McAninch v. Smith

• Decision Date: 09 November 1885
• Citation: 19 Mo.App. 240
• Parties: GEORGE MCANINCH, Respondent, v. T. D. SMITH, Appellant.
• Court: Kansas Court of Appeals

19 Mo.App. 240

GEORGE MCANINCH, Respondent, v. T. D. SMITH, Appellant.

Court of Appeals of Missouri, Kansas City.

November 9, 1885

APPEAL from Callaway Circuit Court, HON .G. H. BURCKHARTT, Judge.

Reversed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.

T. B BUCKNER, for the appellant.

I. The plaintiff was not entitled to recover, because there was no possession shown in plaintiff, and because the evidence shows that the defendant, and those under whom he claims title, not only built the fence in question, but have been in the actual possession of it since, to-wit: since the year 1856.

II. If the defendant is in actual possession, the remedy is by ejectment. Cochran v. Whitesides, 34 Mo. 417; McMenamy v. Cohick, 1 Mo.App. 529; Renshaw v Lloyd, 50 Mo. 368; Brown v. Carter, 50 Mo. 46; Sigerson v. Hornsby, 14 Mo. 71.

III. The instruction given by the court was erroneous. There was no evidence to support it, and no possession was even claimed beyond the buying of land and taking a deed for it; nor did it appear which was the true survey of the two which were made. Constructive possession was not enough; it must have been actual. Moore v. Perry, 61 Mo. 175.

IV. " No justice of the peace shall have jurisdiction * * * to try any action when the title to any lands or tenements shall come in question, or be in issue." Section 2837, Revised Statutes. The plaintiff must bring ejectment if he thinks he has title under a particular survey.

S. T HARRISON and WARNER LEWIS, for the respondent.

I. The possession in this case was a mixed possession; the legal possession, therefore, must be held according to the title which is in plaintiff. Tyler on Eject. 117; Codman v. Winslow, 10 Mass. 151; Washb. Real Est. (3 Ed. of 1862) p. 485; State v. Rawson, 6 Metc. (Mass.) 439; 81 Mo. 236; Jones v. Chapman, 2 Exch. (Eng.) 821.

II. The law was properly declared in the instruction given; the case is almost identical with Climer v. Wallace (28 Mo. 556). The court properly refused the instructions asked by defendant, as the title to the land was not raised on the trial, nor supported by any evidence. If the defendant desired to raise the question of title, he should have proceeded as provided by statute in section 2931, Revised Statutes.

III. There was nothing in the motion for a new trial on ground of newly discovered evidence. It discloses a lack of diligence on part of defendant. (1) It does not show knowledge of agreement by plaintiff. (2) It was a parol agreement affecting real estate. (3) It is not stated that the evidence is important, nor that it could not be shown by other witnesses. (4) It does not show that such evidence would have changed the result. Davis v. Peveler, 65 Mo. 193; Pipkin v. Allen, 29 Mo. 229; Shaw v. Bush, 58 Mo. 107; State v. Lock, 26 Mo. 603; Howell v. Howell, 37 Mo. 125.

ELLISON J.

It appears from the evidence in this case that plaintiff and defendant owned and lived on adjoining farms. That defendant's farm lay north of plaintiff's and was enclosed and improved before plaintiff's, the fence in controversy was defendant's south boundary, and whether on the line, or not, he, and those owning and occupying his farm prior to his purchase, claimed to own the fence and the land up to it. Defendant's grantors built the fence in 1856 and ever since that time, a period of near thirty years, his grantors and himself have cultivated the field up to the fence, and have maintained the fence, and have " used it as a part of and in connection with defendant's farm."

There was a survey of the land in 1850, by one Bird, and the line run between the two pieces of land. Defendant's predecessor in ownership built the fence on this line as he and other witnesses state, though plaintiff's evidence tends to show the Bird line was one or two feet north of the fence. In 1878 one Holley surveyed the same lands and run the line some ten feet north of the fence, in other words, placed the line some ten feet in defendant's field. Defendant's grantors had, also, planted and cultivated a hedge fence some three feet north of the rail fence in controversy. The evidence shows, beyond doubt (it is not disputed by plaintiff's testimony) that the grantors of defendant, and defendant himself, had claimed the fence, and the land up to it for nearly thirty years; that they had held the land and cultivated it with no idea or thought of its not being theirs, and so had repaired and maintained the fence.

Just when plaintiff's land was improved and occupied does not appear, but whoever did occupy it, and cultivate it, did so only up to the fence. They had no possession in defendant's field. Neither does the evidence show they had any possession of the fence.

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