Merchants' Bank of St. Louis v. Clavin

• Decision Date: 31 May 1875
• Citation: 60 Mo. 559
• Parties: THE MERCHANTS' BANK OF ST. LOUIS, Respondent, v. THOMAS CLAVIN, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

60 Mo. 559

THE MERCHANTS' BANK OF ST. LOUIS, Respondent,

v.THOMAS CLAVIN, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

May Term, 1875.

Appeal from Chariton Circuit Court.

Chas. A. Winslow, for Appellant.

L. H. Waters, with Kinley & Kinley, for Respondent.

WAGNER, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an action for an unlawful detainer to recover the possession of a quarter section of land. The cause was taken by certiorari to the Circuit Court, and tried before the judge without the intervention of a jury. The court found the defendant guilty of an unlawful detainer, and rendered judgment accordingly.

At the trial, the plaintiff, for the purpose of showing the extent of its claim, introduced in evidence a deed from A. C. Johnson and wife to plaintiff, for several tracts of land, including the quarter section in controversy. It further put in evidence a lease from it to George and William Clavin and one Riley, for the premises known as the Johnson farm, for the year 1867, to end on the first of March, 1868.

It was admitted that the lessees, George and William Clavin, had rented and occupied the Johnson farm for the years 1864, 1865 and 1866, as the plaintiff's tenants.

W. C. Applegate was then introduced, who testified that the Johnson farm consisted of seven hundred and twenty-six acres of various adjoining tracts, and that the land involved in this suit was one of the tracts; that there was a field in this tract, but that the house was half a mile from it, and that the tenants had the privilege of getting fuel, rail timber, etc., off from it, and that they occupied the farm under the lease read in evidence.

Evidence was further given, to show that during the time defendants occupied the Johnson farm as plaintiff's tenants, an agent of the plaintiff gave them permission to remove the rails from the land in controversy for their accommodation, but with no intention of abandoning the possession of the land.

The plaintiff then read a deed from one Gaines to George and William Clavin, dated March 14, 1867, for the land in dispute, and also a deed from George and William Clavin to Thomas Clavin, dated August 3d, 1867, for the same land.

For the defendant, testimony was introduced tending to show that when defendants rented the Johnson farm there was some fencing on the land in controversy, and that by permission of plaintiff's agent the rails were taken to repair the fences in another part of the farm; that no timber was used on the land, because there was timber nearer; that the rent was computed upon the improved part of the farm; that when George and William Clavin bought the land of Gaines they bought it for Thomas Clavin, and took the deed in the own name to secure them for the money advanced to pay for it; that Thomas Clavin went into possession about July or August 1867, and that he came to live with them in 1866, and...