sixth days of December, 1897, or near that time, with force and arms and without authority, did enter upon the plaintiffs’ land and then and there did wilfully and maliciously remove top wires from several posts of the fence which the plaintiff had recently built, and in other ways did injure and damage said fence.’’
In January, 1899, the plaintiffs gave notice that upon the trial of the case they would claim damages up to the date of trial. It appeared from the plaintiffs’ testimony that the fence in question was completed in the latter .part of November, 1897, and that-the trespass complained of in the statement was committed about a week or ten days afterwards.
I concur with my brethren in the conclusion that there was reversible error in permitting the plaintiff to prove that on March 7, 1898, after the suit was brought, the defendant completed the demolition of the fence and rebuilt it upon what the
But I am unable to concur in the conclusion that it was the duty of the court to declare as a matter of law that the plaintiff could not maintain trespass for the injury declared on in his statement of claim. Whether such conclusion would be warranted if the point quoted in Brother Beaver’s opinion embraced all the relevant facts, is a question which I deem it unnecessary to discuss, for I am unable to agree that it embraced all the relevant facts.
The fence in question was built by the plaintiff to enclose the land claimed by him to be embraced by his title. It included a narrow strip of land, which for part of its length was part of an old road, which it was claimed by the plaintiff had been abandoned, and for the other part of its length lay to the south of an old fence which for many years prior to 1887 had bounded the possessions of the parties. If the part of the strip which “ lay out to the old road,” as the witnesses expressed it, was embraced within the plaintiff’s title, how can it be said that the plaintiff obtained possession of it unlawfully by enclosing it by a fence, when the old road ceased to be a public highway ? UJdou what theory can it be claimed that the defendant had a right to destroy that portion of the fence, and would not be liable in trespass for so doing ? This has not been made clear to my mind. But aside from this, there was evidence from which the jury were warranted in finding that both parties claimed that the old fence was not on the line between their properties, although they did not agree as to the true location of the line.
The plaintiff testified: “Well I went up there to fix my share of this fence. I could not keep his stock out and I went up there to build it, and he came to me and told me that he wanted it on the line. I told him I did, too, as near as I could get it; somehow that way.”
“ Q. Didn’t he tell you when you were building that fence if you -built it there he would tear it down? A. Yes, sir. Q. What did he tell you ? A. He said if I didn’t put it on the line he would. Q. And he didn’t agree to that as the line? A. It appeared not.”
The interpretation of this language was for the jury, but they might fairly interpret what the plaintiff said to mean, not that he could tear down the fence in any event, but that he would tear it down if it was not on the true line. If the plaintiff’s testimony was to be believed, it certainly was not for the court to declare that he obtained possession by artifice or violence, and the doctrine enunciated in Zell v. Ream, 31 Pa. 304, was not applicable to the case. In short, if both parties claimed that the old fence was not on the true line and both desired it to be put on the line, and if the plaintiff put it on the true line and was in peaceable possession of the land thus enclosed, even for so short a period as a week or ten days, I do not see why he could not maintain trespass. I respectfully submit that these questions of fact, including the question of the peaceableness of the plaintiff’s possession, were for the jury.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.