Miles v. Craig

• Decision Date: 14 April 1928
• Docket Number: 20926.
• Citation: 266 P. 182,147 Wash. 530
• Parties: MILES v. CRAIG et al.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

266 P. 182

147 Wash. 530

MILES v. CRAIG et al.

No. 20926.

Supreme Court of Washington

April 14, 1928

Department 1.

Appeal from Superior Court, Benton County; John Truax, Judge.

Action by A. J. Miles against Ida M. Craig and another. Decree for plaintiff, and defendants appeal. Affirmed.

James Collins Lloyd, of White Bluffs, for appellants.

McGregor & Fristoe, of Prosser, for respondent.

PARKER J.

The plaintiff, Miles, commenced this action in the superior court for Benton county seeking a decree quieting his title as against the claims of the defendants, Mrs. Craig and Clarke her grantee, to a strip of land 20 feet wide and 801.5 feet long along the southerly boundary of a 10-acre tract conveyed to Miles by Mrs. Craig prior to the execution of a conveyance by her to Clarke of land lying to the south thereof. Miles also seeks reformation of the conveyance veyance by Mrs. Craig to him of the 10-acre tract so as to include the 20-foot strip, in the event that it be determined that the technical description of that conveyance does not include the 20-foot strip, and that his title thereto be quieted accordingly as against the claims of Mrs. Craig and Clarke. The action, being of equitable cognizance, proceeded to trial before the court sitting without a jury, and resulted in a decree reforming the conveyance and quieting title in Miles as prayed for by him, from which Mrs. Craig and Clarke have appealed to this court.

The trial court did not make any formal findings of fact. We have read all of the evidence as brought here by a full statement of facts, and we think the controlling facts, as the trial court evidently viewed them and as we think it was warranted in viewing them, may be fairly summarized as follows: On March 30, 1922, and for some years prior thereto, Mrs. Craig then a widow, was the owner, as her separate property, of the whole of lot 1, being the fractional northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 14, township 14, north, range 26 E. W. M., in Benton county. That lot is approximately in triangular form, its northwesterly boundary being the southeasterly shore line of the Columbia river, its area being approximately 25 acres. On that day, Mrs. Craig, by due execution of a warranty deed, made conveyance to Miles of a 10-acre tract of land in that lot by the following description:

'Beginning at a point on the half section line 1452' north of the center of section fourteen (14), township fourteen (14), north, range twenty-six (26) E. W. M., thence north with a variation of twenty-two degrees and thirty minutes, 1000'; thence south sixty degrees and seventeen minutes, west, 329'; thence south forty-eight degrees and twenty minutes, west, 369.4'; thence south thirty degrees and forty-three minutes, west 386'; thence south seventy-one degrees and nine minutes, east, 801.5' to the place of beginning, containing ten (10) acres, more or less.'

That deed was thereafter, on April 25, 1922, duly recorded in volume 52 of Deeds at page 287 in the office of the auditor of Benton county. The northwesterly boundary so described follows approximately parallel to the shore line of the river, though some distance back therefrom, so as to include only, as was mutually intended, good agricultural land in the 10-acre tract. The southerly boundary line, 801.5 feet long, is the line here in dispute. That conveyance was the result of previous negotiations carried on by one Weil, as agent for Mrs. Craig; he being duly authorized to find not only a purchaser for the lot or any portion thereof, but also to cause survey and marking upon the ground corners and boundaries of such portion or portions of the lot as might be so bargained for and sold. Weil, as such agent, having tentatively agreed with Miles for his purchase of 10 acres of the lot to be surveyed and marked upon the ground, caused a survey to be made accordingly. In doing so, the center of the section was assumed to be an appropriate fixed starting point. Weil went with the surveyor to that point and showed him an old fence running east and west, supposed to be on the east and west half section line, and gave the surveyor to understand that he might assume, without further survey or inquiry, to start from that point on the fence line as the center of the section. Accordingly, the surveyor ran therefrom 1,452 feet north along the north and south half section line to the place of the beginning of the description in the deed from Mrs. Craig to Miles, as above quoted. The surveyor placed a stake at that point of beginning and at the point of beginning of each course around the boundary of the 10-acre tract, so that the southerly boundary line, 801.5 feet long, was thus plainly marked and fixed upon the ground, as were the other boundary lines. The conveyance being executed by Mrs. Craig accordingly, Miles, by tenant, then went into possession of the tract so surveyed and marked upon the ground.

Thereafter in January, 1923, Miles personally went into possession of the 10-acre tract, as surveyed and marked upon the ground, and commenced to further improve it. Among other things, he dug a well near the southwest corner on the 20-foot strip in question, some 8 feet north of the southerly boundary, as surveyed and marked upon the ground. He erected a tent house a short distance farther west, some 10 feet north of the southerly boundary, as surveyed and marked upon the ground, and constructed a water line consisting partly of tiling and partly of wooden flume, for a distance of some 760 feet, about 3 feet northerly of and parallel with the southerly boundary, as surveyed and marked upon the ground. These improvements were visible assertions of possession by Miles. Thereafter, in October, 1923, Clarke entered into a tentative oral agreement with Mrs. Craig for the purchase from her of the remainder of lot 1 lying principally to the south of Miles' 10-acre tract. Thereafter, in the fall of 1923, Miles and Clarke, laboring jointly, built a wire fence along the southerly boundary of the Miles 10-acre tract, as surveyed and marked upon the ground; that is, about 3 feet southerly and parallel with Miles'...