Broadus v. Hickman

• Decision Date: 12 February 1951
• Docket Number: No. 37792,37792
• Citation: 50 So.2d 717,210 Miss. 885
• Parties: BROADUS et al. v. HICKMAN.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 717

50 So.2d 717

210 Miss. 885

BROADUS et al. v. HICKMAN.

No. 37792.

Supreme Court of Mississippi, Division B.

Feb. 12, 1951.

English Lindsey, Gulfport, for appellants.

Ross & Butts, Gulfport, for appellee.

ROBERDS, Presiding Judge.

This suit involves the title to sixty acres of land. Hickman filed the bill herein to establish his title thereto and remove as a cloud thereon all claims of defendants. He made defendants to the bill former owners and heirs of deceased owners, the State of Mississippi and Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Broadus. The contest was between Hickman and the Broaduses. The chancellor established title in Hickman and the Broaduses appeal.

Hickman claimed as grantee in a quitclaim deed dated June 21, 1946, executed by D. B. Allen, the owner of the land when it sold tothe State of Mississippi August 31, 1931, for nonpayment of taxes for the year 1930.

Mr. and Mrs. Broadus assert title as patentees from the State under patents issued in December 1940, and also by adverse possession under Section 717, Miss. Code 1942, known as the two-year limitation statute under state patents.

As to the validity of the tax sales to the State, Allen was assessed with and owned during the years 1930 and 1931 the SW 1/4 of the NW 1/4 and the NW 1/4 of the SW 1/4 and the N 1/2 of the SW 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of Section 19, Township 7, Range 2 In Harrison County, Mississippi. It is seen the three parcels adjoin and constitute one tract. They were assessed separately. The chancellor found, and the proof amply sustains the finding, that there were three separate and distinct sales, one sale of each parcel, and the land was never offered for sale as constituting one tract, as required by Section 3249, Miss. Code 1930. He, therefore, held the sale to the State conveyed no title. In this he was correct as the statute then read. Section 3249, supra; Leavenworth v. Claughton, 197 Miss. 606, 19 So.2d 815, 20 So.2d 821.

The real contest here in whether Mr. and Mrs. Broadus have shown such claim to and acts of ownership over the land in question as to vest in them title thereto and bar the suit of Hickman against them under Section 717, Miss. Code 1942. That is to be tested by the facts shown by the land records and those established outside those records.

These are thefacts shown by the land records:

On August 31, 1931, the lands were assessed to Allen and were sold to the State.

In December 1940, the State issued a patent to Mrs. Broadus to the twenty acres above described, being the south twenty acres of the entire tract, and it then issued a patent to Mr. Broadus to the forty acres just north of the twenty acres.

In January 1946, Hickman applied for a patent to this land and the forty immediately north thereof. He was informed the Governor was not signing land patents at that time and if and when the policy was changed he would be notified.

On June 21, 1946, Allen executed his deed to Hickman conveying not only the sixty acres here in controversy but also the forty acres just north of the Broadus sixty acres. This was a quitclaim deed, for which $100 was paid, and it was executed by Allen in the State of Florida.

On June 22, 1946, the Broadus patents were placed of record.

The land was assessed for taxes to the Broaduses for the years 1941 to 1946 and they paid the taxes thereon. The bill was filed in this cause August 16, 1946.

Now, as to the facts other than those shown by the land records:

Apparently after the lands sold to the State, Allen exercised no further acts of ownership thereover. He seems to have gone to the State of Florida, where his deed to Hickman was executed.

The Broaduses promptly had the lands assessed to themselves. They lived about five miles from the land and they visited it and went over it from time to time. In November 1941, they had the land surveyed. The surveyor established the lines and corners thereof. Stakes were placed at the six corners and blazes were made at least along some of the lines.

In April 1942, the Broaduses executed a turpentine lease on the property for a period of three years. The lessee went upon the property with laborers and 'faced' some 500 pine trees. This consisted of '* * * peeling the bark off and cutting into the wood. Flattened a place on the butt of the three.' Again, 'cleaning the bark and flattening out a place to insert the aprons in the tree to turn the gum into the cups.' These barked places on the trees were about ten inches about the ground and extended three inches upward. He and his workmen were on the land a number of times. Because of scarcity of labor due to war conditions, he did not follow up by placing the turpentine cups upon the trees. These tree facings were obvious to one walking over the land unless grass had grown sufficiently high to obscure them. The lessee understood Mr. and Mrs. Broadus owned the land. The lease was not placed of record, as was the practice of this particular lessee. One witness said he saw the blazed places on the trees made under the turpentine lease and had it been his land he would have made inquiry as to who placed them there. Mr. Broadus was seen upon the land a number of times and those seeing him presumed he owned the land. Beginning right after the patents were issued and continuing to the time of the trial Mr. Broadus, each year, went upon the land, with others hired by him, and burned what are called fire guards along, or near, the south and east lines of the land to prevent fire getting onto it. He engaged Mr. W. E. Cunningham to help in this work and that was done each year for some five years. Witnesses saw Broadus doing that. The fire guards did not extend entirely around the land for the reason some of it was in what the witnesses called a 'swamp', and there was little, or no, danger of fire to that part of the property. In addition to this, the Broaduses transplanted upon this land a great many young trees and made such preparation thereon as was required by good reforestation. Mr. Broadus was interested in reforestation and the property was bought from...