Grantham v. Masonite Corp., 38913
| Decision Date | 16 November 1953 |
| Docket Number | No. 38913,38913 |
| Citation | 67 So.2d 727,218 Miss. 745 |
| Parties | GRANTHAM et ux. v. MASONITE CORP. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Collins & Collins, Laurel, for appellants.
Buchanan & Montgomery and Welch, Gibbs & Butts, Laurel, for appellee.
Masonite Corporation filed its original bill on September 10, 1949, in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Jones County to cancel the claims of D. L. Grantham and his wife, Mrs. D. L. Grantham, 280 acres of land as a cloud upon its title. The Granthams answered and claimed title by adverse possession to approximately 165 acres of the land, alleging that they had had that portion under fence since 1936, claiming the same as their own and occupying it exclusively, pleading Section 709, Miss. Code of 1942, in bar of the suit of Masonite Corporation. The Granthams made their answer a cross-bill and prayed for confirmation of their title.
The court, after a hearing, granted the prayer of Masonite Corporation's bill except as to 1.75 acres used by the Granthams as a hog pen.
The land in question was sold to the State in 1931 and had been patented out to one of the original owners by two patents, one issued in 1938 and the other on June 28, 1939. On August 22, 1939, Masonite Corporation acquired its title through grantees of the original owners. Masonite Corporation, therefore, holds the record title to the land in controversy. In 1935 and 1936, Grantham built a fence along the south boundary of the land and joined it on the west end with a fence of the railroad company extending along the west side of the land. The east end of the fence extended to the Bougehoma Creek. The creek could not be crossed by cattle and Grantham used the creek as the east boundary of the land. He built in conjunction with or at the instance of a man named Walters, an adjoining property owner on the north, a fence across the north side of the land extending eastwardly to the creek. Grantham admitted that he had no title to the land when he fenced it, but intended to use it until somebody put him off, and intended to resist being put off. After fencing the land, Grantham pastured from five to twenty head of cattle thereon, built a fish pond, planted some grass in places on the land, and from time to time cut and sold small quantities of logs therefrom.
In 1939, Masonite Corporation surveyed the land. Thereafter, from time to time it made other surveys and from time to time it put markers around the...
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McNeely v. Southwestern Settlement & Development Corp.
...but we have concluded that it goes beyond this point and authorizes the instructed verdict against the appellant. Grantham v. Masonite Corp., 218 Miss. 745, 67 So.2d 727; Little v. Barbe, 195 La. 1071, 198 So. 368, at page 373 (Headnote Therefore, as regards the intruding use by the sawmill......
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Rawls v. Parker
...that he is exercising dominion of a sole owner. 2 C.J.S. Adverse Possession Sec. 54 (1972). This Court in Grantham v. Masonite Corp., 218 Miss. 745, 67 So.2d 727 (1953) addressed the exclusive and hostile elements and opined as To acquire land by adverse possession, the possession must not ......
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Moffett v. International Paper Co.
...have carefully examined the record, and the evidence amply supports the findings and decision of the trial court. Grantham v. Masonite Corp., 218 Miss. 745, 67 So.2d 727 (1953), is substantially similar to the present case. The minerals were severed from the surface of the land in 1932, con......
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Winters v. Billings, 2017-CA-01347-COA
...885, 50 So.2d 717, 720 (1951). And it was the Billingses who surveyed the land, another important factor. Grantham v. Masonite Corp. , 218 Miss. 745, 67 So.2d 727, 728 (1953). Under our limited standard of review, we affirm the chancellor's decision that the Winterses were unable to satisfy......