Knotts v. Joiner
| Decision Date | 14 June 1950 |
| Docket Number | 16372. |
| Citation | 59 S.E.2d 850,217 S.C. 99 |
| Parties | KNOTTS v. JOINER. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
T. A. Houser, St. Matthews, Hydrick & Hydrick Orangeburg, for appellant.
C. E Summers, Orangeburg, Thomas R. Wolfe, Orangeburg, for respondent.
Respondent's grandfather was John Amaker, of Orangeburg County, who died in 1905 leaving a will by which he devised the land involved in this action to his wife for life, then to his daughter for her life and remainder in fee to her issue. The daughter was respondent's mother who predeceased her mother, leaving four children. The widow of testator died in 1935, at which time respondent and his three sisters became entitled to possession as tenants in common under the terms of the will. Respondent, who was born in 1908, left his Orangeburg home in 1927 when he enlisted in the army. After successive enlistments he was discharged and thereafter lived in distant western state until Thanksgiving Day in 1948 when he returned to his native county.
The undivided interest in the land of one of his sisters was sold under execution for taxes in 1934 and conveyed by the County Tax Collector to Mrs. Julia J. Cleckley by deed dated March 22 1938. The grantee was the aunt of respondent and his sisters. The two other sisters joined in a conveyance to Mrs. Cleckley by deed dated March 25, 1937, describing the property conveyed as 'all our right, title and interest of, in and to' etc.
The aforementioned conveyances to Mrs. Cleckley were recorded at the same time in the office of the Clerk of Court on March 26, 1938. On that date, by deed recorded at the same time, Mrs. Cleckley undertook to convey the land to appellant without express reference to her limited acquisitions but at the end of the description there was added the following: 'Being the same tract of land conveyed to me by C. H. Williams, Collector of Delinquent Taxes, by his deed of conveyance bearing date the 22nd day of March, 1938, and being the same tract of land conveyed to me by Mrs. Alice Knotts Whetstone and Mrs. Mae Knotts Waugh by their deed of conveyance bearing date the 25th day of March, 1938.' The deed was a printed form but the warranty clause was so stricken with pen as to change it from the usual general warranty to a special warranty, that is, against the heirs of the grantor only.
Upon his return to the state after about twenty-one years' absence respondent, who knew of the devise of his grandfather to him, investigated the status of the land, found appellant in possession, and demanded his one-fourth interest and an accounting for the rents and profits. Upon appellant's refusal of the demand this action for partition and accounting was commenced. Appellant pleaded the Statute of Limitations and title by adverse possession. The County Judge as special referee took the testimony and upheld the defenses. Comparison of the above stated dates shows that a title over ten years time elapsed between the conveyance of the land to appellant by Mrs. Cleckley, under which appellant went into possession, and respondent's return, demand and suit.
Upon exceptions to the report of the referee the Circuit Court reversed upon the ground that the issues should be decided under the law applicable to cotenants and that the conveyance to appellant and his possession thereunder did not constitute ouster, necessary to the commencement of the running of the statutes in such cases. That is the crux of the controversy.
The general rule is that the possession of one cotenant is the possession of all (which is a variation of the rule that unexplained possession raises a presumption of adverse possession) and the lower court applied this rule and held, in effect, that the conveyance to appellant vested in him only the three undivided interests acquired by Mrs. Cleckley by the deeds which have been described, which left respondent's one-fourth interest outstanding and made him and appellant cotenants. The court observed the contents of the deed to appellant, to which reference has been made which it was concluded put appellant on notice, if such was necessary, that he thereby acquired only the three-fourths undivided interests of respondent's sisters. Further the court gave credence to testimony of admissions by appellant to others at about the time of his acquisition and afterward that respondent's...
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