Crawford v. Hamrick, 57

• Citation: 327 Mich. 591,42 N.W.2d 751
• Decision Date: 18 May 1950
• Docket Number: No. 57,57
• Parties: CRAWFORD et ux. v. HAMRICK et al.
• Court: Supreme Court of Michigan

Page 751

42 N.W.2d 751

327 Mich. 591

CRAWFORD et ux. v. HAMRICK et al.

No. 57.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

May 18, 1950.

Crandell & Crandell, Northville, for plaintiffs and appellants.

Thomas R. McAllister, Bad Ax, Arthur Axford, Detroit, for defendants and appellees.

Before the Entire Bench.

REID, Justice.

Plaintiffs pray that they be decreed to have a perfect title to the land described in plaintiffs' bill of complaint, consisting of 1 1/2 acres of land more or less, as against the claims of the defendants, who are in possession of the lands in question; that defendants' deed to the same land held to be of no force or effect as against the plaintiffs; and that plaintiffs be granted a temporary restraining order restraining the defendants from encroaching or trespassing on the land involved. From a decree for defendants, plaintiffs appeal.

The plaintiffs claim a reverter and claim to be owners in fee simple of the property in question, alleging that the plaintiff Francis C. Crawford acquired title as sole heir at law of his father, Charles Crawford, and that by the execution of additional deeds described in paragraph two of plaintiffs' bill of complaint, the plaintiffs became owners as tenants by the entireties.

Francis Crawford, grandfather of the plaintiff Francis C. Crawford, obtained title to the land in question on November 10, 1864, and conveyed it to the Pontiac, Oxford and Port Austin Railroad on July 12, 1883, by quit claim deed, for a consideration of $1,200. The following was contained in the deed, after the description: 'Provided that said lands hereby conveyed shall be used for the purpose of constructing and maintaining a railroad and the appurtenances thereto and for no other purpose whatever: * * * to have and to hold the said above granted premises to the said party of the second part and its assigns for the uses herein expressed but for no other use forever.'

On September 10, 1930, a petition to abandon the property for railroad purposes was filed with the interstate commerce commission; on September 17, 1930, the petition was granted and by July 14, 1931, the property was abandoned for railroad purposes.

The Grand Trunk Western Railway Company is successor to the Pontiac, Oxford ford and Port Austin Railroad and on July 12, 1946, conveyed the land in question by quit claim deed (recorded August 3, 1946) to Seymour K. Hamrick, Jr., one of the defendants. The transaction was handled for the company by Jacob S. Lillie, in charge of the company's land and tax department for 31 years and the only person handling real estate matters for the company. Defendant Seymour K. Hamrick, agent of Seymour K. Hamrick, Jr., represented said grantee. The consideration was $100.

The defendants soon after peaceably taking possession of the property in 1946 took up the foundations of the roundhouse, dredged out a boat well, placed a restaurant building on the premises, hauled dirt from the river and filled in the premises, landscaped the property, built an addition to the docks in the river and stoned the road.

No one interfered with the possession of the defendants until the commencement of this suit.

Plaintiffs never paid any taxes on the property. The defendants paid taxes from 1946 on the property. Plaintiffs admit that their only possession of the lands in question since the death of Charles Crawford, October 6, 1942, was through the possession of their licensee, George Beadle. Mr. Beadle was in the boat livery business. He testif...