Creagh v. Bass
| Decision Date | 17 December 1914 |
| Docket Number | 853 |
| Citation | 190 Ala. 135,67 So. 288 |
| Parties | CREAGH v. BASS. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Washington County; John T. Lackland Judge.
Action by W.T. Creagh against Harry Bass, begun in justice court and appealed to circuit court. From a judgment for defendant plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.
Granade & Granade, of Chatom, for appellant.
R.P Roach, of Mobile, for appelllee.
This action is to recover damages for timber taken from certain lands described in the record. There had been a severance of the timber and timber rights from the surface or freehold estate before either of the parties to this suit claimed any right to the timber in question. Neither of the parties claims any right to the land, other than to the timber thereon. The defendant claims title to the timber as purchaser from one Everett, who is conceded to own the land, but who, the plaintiff claims, did not own the timber or timber rights--contending that such title and rights had passed to himself (plaintiff), and that, consequently, Everett had no title to the timber, and no rights to convey to the defendant.
This action originated in a justice court, where plaintiff recovered a judgment; and on appeal to the circuit court the trial court gave the affirmative charge for the defendant, on the theory that the plaintiff was not in the possession of the land at the time the timber was cut and removed, but that the possession was then in one Everett, from whom the defendant purchased the timber. If the title to the timber in question had depended upon the title to the land--that is, if there had never been a conveyance of the timber and timber rights, thus constructively severing them from the freehold--the ruling of the trial court would be correct. Aldrich Co. v. Pearce, 64 So. 321, and authorities cited. But where, as here, there has been a constructive severance of the timber and timber rights from the remaining estate in the land, by a separate conveyance of the timber, then the possession of the land may not be adverse possession of the timber, but be subject to the right of the owner of the timber to remove it, if exercised within the time and according to the terms of the conveyance or sale by which the timber was so constructively severed from the land.
While it is true that the owner of the land claimed to own the timber also, and he sold or attempted to sell to the...
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Aiken v. McMillan
... ... the timber the plaintiff was in actual or constructive ... possession of the standing timber or trees. Creagh v ... Bass, 190 Ala. 135, 67 So. 288 ... Defendants ... had introduced the deed from Crosby to the Stockton Lumber ... Company ... ...
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Green v. Marlin
...of the timber, the possession of the land by the grantor of the timber is not as a rule adverse to the grantee thereof. Creagh v. Bass, 190 Ala. 135, 67 So. 288; Long v. Nadawah Lbr. Co., 202 Ala. 523, 81 So. If plaintiff claims title to the timber independent of the source of defendant's t......
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Smith v. Collier
... ... 635, 93 So ... 648; A. G. S. R. Co. v. McWhorter, 202 Ala. 455, 80 ... So. 839; Seaboard Air Line v. Banks, 207 Ala. 194, ... 92 So. 117; Creagh v. Bass, 190 Ala. 135, 67 So ... This ... court in Folmar v. Beall, 204 Ala. 302, 85 So. 543, ... "Where the original possession by the ... ...
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Long v. Nadawah Lumber Co.
... ... plaintiff had not forfeited his right to take possession of ... it by entering upon the land and removing it. Creagh v ... Bass, 190 Ala. 135, 67 So. 288; Christopher v. C.-A ... Lumber Co., 175 Ala. 484, 57 So. 837 ... In the ... Christopher Case we ... ...