Glasscock v. National Box Co.

• Decision Date: 29 April 1912
• Citation: 148 S.W. 248
• Parties: GLASSCOCK et al. v. NATIONAL BOX CO.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

148 S.W. 248

GLASSCOCK et al. v. NATIONAL BOX CO.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

April 29, 1912.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Greene County; Frank Smith, Judge.

Action by Mabel Clare Glasscock and others against the National Box Company. Judgment for plaintiffs for insufficient relief, and they appeal. Affirmed.

This suit was brought by appellants for damages for timber claimed to have been cut and removed from certain lands in township 17, range 7 east, Greene county, 1,560.71 acres of which was situated within the meandered line of Bagwell's Lake as shown on the map and plats of the General Land Office, and the west fractional half of section 4 out of the lake abutting thereon. Appellants claimed a three-tenths interest in the land and timber and deraigned title as follows: From the United States to the state of Arkansas by act of Congress April 29, 1898, known as the Arkansas Compromise, and from the state by deed of the Commissioner of State Lands to the Arkadelphia Lumber Company, a corporation, dated May 1, 1893, and through different conveyances to their ancestor and intestate.

The defendant filed an answer and cross-complaint denying that plaintiffs were the owners of the lands claimed or had any interest therein except in the west fractional half of section 4 out of the lake, admitted cutting the timber from all the lands described in the complaint, and denied plaintiffs' right to or interest in any of the timber cut from the lands except an undivided three-tenths interest in that cut on the said west fractional half of section 4, and as to that pleaded the three years statute of limitations. Denied that under the Arkansas Compromise Act any of the lands claimed inured to plaintiffs' benefit or that they acquired any title thereto by virtue of said Compromise Act; admitted the attempted conveyance by the state to the Arkadelphia Lumber Company of the lands within the meandered lines of Bagwell's Lake and that plaintiffs were entitled to the interest claimed thereon if any title was conveyed to the Arkadelphia Lumber Company; alleged that all of said lands described in the complaint were situated within the meandered lines of Bagwell's Lake, a nonnavigable body of water; that all the lands surrounding said lake were surveyed by the United States in 1846, and that said body of water was designated as Bagwell's Lake and defined by meandered lines as shown by the plat and survey made at that time; that all the lands bordering upon said meandered lines outside of said lake and surrounding the same were swamp and overflowed lands on September 28, 1850; that the title to each tract thereof, without the meanders of Bagwell's Lake and bordering thereon, passed to the state of Arkansas, which conveyed all the right of title and claim to all of the lands bordering upon said lake without the meandered lines under certain patents, naming them, of dates the years 1856-1859, 1860, 1876, 1881, 1875, 1872, 1887, and 1889. That the state parted with all its title by said conveyances to the said several sections of land bordering upon the said lake, and that the bed of the lake upon which said tracts bordered to the center or thread thereof passed out of the state and to her several respective grantees named in said patents and are now owned by divers and sundry persons other than plaintiffs. That it entered upon the lands and cut the timber therefrom by authority of the owners, alleged a compromise and settlement of the claim for the timber cut before the death of plaintiffs' ancestors, and pleaded the three years' statute of limitations as to that cut from any lands in which they had interest after his death. That the timber cut by them from the west fractional quarter of section 4 was cut by mistake, and the total value of it did not exceed $600, which was also included in the settlement and compromise; alleged further the necessity for an accounting and prayed that the cause be transferred to equity.

It is admitted that H. W. Glasscock, ancestor of plaintiff, owned the west fractional half of section 4, township 17 north, range 7 east, at the time of his death. The testimony shows that the state by a quitclaim deed of May 1, 1893, conveyed its interest in all the lands described in the complaint except the west fractional half of section 4, township 17 north, range 7 east, that was shown on the plat of the United States survey on file in the State Land Office to be within the meandered lines of Bagwell's Lake, containing 1,560.71 acres; the Land Commissioner making the deed under authority of an act of March 18, 1879, providing for the sale of unapproved and unpatented swamp lands.

Defendant admitted that whatever title was acquired by the Arkadelphia Lumber Company by the said deed passed to and was held by H. W. Glasscock at his death. Plaintiff read in evidence from page 350 of the Arkansas Compromise, May 1, 1893, a memorandum showing said deed from the State Land Commissioner to the 1,560.71 acres situated within the meandered lines of Bagwell's Lake as shown on the plat of the United States survey on file in the land office, describing it as it was described in said deed to the Arkadelphia Lumber Company. This land was also reported as confirmed by the Arkansas Compromise Act of April 29, 1898, the certificate showing that it was all embraced in Arkansas swamp land special list No. 1 reported to the General Land Office and by it approved and by said act of Congress confirmed to the purchasers from the state.

The field notes of the survey made in 1845 showing the meandered lines of Bagwell's Lake were also introduced in evidence, and there was much testimony...