Martin v. Mansell

Decision Date21 April 1978
Citation357 So.2d 964
PartiesJohn B. MARTIN, Jr., et al. v. James Barry MANSELL et al. SC 2688.
CourtAlabama Supreme Court

Robert W. Walker, Florence, for appellants.

Roger H. Bedford, of Bedford & Bedford, Russellville, for appellees.

TORBERT, Chief Justice.

This case involves a boundary line dispute between coterminous landowners, appellants John Martin and Sue Martin (plaintiffs below), and appellees James Mansell, Gretchen Mansell, Jack Mansell, Harrol Hammack, and Sue Hammack (defendants below). A trial was held and the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants. The trial court then fixed the boundary lines according to an agreement entered into by the parties at the conclusion of the evidence. The Martins appealed. We affirm.

In 1959, Harrol Hammack purchased a tract of land in Franklin County, Alabama. Hammack conveyed parcels of this property in 1964 to John Barney Mansell, who is not a party to this action, retaining a portion of the tract for himself and his wife, Sue Hammack. Mr. Mansell thereafter conveyed his property to defendants James Mansell and Gretchen Mansell in 1971. The remaining defendant, Jack Mansell, acquired his part of the property by deed in 1972.

The defendants' land lies to the west and north of property purchased by the Martins in 1973. A surveyor was employed by the Martins in 1974 to mark the boundary lines of their property according to the government survey lines. They then fenced and blazed trees along these surveyed lines.

The boundary lines as marked by the surveyor did not correspond with fences which, according to testimony at trial, were in existence on the property at the time of the Martins' purchase in 1973 and which were also in existence at the time of Hammack's purchase in 1959. The defendants claimed that these fences, which are within the surveyed boundaries of the Martins' property, have been recognized for many years as the correct property lines. However, the deeds of both Hammack and the Martins describe the property on subsectional lines without any overlapping in the legal descriptions contained in the several deeds. Therefore, the Martins argue that the correct lines were the section lines as marked by the surveyor according to the record titles. Litigation sought to establish the correct boundary lines between the properties in question.

The Martins first contend that the trial court committed error in overruling their motion for new trial on the grounds that the verdict of the jury is unsupported by the evidence in the case and the law of Alabama. They point out that the Hammacks are the only defendants with a deed describing any portion of the disputed property that has been of record for ten years. The remaining defendants' deeds contain descriptions according to subsection lines without any mention of the portion of land in controversy in this case. This fact, according to the Martins, precludes these other defendants from "tacking" the periods of adverse possession by their predecessors in title for the purpose of effecting title to the disputed land by adverse possession even though all defendants were put in possession of their properties up to the fences by their predecessors in title. We do not agree.

Justice Jones, writing for a majority of this court, recently restated the rule on tacking in adverse possession cases in Watson v. Price, 356 So.2d 625 (Ala.1978), a decision which had not been announced when the present case was submitted, but is now dispositive of the above stated issues raised by the Martins. Relying principally upon former decisions of this court in Carpenter v. Huffman, 294 Ala. 189, 314 So.2d 65 (1975), and Graham v. Hawkins, 281 Ala. 288, 202 So.2d 74 (1967), Justice Jones summarized the tacking principle in the following manner:

"For the purpose of effecting title by adverse possession, where all the traditional elements are present, tacking of periods of possession by successive possessors is permitted against the co-terminous owner seeking to defeat such title, unless there is a finding, supported by the evidence, that the claimant's predecessor in title did not intend to convey the disputed strip. We hold that this rule should apply even though the conveying instrument contains no legal description of the property in question, and irrespective of the period for which the property was possessed by the present claimant's predecessor in title."

Id. at 627 (emphasis added).

The Martins secondly maintain that the burden of proof was upon Harrol and Sue Hammack to establish title by adverse possession to their portion of the disputed property and that they failed to meet this burden. Again we disagree.

"If a coterminous landowner holds actual possession of a disputed strip under a claim of right openly and exclusively for a continuous period of ten years, believing that he is holding to the true line, he thereby acquires title up to that line, even though the belief as to the correct location originated in a mistake, and it is immaterial what he might or might not have claimed had he known he was mistaken. Lay v. Phillips, 276 Ala. 273, 161 So.2d 477; McNeil v. Hadden, 261 Ala. 691, 76 So.2d 160, and cases there cited; see Treadaway v. Hamilton, 221 Ala. 479, 129 So. 55."

Sylvest v. Stowers, 276 Ala. 695, 697-98, 166 So.2d 423, 426 (1964).

"The rule has been applied in boundary line disputes that questions of adverse possession are questions of fact properly determined by the trier of facts, and that the determination so made, where the evidence is taken orally, as here, is favored with a presumption of correctness and will not be disturbed on appeal unless plainly erroneous or manifestly unjust. Butts v. Lancaster, 279 Ala. 589, 188 So.2d 548; Morgan v. Larde (282 Ala. 426, 212 So.2d 594), supra; Barnett v. Millis (286 Ala. 681, 246 So.2d 78), supra."

Casey v. Keeney, ...

To continue reading

Request your trial
18 cases
  • Thomas v. State
    • United States
    • Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals
    • February 28, 1992
    ...further agree that when prospective jurors fail to answer questions correctly, counsel and parties are denied that right. Martin v. Mansell, 357 So.2d 964 (Ala.1978). It is well established that when a trial court is presented with a motion for a new trial based on an improper response or a......
  • Colbert County-Northwest Alabama Healthcare Authority v. Nix
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • October 27, 1995
    ...Health Care Centers, Inc. v. Bannerman, 411 So.2d 109 (Ala.1982); Cavalier Ins. Corp. v. Faulk, 368 So.2d 6 (Ala.1979); Martin v. Mansell, 357 So.2d 964 (Ala.1978); Miller v. Samples, 291 Ala. 533, 283 So.2d 424 (1973); Loch Ridge Construction Co. v. Barra, 291 Ala. 312, 280 So.2d 745 (1973......
  • Union Mortg. Co., Inc. v. Barlow
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • January 10, 1992
    ...peremptory strikes and, when jurors fail to answer questions correctly, the parties are denied the exercise of that right. Martin v. Mansell, 357 So.2d 964 (Ala.1978). The proper inquiry on a motion for a new trial based on improper or nonexistent responses to voir dire questions is whether......
  • Ensor v. Wilson By and Through Wilson
    • United States
    • Alabama Supreme Court
    • October 23, 1987
    ...Furniture Galleries, Inc., 439 So.2d 33 (Ala.1983): "The scope of review of this Court on such issues was stated in Martin v. Mansell, 357 So.2d 964 (Ala.1978), which followed Freeman v. Hall, 286 Ala. 161, 166-67, 238 So.2d 330, 335-36 " 'We hold that the proper inquiry for the trial court......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT