Blackaby v. Blackaby

• Citation: 185 Ill. 94,56 N.E. 1053
• Parties: BLACKABY v. BLACKABY et al.
• Decision Date: 17 April 1900
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

185 Ill. 94

56 N.E. 1053

BLACKABY

v.BLACKABY et al.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

April 17, 1900.

Error to circuit court, Fulton county; John A. Gray, Judge.

Bill by Julia P. Blackaby and others against John Blackaby for the partition of real estate. From a decree granting the partition, defendant brings error. Reversed.A. M. Barnett and M. P. Rice, for plaintiff in error.

P. W. Gallagher and D. Abbott, for defendants in error.

This was a bill in chancery filed by the defendants in error, as the widow and devisees of Inmon Blackaby, deceased, against John Blackaby, plaintiff in error, for the partition of certain premises, and for an accounting of the rents, issues, and profits therefrom. In 1863, Inmon Blackaby, Robert Blackaby, and John Blackaby, brothers, became the owners, by purchase, of 160 acres of land in Fulton county, as tenants in common. At that time John Blackaby went into possession of the premises, and remained in the actual, visible, exclusive, and continuous possession thereof from that time to the present. In 1867 he purchased the undivided third owned by his brother Robert. During his occupancy he has paid all the taxes assessed against the land, and has built a house, barn, fences, and other improvements, costing from $6,000 to $8,000, but has paid no rent for the share not owned by him. In 1877 he conveyed to a third party one-half acre out of the northwest corner of the quarter section by warranty deed. To the bill plaintiff in error pleaded both the 5 and 20 year statutes of limitation, and also answered, setting up 20 years' adverse possession in himself, and denying that Inmon Blackaby, at the time of his death, was seised in fee of any part of the premises, or that defendants in error have any interest in the rents and profits, and setting up the improvements made by him, and payment of taxes. Replication was filed, and the cause heard by the circuit court, and a decree rendered granting the partition as prayed, and, without any statement of the account, finding that plaintiff in error, by improvements placed on the premises and by payment of taxes had paid the rents and profits which would otherwise have been due on the share of Inmon Blackaby. To reverse that decree this writ of error is prosecuted.

WILKIN, J. (after stating the facts).

The chief contention of plaintiff in error is that he acquired title to the whole of the premises in question by more than 20 years' open, exclusive, continuous, and adverse possession of the same under the 20-year statute of limitations. It is admitted that he has been in the actual, open possession of the land from the date of the original purchase by himself and brothers, but it is denied that...