Bennett v. Morrison
Bennett v. Morrison
Opinion of the Court
Opinion,
We do not think the mere fact of the recovery in the action of ejectment brought by Mrs. Weatherby against Chester Dennison rendered the possession of the latter hostile and adverse to Mrs. Weatherby. The judgment was by default; the ejectment was to enforce the article of agreement, and therefore in affirmance of it. No subsequent proceedings were ever had upon this judgment; no habere was issued, nor was possession delivered to the plaintiff. Such a recovery is not equivalent to an entry, even to bar the statute of limitations, and
If the recovery in the ejectment were all there is in the case, the court below would have been right in withdrawing it from the jury and directing a verdict for the plaintiff. But there is the testimony of the defendant himself, who swears that he paid Dennison $15 for the possession in 1868; that Dennison delivered up the key to him in pursuance thereof, and that he has been in adverse possession ever since; that he never paid any rent to his brother J ames; that he claimed to own the property and repudiated his brother’s claims as landlord; and also that he has paid the taxes thereon continuously since 1868. It is true all this is denied by the plaintiff, and it is quite possible the jury would find the truth on her side. But the evidence amounts to more than a scintilla, and it was error to withdraw it from the jury.
The judgment is reversed, and a venire facias de novo awarded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JOS. C. BENNETT v. MARY C. MORRISON
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. The mere recovery of a judgment by a vendor of lands in an action of ejectment against the vendee to enforce payment of the purchase money, is not of itself sufficient to make the possession of the defendant, continued thereafter, adverse and hostile to the vendor, in view of the statute of limitations. 2. A defendant in ejectment testified to a continuous possession -first taken by him under a parol purchase and payment more than twenty-one years before suit, and the payment of taxes during that period: Held, that the evidence should have been submitted to the jury in support of his claim of title by adverse possession.