Chambers v. Hunton

• Decision Date: 15 January 1931
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 796.
• Citation: 222 Ala. 482,132 So. 713
• Parties: CHAMBERS v. HUNTON.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

132 So. 713

222 Ala. 482

CHAMBERS v. HUNTON.

6 Div. 796.

Supreme Court of Alabama

January 15, 1931

Rehearing Denied March 19, 1931.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Tuscaloosa County; Henry B. Foster Judge.

Bill by George Hunton against Tollie Chambers to sell lands for division and to enforce contribution for improvements. From a decree for complainant, respondent appeals.

Affirmed.

Wright Warren & Searcy, of Tuscaloosa, for appellant.

Foster Rice & Foster, of Tuscaloosa, for appellee.

BROWN J.

The bill was filed by the appellee seeking a sale for division of certain lands situated in Tuscaloosa county, alleged to be jointly owned by the complainant and defendant, and to enforce contribution for valuable improvements made on the property by the complainant.

The defendant denied the alleged joint ownership and the complainant's right to contribution.

The complainant claims title as a tenant in common with the defendant by purchase from Murk Findley, who conveyed to him by quitclaim deed on June 28, 1924. George Chambers and others, on October 4, 1910, owned as tenants in common the estate in remainder in the property; Chambers' interest being one-fifteenth. In addition to that interest, he held a life estate for his own life. Before the falling in of the life estate, on the date last above stated, Chambers conveyed his entire interest to Murk Findley, by warranty deed letting Findley into actual possession. In the year 1916, Findley let the premises to the complainant, Hunton, who took immediate possession and held under said lease, occupying in person and by tenant until June 28, 1924, when he purchased from Findley and received from him a quitclaim deed which was not recorded until after the rights of the defendant attached.

At the time of complainant's purchase, complainant's mother was in the actual possession of the premises, holding as the tenant of the complainant, and so held up until her death in December, 1927. Immediately thereafter the premises were let by the complainant to one Garner, who was in possession of the premises at the time the defendant purchased at the judicial sale, and continued in actual possession until the filing of this suit.

After the conveyance of Findley to complainant, but before Chambers' death, complainant made valuable improvements on the land of a permanent nature which enhanced its value.

The decree of sale under which the defendant claims was rendered by the circuit court of Tuscaloosa county, in the suit of T. A. Hargrove v. Murk Findley et al., commenced, we assume, after Findley conveyed to the complainant. Findley was served with process and was present in person at the hearing. The complainant who purchased from Findley before the bill in that case was filed was not made a party thereto.

It is conceded that the defendant at the time he purchased at the judicial sale had knowledge of complainant's possession as a tenant of Murk Findley, commencing in the year 1916, but was without knowledge or notice of the complainant's purchase from Findley, unless such notice can be imputed from his knowledge of complainant's possession, in connection with the fact of the shifting of actual possession resulting from the death of complainant's mother, in the year December, 1927.

Appellant's contention is that the facts stated were not sufficient to excite inquiry, and in support of his contention cites Griffin et al. v. Hall & Farley, Trustees, 129 Ala. 289, 29 So. 783, as sustaining his contention. The facts pertinent to the decision of that case are stated in the report of the case, 115 Ala. 647, 22 So. 156, to the effect that the defendants in that action recovered judgment against Foreman, in the circuit court of Pike county, on November 2, 1893, upon which execution was regularly issued, up until the levy and the sale which occurred on the 21st of October, 1895. On March 6, 1893, nearly seven months before the judgment was rendered, Foreman conveyed to Griffin, who failed to record his deed. At the time of this conveyance, one Fillingin was in possession of the lot as the tenant of Foreman, and remained in possession until September 1, 1893, when he vacated, leaving the property unoccupied, and it remained so until after the judgment of November 2, 1893, was rendered.

On these facts the holding was that, in the absence of a change in the actual possession of the property before the lien arising from the rendition of the judgment and the issue of execution thereon had attached, these facts were not sufficient to provoke inquiry as to change in the status of the title, therefore the defendants in that case, the judgment creditors who purchased at the execution sale, were within the protection of the recording statute that condemned the unrecorded deed as void. Griffin et al. v. Hall &amp Farley, Trustees...