Miner v. Yantis

• Decision Date: 27 November 1951
• Docket Number: No. 32101,32101
• Citation: 102 N.E.2d 524,410 Ill. 401
• Parties: MINER et al. v. YANTIS et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 524

102 N.E.2d 524

410 Ill. 401

MINER et al. v. YANTIS et al.

No. 32101.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 27, 1951.

Fribley & LaCharite, of Pana, and Arthur J. Steidley, of Shelbyville, for appellants.

E. C. Eberspacher, of Shelbyville, for appellees.

MAXWELL, Justice.

This is an appeal by the defendants from a decree of the circuit court of Shelby County, setting aside a deed to a school site, dated November 1, 1947, by trustees of schools of township No. 12 north, range No. 4 east of the Third Principal Meridian, Shelby County, Illinois, to the defendant Ralph Yantis. The decree also set aside a bill of sale to a school building on said site, executed by the trustees to the defendant Yantis, and enjoined him from removing the school building from the premises and confirmed title to said site and the building thereon in the plaintiffs.

The record discloses that plaintiffs are the owners of record title to the north one-half of section 20, township 12 north, range 4 east of the Third Principal Meridian in Shelby County, Illinois, upon which there was located a schoolhouse site of approximately one acre. Said site had never been conveyed to the defendant school trustees, and plaintiffs and their predecessors in title have always paid taxes on all of the land including the school site. For many years there was a wooden school building on said site. This building was erected on a concrete foundation with a concrete basement and was so constructed that under the general common-law rule it would be presumed to be a permanent part of the real estate. The premises ceased to be used for school purposes sometime prior to 1947. On November 1, 1947, pursuant to an election held for that purpose, the defendant school trustees held a public sale of the school site and the buildings thereon. The site and buildings were sold separately and the defendant Yantis was the purchaser of both the land and the schoolhouse building. Thereupon the trustees of schools executed the deed and bill of sale in question. No question is raised concerning the validity of the proceedings leading up to the sale.

Plaintiffs' complaint alleged the foregoing facts and claimed title to the tract in question by reason of an uninterrupted chain of conveyances since letters patent issued by the United States, and claimed title to the building as a permanent fixture upon the premises.

Defendants filed an answer denying plaintiffs' title to the land and building and alleged that by operation of law the building upon the school site were to be considered as personal property in the hands of the school trustees, and further alleged certain facts in an effort to establish title to the land in the trustees of schools by adverse possession. The following quotation contains all of the material allegations of the answer relative to adverse possession: 'These Defendants further answering aver that the then acting Directors of School District No. 2 * * * for and on behalf of the Defendant Trustees of Schools * * * prior to the year 1891 went into possession of said real estate * * * and a schoolhouse was erected on said Tract by the then acting School Directors aforesaid, which schoolhouse was thereafter replaced by the present existing frame schoolhouse on or about the year 1917 and that same and said tract whereon the same was situated has been in the possession of the School Directors of said District aforesaid for and on behalf of the Defendant Trustees of Schools * * * from the year 1890 up to November 1, 1947, who claimed to own the same, and that said Trustees sold the same to the Defendant, Ralph Yantis on the first day of November, 1947, and that same has been in the possession of said Ralph Yantis from November 1, 1947, to the present date and that since the year 1891 to the present date, said premises have been occupied by the Defendant Trustees of Schools of the Defendant Ralph Yantis, actually, distinctly, continuously, visibly, openly, notoriously, undisputedly, and adversely and that said Defendant, Ralph Yantis, now owns the same and that knowledge of the hostile claims of the Defendant Trustees of Schools were asserted and made known to Plaintiffs or their predecessors in title in the year of 1907 prior to the trial of the Partition proceeding herein mentioned, to one Thomas Miner, husband of Minnie B. Miner, one of the parties to the Partition proceedings mentioned in Paragraph 23 supra, and that said Thomas Miner appeared and testified thereto as a witness on behalf of Plaintiff Minnie Miner in said Partition proceedings aforesaid.'

Upon motion of plaintiffs the foregoing allegations were stricken from defendants' answer. Defendants insist that this was error, while plaintiffs insist that the trial court's action was correct.

Plaintiffs argue that the powers of school trustees are so limited that they do not have the power to acquire realty in fee simple absolute, except in two cases: (1) to take title in satisfaction of a judgment, and (2) to take title in settlement of debts; and insist that in only these two cases did the legislature give them the power to take title without limitation. They insist that in all other instances the trustees cannot take title to real estate in fee simple, but that they are strictly limited in all cases to such interest as is absolutely necessary for school purposes. With this contention we cannot agree. If this reasoning were followed, trustees of schools could never obtain anything but an easement upon land upon which it is desired to erect a schoolhouse. This is too narrow a construction of the statutory power of school trustees to 'acquire real estate for school purposes.' We are of the opinion that trustees of schools may, by proper grant, take title in fee simple absolute to real estate to be used for school purposes.

Plaintiffs also argue that, as a matter of law, school trustees cannot acquire title to lands by adverse possession, and cite the case of Superior Oil Co. v. Harsh, D. C., 39 F.Supp. 467, in support of this contention. That case is not authority for that proposition, as we shall demonstrate later in this opinion. While no case has come to our attention in which we have held that trustees of schools can acquire title by adverse possession, we have recognized the principle that possession of lands by the board of education of the city of Chicago can be adverse so as to ripen into a feesimple title. Foote v. City of Chicago, 368 Ill. 307, 13 N.E.2d 965. It is the general rule that governmental entities may acquire title by adverse possession. 1 Am.Jur. 801.

The case of Superior Oil Co. v. Harsh, D.C., 39 F.Supp. 467, 470, is not authority for the proposition that trustees of schools cannot, in any case, acquire feesimple title to lands by adverse possession. That case involved an Illinois school site which was entered upon in 1886. There, as in the case at bar, plaintiffs were owners of the record title and no grant or conveyance of any kind had ever been made to the school authorities. At the time the land was entered upon, there was in effect in this State an eminent domain statute which provided that school authorities could select schoolhouse sites and they should 'have the right to take the same for the purpose of a school-house site either with or without the owner's consent.' It was further provided as a later contingency that in case the compensation to be paid for the site taken could not be agreed upon by the parties, it should then be determined by a court action. There was no evidence that the school trustees procured any other kind of title or that they ever made claim to any other kind of title. The court found that under such...