Hoggard v. Mitchell
| Decision Date | 12 May 1924 |
| Docket Number | (No. 370.) |
| Citation | 261 S.W. 643 |
| Parties | HOGGARD v. MITCHELL et al. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Union Chancery Court; J. Y. Stevens, Chancellor.
Suit by Georgia Mitchell and others against Joe Hoggard (or Hegwood). From the decree rendered, defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded, with directions to dismiss.
Appellees brought this suit in equity against appellant to quiet their title in the land described in their complaint and to recover possession thereof. Appellant answered, denying title in appellees, and claiming title in himself by adverse possession.
It appears from the record that on the 28th day of November, 1904, Sandy Foy died intestate in Union county, Ark., owning the land in controversy, and leaving surviving him his widow, Laura Foy, and his children, Pattie Dorne, Georgia Mitchell, and Lena Moore as his sole heirs at law. Shortly after the death of Sandy Foy in 1904 William McGraw employed R. S. Bowers, a lawyer, to draw a deed for him to said land with the widow and heirs at law of Sandy Foy as grantors and Raiford Madison as grantee. McGraw, Bowers, and the Foys were all negroes. The deed contained the signatures of the widow and children of Sandy Foy above named. Bowers carried the deed to the home of the widow, and took the acknowledgment of the widow and of Georgia Mitchell to the deed. In a few days thereafter Bowers met Lena Moore and Pattie Dorne on the street, and asked to take their acknowledgments to the deed. They denied that they had signed the deed, and refused to acknowledge it. Laura Foy died in December 1904, soon after she executed the deed. Pattie Dorne died intestate without issue in 1912. Lena Moore died intestate in 1916, leaving surviving her Fay McKissic and several other minor children, who are plaintiffs in this case. The present suit was commenced on June 7, 1922.
According to the testimony of R. S. Bowers he was familiar with the signature of Pattie Dorne, and her purported signature to the deed in question was her genuine signature.
Georgia Mitchell was a witness for the plaintiffs. She denied that she signed or acknowledged the deed in question. She also testified that the purported signatures of Pattie Dorne and Lena Moore to the deed in question were not their genuine signatures.
David Moore, the husband of Lena Moore, testified that he was familiar with the signatures of Lena Moore and Pattie Dorne, and that their purported signatures to the deed in question were not their genuine signatures. Appellant and his grantor have been in possession of the land ever since the execution of the deed in question as testified to above. Other facts will be stated or referred to in the opinion.
The chancellor found that Georgia Mitchell and Lena Moore inherited the interest of Pattie Dorne in said land when she died; that Georgia Mitchell was barred of any recovery in said land by the statute of limitations; and that the children and heirs at law of Lena Moore were not barred by the statute of limitations, and were entitled to recover from the defendant an undivided one-half interest in said land. This included the one-third interest which their mother inherited from her father, and one-half of the one-third interest which their mother Lena Moore, inherited from her sister, Pattie Dorne.
A decree was entered in their favor in accordance with the finding of the chancellor, and the case is here on appeal.
Flenniken & Sellers, of El Dorado, for appellant.
Arthur D. Chavis, of Pine Bluff, for appellees.
HART, J. (after stating the facts as above).
The chancellor properly held that Georgia Mitchell was barred by the statute of limitations. She was a married woman at the time of the execution of the deed by her mother to Raiford Madison in December, 1904, and remained so until this suit was commenced on the 7th day of June, 1922.
Section 6942 of Crawford & Moses' Digest, which is section 5056 of Kirby's Digest, as amended by the...
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