Haynes v. Jones

• Citation: 39 Tenn. 372
• Parties: NEWMAN HAYNES et al. v. W. JONES et al.
• Decision Date: 30 April 1859
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

39 Tenn. 372

NEWMAN HAYNES et al.

v.W. JONES et al.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

April Term, 1859.

FROM GIBSON.

At the June term, 1858, Chancellor Williams pronounced a decree, from which the defendants appealed.

Hill, for the complainants.

T. J. & J. T. Carthel, for the defendants, argued--

The course of decision, both in England and in this country, has established the rule, beyond doubt, that when the statute of limitation has commenced running, it runs over all subsequent disabilities and intermediate acts and events. 2 Greenl. on Ev. sec. 439; Ang. on Lim., ch. 36, and page 520.

The question of joint tenancy has nothing to do with the case, because the parties had no joint interest at the time the adverse possession of J. W. Jones commenced. That possession having commenced in the lifetime of the father, his death did not arrest the operation of the statute, although some of the heirs upon whom the estate was cast may have been infants, or femes covert.

J. W. Jones having acquired a title to the land by operation of the statute of limitations, we insist that it relates back to, and he is only chargeable with the value of the land at the time he was placed in possession.

McKinney, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

The complainants are a portion of the heirs at law and distributees of the estate of John Jones, who died intestate in Gibson county, in 1853, and the defendants are the administrator and remaining distributees and heirs.

In addition to an account of the administration, the complainants seek distribution and partition of the slaves and real estate.

The case is brought here upon a single question, in relation to part of the real property. Some time previous to the year 1846, the intestate made a parol gift to the defendant, Joshua, his son, of 200 acres of land, part of the tract on which the intestate resided. The only written evidence of the gift is a memorandum made in a book kept by the intestate, showing the advancements made to his several children, which is as follows: “Gave to my son, Joshua, 200 acres of land, to be taken off of the west side and north end of the tract I now live on, at $450.” The land was not run off or set apart by metes and bounds, to the donee; but about the first of the year 1847, and nearly seven years before the death of his father, he entered into possession of a tenement on the land intended for him, and has resided thereon ever since, and has made valuable improvements on the same. Before...