Metze v. Meetze

• Decision Date: 08 April 1957
• Docket Number: No. 17281,17281
• Citation: 97 S.E.2d 514,231 S.C. 154
• Parties: Ernest Clayton METZE, Nell Idelia Brazelle, Leonard Dale Metze and Otis Wayne Metze, Respondents, v. Clayton J. MEETZE, Appellant.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

Page 514

97 S.E.2d 514

231 S.C. 154

Ernest Clayton METZE, Nell Idelia Brazelle, Leonard Dale Metze and Otis Wayne Metze, Respondents, v. Clayton J. MEETZE, Appellant.

No. 17281.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

April 8, 1957.

J. Carlisle Oxner, Columbia, for appellant.

T. P. Taylor, Isadore S. Bernstein, Columbia, for respondents.

STUKES, Chief Justice.

This action is concerned with a boundary dispute between respondents and appellant. They have a common source of title. In 1927 one Huffstettler conveyed to appellant, who was his son-in-law, a lot of land measuring and fronting 90 feet on the Columbia-Newberry Highway and running back to a depth of 400 feet, being a parallelogram. It was bounded on both sides and on the rear by other land of the grantor. In 1953 Huffstettler conveyed the land on the north side of the aforementioned lot to his daughter, the mother of respondents, who subsequently conveyed to them. Meanwhile, Huffstettler had his land surveyed and platted in 1928 and the lot formerly conveyed by him to appellant was shown on the map with the corner marks, courses and distances of it. The map was recorded in the office of the Clerk of Court.

The action was commenced on March 3, 1955, upon a complaint in which it was alleged that the dividing line between the lands of respondents and appellant was in dispute and appellant had refused to amicably ascertain the true location of the line. The prayer of the complaint was that surveyors be appointed to establish the line which should be confirmed by the judgment of the court. Demurrer was not interposed to the complaint. Uxbridge v. Poppenheim, 135 S.C. 26, 133 S.E. 461; McRae v. Hamer, 148 S.C. 403, 146 S.E. 243.

Appellant answered and alleged that his grantor showed him the lines of the lot intended to be conveyed whereupon appellant went into possession, in which he has continued adversely, openly and exclusively from the time of the deed to him; and that respondents subsequently acquired title inferior and subordinate to that of appellant.

Without objection of record, all issues were referred to the master in equity who took the testimony. In a well-considered report he found against appellant and recommended that the plat of appellant's lot dated November 9, 1954, by B. F. Walker, Jr., of Barber, Keels & Associates, Engineers, be adjudged to represent the true boundaries of the lot and to establish the dividing line between it and the adjoining lands of respondents. Appellant's exceptions to the master's report were overruled and it was confirmed and made the judgment of the court, whence this appeal.

A ground of appeal is that the lower court did not appoint surveyors in accord with the prayer of the complaint. However, the record indicates that this question was not raised upon trial before the master and no effort to that end was made by appellant. Moreover, no prejudice to him appears. During the pendency of the action he employed another surveyor who testified in his behalf and whose conflicting plat was in evidence. See for a similar situation, Little v. Little, 223 S.C. 332, 75 S.E.2d 871.

It appears from the testimony that the surveyors, who...