Funkhouser v. Langkopf

• Decision Date: 31 March 1858
• Citation: 26 Mo. 453
• Parties: FUNKHOUSER, Plaintiff in Error, v. LANGKOPF, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

26 Mo. 453

FUNKHOUSER, Plaintiff in Error,

v.LANGKOPF, Defendant in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1858.

1. A survey by the United States of the common confirmed to the village of Carondelet by the act of Congress of June 13, 1812, was not necessary to enable her to maintain an action for the possession of the same.

2. Nor was it necessary that such survey should be made in order that the statute of limitations might commence running against Carondelet in favor of an adverse possession of a portion of said common.

3. Previous to the passage of the acts of February 6, 1839, and of March 3, 1851, (Sess. Acts, 1839, p. 211, Sess. Acts, 1851, p. 148)--the former of which authorized Carondelet to lease, the latter to dispose absolutely of her common--she might have maintained an action of ejectment to recover possession of any portion thereof adversely held: consequently, the statute of limitations might have commenced running against her in favor of an adverse possessor.

Error to St. Louis Land Court.

This was an action in the nature of an action of ejectment to recover possession of lots numbered 172 and 173, in the subdivision of Carondelet common, south of the river Des Peres. Suit was commenced June 29, 1854. Defendant in his answer admitted possession of so much of said lots as was embraced by United States survey No. 3317, commonly called “Deschamps' survey;” he denied the title of plaintiff.

It was admitted in evidence that the plaintiff had by regular chain of conveyances all the title of the town of Caronde let in and to the lots in controversy. The defendant set up a title under a confirmation by the act of Congress of July 4, 1836, to one J. B. Deschamps or his representatives. Defendant had all the title of Deschamps by regular conveyances from his representatives. It was admitted in evidence “that defendant and those under whom he claimed had had continuous possession of the land in dispute from the year 1825 to the present time, claiming the same as their own adversely to all the world.”

The plaintiff asked the court to give the following instructions: “1. The title of the inhabitants of Carondelet to commons under the acts of Congress of June 13, 1812, May 26, 1825, and January 27, 1831, and the official survey and designation of said commons by the surveyor general, is superior to the title of defendant under the confirmation of 1836. 2. There is no evidence in the case competent to overthrow or impair the survey and designation of the commons read in evidence by the plaintiff; and the jury will therefore regard the same as a valid and subsisting survey. 3. The statute of limitations did not commence to run against the inhabitants of Carondelet in respect to said commons until the date of the approval of said survey and designation by the surveyor general. 4. If the jury believe from the evidence that the survey of the Carondelet commons as [was] made by Joseph C. Brown and approved by the surveyor general of Illinois and Missouri on the 29th of July, 1834, and that the action now pending was commenced on the 29th day of June, 1854, then the plaintiff is not barred by the statute of limitations.” Of these instructions the court gave those numbered 1 and 2, and refused those numbered 3 and 4.

The defendant asked the court to instruct the jury as follows: “1. The jury is instructed that the title of those claiming under the confirmation of Robidoux in this cause is better than that of those claiming under the confirmation of common to Carondelet. 2. If the jury believe from the evidence that the defendant and those under whom he claims title had been in quiet and uninterrupted possession of so much of the land in question as is included within the lines of the Deschamps survey, claiming to be the owners thereof for twenty years prior to the commencement of this suit, and if such claim has been under color of title, the defendant is entitled to a verdict; and such claim has been under color of title if the jury believe the deeds read in evidence by defendant to be genuine.” The court gave the instruction numbered 2 and refused that numbered 1.

The jury found for defendant.

Field, for plaintiff in error.

I. The court erred in allowing the defendant, upon proof of twenty years' possession of the premises in dispute, the benefit of the statute of limitations; for the date of the incorporation of the inhabitants of Carondelet was not shown at the trial and does not appear on the record. The precise point was decided in Reilly v. Chouquette, 18 Mo. 225. According to this authority it was essential to the defendant's right to prescribe under the statute of limitations that the inhabitants of Carondelet were incorporated more than twenty years before the commencement of this suit.

II. Prescription under the statute of limitations did not begin to run against the plaintiff, claiming under Carondelet, in respect to a lot in the commons, until there was a survey and designation of the commons according to law. This suit was commenced within twenty years from the establishment of the survey. It was approved July 29, 1834. (See West v. Cochran, 17 Howard, 416; Reilly v. Chouquette, 18 Mo. 225.)

III. The statute of limitation did not commence to run against the corporation of Carondelet until it was vested by the legislature of Missouri with the power of disposing of the land. The inhabitants of Carondelet were first incorporated August 2, 1832. The town first acquired its powers to lease its commons by the act of February 6, 1839. (Sess. Acts, 1839, p. 211.) The power to grant in fee was first granted March 1, 1851. (Sess. Acts, 1851, p. 158.) In Spanish times commons were inalienable. (New Orleans v. United States, 10 Peters, ___.) The treaty of cession contained a stipulation that all rights of property should remain inviolate. The act of Congress of June 27, 1831, relinquished the commons to the inhabitants of Carondelet “to be regulated or disposed of according to the laws of the state of Missouri.” There was no law of Missouri in respect to the regulation or disposition of the land in dispute until 1839 and 1851. Up to 1839 the commons of Carondelet were left by the United States and the state of Missouri precisely in the same condition in which they were placed by Spanish despotism, a tract dedicated to the public and common use of the inhabitants for the supply of timber and the depasturing of cattle. Such property was not liable to prescription by the Spanish law. (Escriche, voc. prescripcion.) The civil law corresponded with the Spanish law. Nothing could be prescribed for unless it was the subject of grant. (Domat, § 2218.) The laws of France and of Scotland, following the civil law, adopted the same distinction. (Pothier Traite de prescription; Ferriere, Coutume de Paris, Article 113; Erskine's Institutes, 794 et seq.; 2 Stair's Inst. 666 et seq.; see also Duplessis Cout. de Paris, 487; Hoepfner's Comm. § 395.) The English law of prescription under the statute of limitations differs only in form from the civil law. The latter confers expressly a right; the former in terms only bars a remedy. The difference is obviously nothing in substance. It has now come to be settled that possession under the statute of limitations, by extinguishing the remedy of a former proprietor, confers a complete title on the possessor; and prescription under the civil and English laws are identically the same thing. (See Biddle v. Mellon, 13 Mo. 335; Reilly v. Chouquette, 18 Mo. 225.) Possession, to constitute a bar under the statute of limitations, must be adverse to the true owner. The term “adverse possession,” taking the place in modern times of the old word “disseizin,” has acquired in the law a technical signification. It always implies a claim and color of title on the part of the possessor. Where no claim of title exists, the possession is not adverse in law, and however long continued will never ripen into a title against the true owner. If, as in Biddle v. Mellon, 13 Mo. 335, nothing more appears than the fact of possession, the possession itself will be regarded as sufficient evidence of a claim of title, and the statute of limitations will apply. But if qualifying circumstances are shown--as, first, if the party in possession disclaim title in himself; or, secondly, if he has in any manner admitted the title of the true owner; or, thirdly, his title as claimed be void on its face; or, fourthly, it be obtained by fraud--in all these and like cases the actual possession is not regarded as adverse, and will not furnish the foundation of a legal title. (See Angell on Lim. chap. 31, sec. 11; Adams' Eject. 455 et seq.) It would be absurd to allow the defendant to set up a claim of title, in a court of justice, to land in which the law of the...