Millican v. Mintz

• Decision Date: 29 March 1951
• Docket Number: 7 Div. 64
• Parties: MILLICAN et al. v. MINTZ.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 207

52 So.2d 207

255 Ala. 569

MILLICAN et al. v. MINTZ.

7 Div. 64.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

March 29, 1951.

Rehearing Denied May 10, 1951.

Merrill, Merrill & Vardaman, of Anniston, for appellants.

Ross Blackmon, of Anniston, for appellee.

FOSTER, Justice.

This is an action in ejectment in two counts. The case has been here twice before as reported in 248 Ala. 683, 29 So.2d 230, and 251 Ala. 358, 37 So.2d 425.

On the last trial the case went to the jury on counts A and B. Count A is for the recovery of a strip of land which may be briefly referred to as the north 179 feet of S.E. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 of Section 22, Township 13, Range 7 East. Count B is for the recovery of what may be referred to as the north 46 feet and four inches of the N.W. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 of Section 22, Township 13, Range 7 East. This particular count specifically refers to the land as being in the N.W. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 of said section, township and range. While count A does not specifically state that the strip of land is in the S.E. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4, the description which is contained in the count shows that it is necessarily in that quarter section.

The plaintiff, who is the appellee here, has paper title conveying to him the N.E. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 and the S. 1/2 of the S.W. 1/4 of the N.E. 1/4. It may be observed that the last described twenty acres lie immediately north of the N.W. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 and also that the N.E. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 of which the plaintiff has paper title lies immediately north of the S.E. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4. The evidence shows that the plaintiff has no paper title to either of the tracts sued for. It therefore follows that his right to recovery in this case depends entirely upon an application of the statute of limitations and adverse possession.

The evidence shows there has arisen a dispute with respect to the boundary line between the N.E. 1/4 and the S.E. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 and between the S.W. 1/4 of the N.E. 1/4 and the N.W. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4. It seems there were two old surveys of this land whereby the location of those two dividing lines was placed at approximately the south lines of the two tracts of land sued for. Those surveys also extended to the east, the dividing line between the N.E. 1/4 and the N.W. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 of said section, township and range, as that line has recently been located by what is called the Lee survey, and the location of that line is not here in controversy. The old survey located that line onto the lands of the plaintiff and located the other controverted lines on the quarter sections owned by the defendant. The Lee survey, which is the more recent in point of time, is the one which caused the controversy between the parties, but the descriptions of the tracts of land sued for in the complaint are consistent with the correctness of that survey.

There was a jury and verdict for the defendant in the case, and the plaintiff made a motion for a new trial which was granted. The appeal is taken by the defendant from that judgment. The theory argued by counsel, upon which the court must have acted in granting said motion for a new trial, was that the verdict of the jury was contrary to the great weight of the evidence. We will therefore consider the question from that standpoint.

Before reviewing the substance of the evidence material to that issue, we wish to refer to certain principles of law which have application, stated as follows. Where plaintiff in ejectment relies on title by adverse possession, he has the burden of showing the legal title based upon such possession. McCreary v. Jackson Lumber Co., 168 Ala. 208, 53 So. 103.

A witness may testify that a person was in possession of the land and continued in such possession. This being merely the statement of a collective fact. Woodstock Iron Co. v. Roberts, 87 Ala. 436, 6 So. 349; Steed v. Knowles, 97 Ala. 573(5), 12 So. 75; Cooper v. Slaughter, 175 Ala. 211(13), 57 So. 477; McCraw v. Lindsey, 209 Ala. 214(4), 95 So. 898.

On cross examination a witness who has testified as to the possession of land by another in such general terms may be questioned as to the basis of such statement, and if his testimony shows that it was based upon facts which are not sufficient to support possession such general statement will yield to the particulars as testified to by the witness.

It has been held by this Court that where a witness has enumerated certain possessory acts of another, not in themselves sufficient to show actual possession, but not shown to be the only possessory acts performed, and testified further that at the time plaintiff's ancestor conveyed the land he was in possession of it, whether or not he was in possession was a question to be submitted to the jury. McCreary v. Jackson Lumber Co., 148 Ala. 247, 41 So. 822(1).

Such possession in order to ripen into title after the required length of time must be more than a mere claim of ownership. A claim of ownership or an intention to assert title against the true owner is of no consequence in the absence of demonstrations by acts done upon the property leaving there indicia of a continued possession. Rucker v. Jackson, 180 Ala. 109(11), 60 So. 139; Odom v. Averett, 248 Ala. 289, 27 So.2d 479. Such acts of possession and other evidence to make it adverse and which will ripen into title must be sufficient to prove that the possession has been actual, exclusive, open, notorious, hostile and continuous for a period of ten years in the party making such claim. McCreary v. Jackson Lumber Co., supra (6); Kidd v. Browne, 200 Ala. 299(6), 76 So. 65.

We have applied those principles to controversies where the question related to a boundary dispute. Brantley v. Helton, 224 Ala. 93, 139 So. 283; Barbaree v. Flowers, 239 Ala. 510, 196 So. 111; Branyon v. Kirk, 238 Ala. 321, 191 So. 345; Duke v. Wimberly, 245 Ala. 639, 18 So.2d 554. The same principles apply so far as actual possession is concerned whether it relates to a boundary line dispute or any other dispute as to the title. Tensaw Land and Timber Co. v. Rivers, 244 Ala. 657, 15 So.2d 411.

The question which confronts us is whether the trial judge was justified in his conclusion that the verdict of the jury was contrary to the great preponderance of the evidence. Section 276, Title 7, Code. There was but one issue of fact which was subject to his consideration. That was whether the plaintiff Mintz had actual adverse, hostile, exclusive and continuous possession of the controverted strips of land for as much as ten years prior to the institution of the suit by him. The plaintiff acquired the N.E. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 and the S. 1/2 of S.W. 1/4 of N.E. 1/4 of Section 22, Township 13, Range 7 East by deed executed by the register of the circuit court, in equity, on April 23, 1930. The sale was made under a decree of the circuit court, in equity, dated February 10, 1930, for the purpose of making partition between tenants in common. The sale did not include, in so far as the description shows, either of the tracts in controversy. So that the duty was imposed upon the plaintiff Mintz of showing that he acquired the legal title to one or both of such tracts by adverse possession.

The appellant Millican, who was the defendant below, was shown to have purchased the S.E. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 and the N.W. 1/4 of the S.E. 1/4 of Section 22, Township 13, Range 7 East on January 19, 1944, from one Brock who had himself purchased it in 1940 from one Propst. Propst bought it in 1939 from one Welch, and...