Maples v. Spencer
| Decision Date | 21 April 1914 |
| Parties | MAPLES v. SPENCER. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
Appeal from Common Pleas Circuit Court of Sumter County; Geo. W Gage, Judge.
Action for partition by Hercules Maples against Kate Spencer. From an order dismissing the complaint, plaintiff appeals. Reversed and remanded.
Marion W. Seabrook, of Sumter, for appellant.
John H Clifton and H. Harby, both of Sumter, for respondent.
This was an action for partition brought by the plaintiff against defendant. The complaint alleged that the plaintiff and defendant were tenants in common of a certain tract of land and defendant was wrongfully withholding plaintiff's part after renting the same from him, and refused to let him enter and enjoy his part, and claims title to the whole. The answer denies the allegations of the complaint, and alleges title in the defendant, and alleges peaceable possession in herself for more than 20 years, claiming it as her own, and holding it adversely to every one. The cause was heard before his honor, Geo. W. Gage, and a jury at the June term of the court, 1913, for Sumter county. At the close of plaintiff's evidence a motion for nonsuit was made and refused. Later, when all the testimony was in, his honor did not direct a verdict, but held that he was satisfied from the evidence in the case that the relationship in which plaintiff's parents lived was that of concubinage, and that there was no inheritable blood; and he passed an order dismissing the complaint. From this order, plaintiff appeals, and by five exceptions complains of error and asks reversal.
It is not necessary to take the exceptions up separately. If there was any competent, pertinent, relevant testimony to make out the plaintiff's case, it should have been submitted to the jury. If the testimony of the plaintiff is to be considered at all, and is worth anything at all, then he made out such a case that the jury should have passed upon the case. What credence they would have given to his testimony or what effect it would have had with them, it is not for the court to say. He testifies that his father and mother lived together as man and wife in slavery times, and that the marriage ceremony was performed, and that after freedom they continued to live together as man and wife, and that he was recognized as a son, by his father, Jerry Maples, and that he lived with his father until he married, and that his mother was Rebecca, and she afterwards marries one Robinson; that his father lived off and on with another woman, Minda, during...
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