John L. Roper Lumber Co. v. Hinton
Opinion of the Court
The appellant, John D. Roper Dumber Company, filed a bill in equity in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of North Carolina against Charles D. Hinton and others, heirs at law and devisees of one John U. Hinton, to quiet the title claimed by the complainant to, and enjoin trespassing by the defendants upon, a tract of land in the Eastern District of North Carolina, known and called by the name of the Old Uebanon juniper swamp. The cause being at issue, testimony was taken, and it came on for trial before the District Judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina, who filed a decree that the complainant is the owner of a tract of swamp land called Old Uebanon juniper swamp, supposed to contain 5,000 acres, more or less, and that the defendants are the owners in fee of two tracts of land called Thornton’s or Stanley’s Island, containing 85 acres, and Gales, containing 281 acres, and adjudged that the plaintiff therefore took nothing by this proceeding, and that the defendants go without day and recover their costs.
The complainant appealed from this decree upon several grounds, involving substantially that the decree was erroneous in finding that the defendants were entitled to, and the owners in fee of the two tracts of land known as Thornton’s or Stanley’s Island, containing 85 acres, and Gales, containing 281 acres, or 366 acres in all, whereas, the court should have held that the complainant was entitled to those two tracts as parts of the Old Uebanon juniper swamp; and it is upon this appeal that the case is now heard. The opinion of the learned judge below upon which he based his finding and decree, is not printed in the transcript, but is to be found printed in 260 Fed. 996.
It appears that the common ancestor or original common holder of all the land claimed by the complainant and the defendants was one John U. Hinton. The tract of land referred to in the decree of the learned judge as the Gales tract seems to have been composed of 281 acres granted to Samuel Edney, February 15, 1785. This tract seems to have eventually vested in one Hollo well Old, and in the division of the property of Hallowell Old this piece of land was allotted to his grandson, John U. Hinton. The tract of land referred to in the decree of the District Judge as the Thornton’s or Stanley’s Island tract seems to have been composed of a tract of 85 acres granted to Samuel Edney, March, 19, 1762, and which after sundry descents and mesne conveyances was on December 16, 1850, conveyed by the heirs of one John Stanley to John U. Hinton.
John U. Hinton, therefore, in December, 1850, was the owner of these two tracts of land, one containing 281 acres and the other containing 85 acres, which he acquired in the way above mentioned. Subsequently thereto, viz. on the 20th of February, 1851, Hamlin U. Epps, as the administrator of Admiral Brinkley, conveyed to John U. Hinton, under decree of the county court of Gates county, the tract of land known as the—
“Old Lebanon juniper swamp, lying in tbe counties of Gates and Camden, and supposed to contain 5,000 acres, more or less, and is tbe same tract of juniper swamp land that tbe said Brinkley and Edward C. Riddick purchased of Thos. G. Benton.”
“a certain tract of swamp land called and known as the Old Lebanon juniper swamp, lying in the counties of Camden and Gates, and supposed to contain five thousand acres, more or less, and is the same tract of juniper swamp land to which X derived title from Hamlin L. Epps, administrator and commissioner of Admiral Brinkley, deceased, reference to the records of the register’s office, Camden County, North Carolina, will at large and more fully appear.”
This James B. Norfleet is the ancestor under whom the complainant claims, and the complainant’s claim is that the description of the property conveyed in this deed from John L. Hinton to James B. Norfleet covers and includes the two previous tracts known as Thornton’s and Gales, and that, John L. Hinton having been in 1854 the owner of all three tracts, when this description covers and includes all three, all three passed, and the complainant, through the original transfer to its ancestor, James B. Norfleet, is entitled to all three of these tracts.
The conveyance from John L. Hinton to James B. Norfleet, however, made March 1, 1854, conveyed only the Old Lebanon juniper swamp, lying in the counties of Camden and Gates, supposed to contain 5,000 acres, more or less, and—
“is the same tract of juniper swamp land to which I derived title from Hamlin L. Epps, administrator and commissioner of Admiral Brinkley, deceased, reference to the records of the register’s office, Camden county, North Carolina, will at large and.more fully appear.”
When, therefore, Hinton conveyed to Norfleet, limiting his conveyance to what he had received from the estate of Brinkley, an examination of the records shows that Hinton had only received from the estate of' Brinkley, and therefore only conveyed to Norfleet, the tract of land that Brinkley owned, which was exclusive of the two smaller tracts, and no purchaser who examined the record with any degree of care could be misled.
It appears from the testimony that the two tracts of land have been located with sufficient accuracy, and the District Judge, in his final decree locating them, as appears by the map used on the trial, made his decree in pursuance of and supported by the testimony before him.
The decree below is accordingly affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- JOHN L. ROPER LUMBER CO. v. HINTON
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