Morton v. Tolbert
Morton v. Tolbert
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was" delivered by
*443 “The plaintiff brought this action to recover the possession of two small tracts of land, aggregating nine acres. The complaint was served on the 13th of September, 1917. According to the allegations of the complaint the plaintiff claims that she is the sole owner of the premises in fee simple, and that during the year 1912 the defendant entered thereon, and unlawfully ousted the plaintiff from possession.
“The cáse was tried before his Honor, Judge Shipp, and a jury, and the jury rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the possession of the whole of the premises.
“The defendant has appealed, charging error in the presiding Judge in not granting a nonsuit at close of plaintiff’s case, and also charging error in the presiding Judge not having directed a verdict at the close of all the testimony. The grounds of the motion for a nonsuit and for a direction of verdict are set forth in the ‘case,’ and need not be repeated here.
“The points made by the appeal are: (a) That there was no proof -that the premises sued for in the complaint are included in the chain of title put in evidence, and under •which plaintiff undertook to prove that she was the owner in fee simple of the premises sued for; (b) that, even if it should be admitted, for the sake of argument, that the premises sued for in the complaint are included in the chain of title introduced by plaintiff, still this chain of title only shows that plaintiff is the owner of a part interest in the premises, as a tenant in common, with other parties, not parties to the action, and under the allegations of the complaint the plaintiff could not recover, for the reason that under the circumstances the jury had no alternative but to find either in favor of plaintiff or against her, and a verdict in her favor for the whole was manifest error.”
*444
The appeal is dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Morton v. Tolbert.
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Costs — Appeal—Recoed.—The case not conforming to the rule, the evidence not being given in narrative form, and much of it being wholly unnecessary, disbursements will not be allowed; both sides being responsible for the record. 2. Ejectment — Necessity of Title. — One in possession of land has right to retain possession against all the world, except the true owner, and so need not show title to recover of one removing her from possession.