Calvert v. Mathers

• Decision Date: 05 March 1928
• Docket Number: 26949
• Citation: 149 Miss. 671,115 So. 780
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: CALVERT et al. v. MATHERS. [*]

115 So. 780

149 Miss. 671

CALVERT et al. v. MATHERS. ^[*]

No. 26949

Supreme Court of Mississippi

March 5, 1928

Division B

1 DEEDS. Deed's description of twenty-acre tract as commencing at described corner, "run fifty-four and one-fourth chains to place of beginning; thence south ten chains, west twenty chains, north ten chains to base line thence east on base line to beginning," held insufficient.

A description in a necessary deed in the deraignment of title which describes the lands as "commencing at the northeast corner of section 3, township 10, range 6 west, run fifty-four and one-fourth chains to place of beginning; then south ten chains, west twenty chains, north ten chains to base line; thence east on base line to beginning, containing twenty acres, more or less," is void and does not constitute sufficient description of the property involved.

2. QUIETING TITLE. Stipulations. Agreement that deraignment in bill of deeds is correct makes description of land in deraignment binding as description in deed; deed containing insufficient description held insufficient to support decree canceling claim.

Where in such case, the parties agree that the deraignment made in the bill of the divers deeds are correct (except as to the one denied under oath), binds the parties that the description contained in the deraignment is also the description contained in the deed, and such deed as contained in the preceding syllabus is insufficient to support a decree canceling the claim of the defendants.

3. QUIETING TITLE. Complainant, suing to cancel claims or confirm title, must stand on own title, and cannot prevail on weakness of adversary's title.

In a suit to cancel claims to lands as clouds, or to confirm title, the complainant must stand upon his own title, and, if his title is not sufficient, he cannot prevail on the weakness of the title of his adversary.

HON. G. C. TANN, Chancellor.

APPEAL from chancery court of Clarke county. HON. G. C. TANN, Chancellor.

Suit by T. L. Mathers against William Calvert and others. From a decree for complainant, defendants appeal. Reversed and remanded.

Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.

H. F. Case and Morse & Bryan, for appellant.

The appellee being the complainant, the burden, of course, is upon him to establish his case. The complainant is seeking to confirm his title to a strip of land which begins at the northwest corner of section 3, township 10, range 6; runs thence east twenty-seven and seventy-two hundredths chains; thence south nineteen and twenty-seven hundredths chains; thence west twenty-seven and seventy-two hundredths chains; thence north nineteen and twenty-seven hundredths chains.

Appellee states that John and Cassey Calvert executed a deed to Mrs. Weems on the 23rd day of March, 1911, which deed is recorded in Book E-1, page 286. This conveyance fails to give a point of beginning. It says: "Commencing at the northeast corner of section 3, township 10, range 6 west; run fifty-four and one-half chains to place of beginning." From this description we cannot tell whether they mean to run north, south, east or west, or to run up into the heavens or down in the earth. In other words, there is no point fixed from which this description begins. True it says that it contains twenty acres, more or less, and we might suppose that it was the property which Mrs. Bracy conveys to them, but we do not know. The complainant realized the weakness of his possession, so he attempted to show that John and Cassey Calvert were tenants of Mrs. Weems, or rather that John and Cassey Calvert had a life estate in this property, and attempted to claim the possession that John and Cassey Calvert had of said property for their own benefit. There is a break in the deraignment of the description of the property sold to John and Cassey Calvert by Mrs. Bracy in 1898. In other words, the conveyance by them to Mrs. Weems is an impossible conveyance for the reason that there is no beginning point.

D. W. Heidelberg, for appellee.

Counsel for appellants contend that the description of the land in the deed that John and Cassey Calvert executed to Mrs. Weems is insufficient and in their brief they set forth a description of the land as it is described in the bill, and not as it is described in the deed to which reference is made in the bill as having been executed on 23rd day of March, 1911, and recorded on page 286 of Deed Book E-1, on file in the office of the chancery clerk of Clarke county, Mississippi. The chancery clerk of Clarke county has sent to the clerk of the supreme court, and which will be found with the record, a certified copy of the deed referred to in the bill, which shows that the word "west" was omitted from the bill after the word "chains" in the description. The land as described in the deed is as follows: "Commencing at the northeast corner of section 3, township 10, range 6 west, run fifty-four and one-half chains west to the place of beginning thence south ten chains, west twenty chains, north ten chains to the base line, thence east on base line to beginning; containing twenty acres, more or less, in Clarke county, Mississippi. We take it that the description in the deed to which reference is made in the bill will control and not the bill. With this description as contained in the deed the ambiguity, if any, is removed.

OPINION

ETHRIDGE, P. J.

T. L Mathers was complainant and filed a bill in the chancery court of Clarke...