Empire Ranch & Cattle Co. v. Patterson

• Decision Date: 14 July 1913
• Citation: 133 P. 1125,24 Colo.App. 395
• Parties: EMPIRE RANCH & CATTLE CO. v. PATTERSON.
• Court: Colorado Court of Appeals

133 P. 1125

24 Colo.App. 395

EMPIRE RANCH & CATTLE CO. v. PATTERSON.

Court of Appeals of Colorado

July 14, 1913

Appeal from District Court, Washington County; H.P. Burke, Judge.

Action to quiet title by Virginia M. Patterson against the Empire Ranch & Cattle Company. Judgment for plaintiff, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

R.H. Gilmore, of Denver, for appellant.

William H. Wadley, of Denver, for appellee.

KING, J.

Appellee, as plaintiff, brought this action to quiet her title to certain lands in Washington county. The defenses pleaded were: A general denial; paramount title under a treasurer's tax deed; former adjudication quieting title in the defendant; the seven-year statute of limitations. By her reply plaintiff alleged that the tax deed was void on its face, and that the decree purporting to quiet title in the defendant was void for want of jurisdiction.

Plaintiff deraigned title to the land in question by mesne conveyances from the United States.

1. Defendant offered in evidence a decree of the county court of said county, purporting to quiet its title to said land. Objection to the admission of the same in evidence, because not accompanied by the judgment roll, was properly sustained. McLaughlin v. Reichenbach, 52 Colo. 437, 122 P. 47; Empire Co. v. Coleman, 23 Colo.App. 351, 129 P. 522; Terry v. Gibson, 23 Colo.App. 273, 128 P. 1127.

2. Defendant's alleged tax deed was not offered in evidence. As shown by the abstract of the record, there was neither allegation, admission, nor proof of the due execution and acknowledgment of said deed, or of the record thereof. The naked admission by plaintiff of the issuance of the tax deed, coupled with an allegation of its invalidity for matters appearing upon its face, did not obviate the necessity of defendant's offering said deed in evidence, if it wished to rely upon the same as proof of title. Empire Co. v. Langley, 23 Colo.App. 49, 127 P. 451.

3. The first payment of taxes under the alleged claim and color of title was made after February 21, 1901. This suit was commenced within seven years from that date. For that reason the plea of the statute of limitations was not sustained by the evidence.

For the reasons given, the judgment quieting title in the plaintiff is affirmed.