Buchanan Co. v. Adkins

• Decision Date: 04 November 1909
• Docket Number: 860.
• Citation: 175 F. 692
• Parties: BUCHANAN CO. v. ADKINS et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

175 F. 692

BUCHANAN CO. v. ADKINS et al.

No. 860.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

November 4, 1909

J. L Jeffries and S. B. Avis (Jeffries & Lawless and W. H. Leonard on brief), for appellant.

William H. Werth and E. M. Fulton (A. S. Higginbotham, Chapman &amp Gillespie, J. H. Stinson, and Ayers & Fulton, on the brief) for appellees.

Before GOFF and PRITCHARD, Circuit Judges, and DAYTON, District Judge.

GOFF Circuit Judge.

The complainant, a corporation of the state of West Virginia filed this bill against the defendants, 726 in number, citizens of the state of Virginia, alleging that complainant is the owner in fee simple of a tract of 146,109 1/4 acres of land, in the county of Buchanan, state of Virginia, conveyed to it by W. L. Dennis, county clerk of that county, and C. W. Tebault and wife, by deed dated February 25, 1905, which gives the metes and bounds of the tract; that it was such part of a patent from the commonwealth of Virginia to Richard Smith and Henry Banks, dated November 16, 1795, for 200,000 acres, as was situated in the state of Virginia, the residue thereof being in the state of Kentucky; that the same by a regular, complete, and perfect chain of title, through a succession of conveyances, was acquired by Frederick Pearson, in whose name said land was duly assessed for taxes for the year 1876, and the succeeding years, including 1905; that, the taxes for the years 1876 to 1883 being delinquent and unpaid, the land was on the 12th day of October, 1886, sold for the taxes so unpaid, and was purchased by the state of Virginia, in the manner provided by the laws of that state; that pursuant to section 666 of the Code of Virginia of 1904 C. W. Tebault filed his application for the purchase of the land with the clerk of the county court of Buchanan county, and having thereafter sold his interest therein, and his right to purchase the same to the Buchanan Company, the said W. L. Dennis, as county clerk, together with C. W. Tebault and wife, conveyed the same to complainant by the deed before mentioned; that the land when patented was and has continued to be wild and uncultivated, consisting of mountains covered with heavy and valuable timber, unfit for cultivation, except as hereafter mentioned, its chief value being the timber thereon, except possibly that coal may be discovered under the surface thereof; that each of the persons who owned the land under the patent and subsequent conveyances, constituting the chain of title under which complainant is the owner, beginning with the year 1822, took and held actual as well as constructive possession thereof, and exercised open, visible, and notorious acts of ownership upon the same, and employed agents and tenants residing thereon to take charge of it, and that complainant has, since it purchased the same, entered upon the land, taken possession of and appointed superintendents over it, and that complainant's possession extends to the boundaries thereof; that each of the defendants is seeking to assert some sort of claim to portions of the land, the character of which as to many of them is unknown to complainant, but it alleges that the title it holds to the same is superior to the right and title of each of such defendants as to a very large part of the land, if not as to all of it; that many years after the land had been acquired by those through whom it passed to Pearson, and in many cases after he had become the owner and was in possession thereof, and in other cases, after the state of Virginia had purchased the same, the defendants, or those under whom they claim, entered upon portions of said land, made small clearings thereon and lived upon them, occupying for that purpose only a few acres; that some of them have obtained junior patents from the state for tracts of land located within complainant's boundary; that others have secured pretended statutory court rights for certain small parcels, while others have no color of title whatever, and are mere squatters; that many others have received and placed upon record deeds and conveyances from persons who had illegally entered upon said land.

Complainant further alleged that, as it acquired title to all of the land mentioned through said single deed and chain of title, its right as against each and all of the defendants arises from a common source, and is common between it and each and all of them; that, as it is in actual as well as constructive possession of the land, no one of the defendants can, or does, hold possession of any part thereof beyond the portion actually occupied by him or her; that those who acquired court rights did so unlawfully, not being in actual occupancy of any part of the land, or they obtained the same for tracts largely in excess of what they in fact actually occupied thus acquiring the same by fraud and false testimony, and that, therefore, the aid of a court of equity will be necessary to investigate and set aside such claims; that in the year 1885 the clerk's office of Buchanan county with all of its records was destroyed by fire, and that since that time many proceedings have been instituted pretending to follow the statute law of Virginia (which provides how lost deeds and other records may be set up and established), under which many of those now claiming to own land within complainant's boundary undertook to 'set up' deeds to themselves and to those under whom they claim, which they alleged had been burned in said courthouse fire, to which proceedings neither complainant nor those under whom it claims nor the state of Virginia were made parties; that by such frauds, impositions, and false testimony the court was induced to enter many orders in such proceedings, establishing deeds which never existed, and in some cases granting many times the quantity of land which had been originally conveyed; that it will be necessary to resort to equity to investigate and attack the validity of those 'set up' conveyances, as well as the regularity of the proceedings by which they were established; that while such defendants only held and now only hold possession of small portions of complainant's land, which they actually occupy, they are under said junior patents, and the illegal court rights, as well as the false and pretended deeds, claiming to own and are asserting title to large boundaries of it, including much of its wild and timbered land, which they do not and cannot actually occupy; that in a great many instances the conveyances, or other evidences of title, under which many of the defendants pretend to hold possession, describe the land without course and distance, and merely by reference to stones, trees, and natural objects common to that section, thereby rendering the same difficult to locate, and particularly so for a jury; that unless the limitation prescribed by law protects the title of complainant to the entire tract which was conveyed to it, upon the production of the evidence that will be offered, it may appear that as to some of the small portions actually occupied by the defendants title by adverse possession had ripened against complainant, or against said Pearson, prior to the year for which the taxes were assessed, concerning which the land was sold to the state of Virginia; that a number of junior patents have been issued to tracts of land of considerable size within the boundary of complainant's tract, the lines of which junior patents are greatly interlocked, whereby in such cases the same land is found to be embraced within the lines of overlapping junior grants; that in a considerable number of instances two or more defendants are occupying clearings within the same interlock, and are also claiming other land within as well as without such interlock, some claiming under conveyances from one patentee, and some under deeds from another, thereby making it exceedingly difficult if not impossible for a jury, in an action at law to determine the tracts each defendant is actually occupying, and the location of the land claimed by him; that in a great many instances defendants claiming adjacent lots of land located within complainant's boundaries are disputing between themselves over the lines dividing their respective holdings, and such is the confusion thereby created that litigation exists among them concerning said lines and holdings, which in connection with those tracts adjacent thereto as to which complainant has superior title a jury would be unable to determine the tracts the defendants hold by a title superior to complainant's, and what tracts complainant owns; that the same could not be described in a verdict should actions of ejectment be instituted, and therefore complainant charges that it would be impossible to obtain relief through such actions, or by other proceedings at law; that, if a single suit were brought in ejectment, it would be impossible for a jury to try or determine the same, nor could complainant give the description in his declaration which the law requires of the land held by the defendants sought to be recovered, nor from the mass of testimony which necessarily would be introduced could the jury render an intelligent verdict as to each tract, or the court enter a judgment sufficiently definite to be executed; that, if separate actions were brought, the result would be an endless multiplicity of suits, and cause the expenditure of enormous sums of money, thereby absorbing a large portion of the value of the property, greatly exceeding what it would cost to try the titles in a single chancery suit, and the time required to try all the separate suits would consume many terms of court, if not many years; that therefore, as the remedy at law is so inadequate, incomplete, inefficient, and uncertain, a court of equity...