Armstrong v. Dailey

• Decision Date: 25 September 1987
• Citation: 514 So.2d 993
• Parties: Ruth ARMSTRONG, et al. v. Betty Jo Browder DAILEY and Mollie Browder. 86-233.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 993

514 So.2d 993

Ruth ARMSTRONG, et al. v. Betty Jo Browder DAILEY and Mollie Browder.

86-233.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Sept. 25, 1987.

Cecil B. Monroe, Mobile, for appellants.

Charles R. Godwin, Atmore, for appellees.

STEAGALL, Justice.

The defendants appeal from a declaratory judgment quieting title to certain property located in Escambia County, Alabama, in the plaintiffs. We affirm.

The plaintiffs filed a complaint to quiet title and for declaratory relief, asserting that they had acquired title to the subject property by adverse possession. After receiving evidence presented ore tenus, the trial court held that title to the property was vested exclusively in John Browder at the time of his death on January 25, 1982, and that title passed by intestate succession from John to the plaintiffs, John's sole heirs and next of kin. The trial court further found that the defendants have no right, title, or interest in the property.

The defendants are heirs of Peter Armstrong, who was the owner of the subject property until 1948, when it was sold for delinquent ad valorem taxes. Before the tax sale in 1948, John Browder, Peter Armstrong's brother-in-law, had paid the mortgagee $1400, which was the balance due on an outstanding mortgage on the subject property by Peter Armstrong, that was in default. In 1950, John Browder redeemed the property and received a deed, which was never recorded and which could not be located at the time of trial.

The property was assessed for taxation in the name of John Browder from 1950 until his death in 1982. Since 1982, the property has been assessed by the plaintiffs. The Browder family has occupied the property as their residence continuously since 1969. Prior to 1969, the Browders rented the property to others for livestock grazing purposes. The Browders cut timber on the property, entered into an oil, gas, and mineral lease in 1971, and received a condemnation award when a portion of the property was acquired as a right-of-way for interstate highway 65. The Browders also held themselves out to the community as owners of the property.

Peter Armstrong died in 1948 and his widow, one of the defendants, later moved to New York, where she lived at the time of the trial. She was the only defendant who had lived on the property, and that was sometime prior to 1950, the year John Browder redeemed the property from the tax sale. The defendants have disputed the ownership of the property since 1957 and have communicated to the Browders their claim of an interest.

A person claiming title to property by adverse possession may bring an action to quiet title. Ala.Code 1975, § 6-6-540, and Cox v. Lewis, 165 Ala. 157, 51 So. 618 (1910).

There are two alternative means of establishing ownership by adverse possession. One is through the provisions of Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-200, which provides, in pertinent part:

"(a) Adverse possession cannot confer or defeat title to land unless:

"(1) The party setting it up shall show that a deed or other color of title purporting to convey title to him has been duly recorded in the office of the judge of probate of the county in which the land lies for 10 years before the commencement of the action;

"(2) He and those through whom he claims shall have annually listed the land for taxation in the proper county for 10 years prior to the commencement of the action if the land is subject to taxation; or

"(3) He derives title by descent cast or devise from a predecessor in the title who was in...