Moran v. Roaring River Development Co.
| Decision Date | 14 December 1970 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 54550--54553,No. 1,s. 54550--54553,1 |
| Citation | 461 S.W.2d 822 |
| Parties | George E. MORAN and E. P. Moran, his wife, (Plaintiffs) Respondents, v. The Unknown Officers, Stockholders, Trustees, Directors, Grantees, or Successors of ROARING RIVER DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, a Corporation, et al.,(Defendants) Respondents, State of Missouri ex rel. John C. Danforth, Attorney General of Missouri, Intervenor-Appellant |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Royle Ellis, Cassville, for respondents.
John C. Danforth, Atty. Gen., Louren R. Wood, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for appellant.
This appeal involves four separate suits to quiet title to land aggregating 100 acres and located in Barry County. By stipulation of the parties the testimony and evidence in all of the causes were considered part of the testimony and evidence in each of the cases. Title to real estate is involved, vesting this court with jurisdiction of the appeal. Krumm v. Streiler, Mo., 313 S.W.2d 680.
The land which is the subject of the litigation consists of three contiguous tracts, all lying in section 27, township 22, range 27. The three tracts had been platted by the Roaring River Development Company in 1924 as the First Addition (20 acres), Second Addition (40 acres), and Fourth Addition (40 acres). Three tracts lie in a row, extending in an east-west direction. The First Addition is the most easterly tract, the Second Addition is immediately west of and contiguous with the First Addition. The First Addition was divided into 312 lots, each 25 feet by 100 feet. The Second and Fourth Additions were each divided into 624 lots of the same size as those in the First Addition. On January 1, 1933, the charter of Roaring River Development Co. was forfeited for failure to file an annual registration report and antitrust affidavit.
The parcel consisting of the three tracts is adjoined on the west, south, and east by Roaring River State Park. The Second Addition and Fourth Addition are divided by state highway 112, which extends in a generally north-south direction, so that the Fourth Addition for the most part lies west of the highway and the Second Addition east of the highway. The highway is not straight, however, and parts of certain lots of the Fourth Addition are on the east side of the highway and certain of the lots and parts of lots of the Second Addition are on the west side of the highway. Other lots and parts of lots which were originally platted in these two Additions are now part of highway 112.
For convenience of reference, the separate suits will be referred to by the names of the respective plaintiffs.
The Moran suit claimed title to the Second Addition (except lots 138 through 153, lots 160 through 175, lots 191 through 206, lots 209 through 217, lots 252 through 268, lots 304 through 312, and lots 414, 431, 571 and 591) and also to the First Addition (except lots 139 and 287).
The Gibbons suit claimed title to lots 209 through 217, 252 through 268, and 304 through 312 of the Second Addition, and all that part of lots 322 through 334 of the Fourth Addition which lie east of highway 112.
The Wilhelm suit claimed title to all of the Fourth Addition except the parts of the lots of the Fourth Addition claimed by Gibbons (being those parts which lie east of highway 112) and except right-of-way for highway 112.
The Hailey suit claimed title to lots 138 through 153, 160 through 175, and 191 through 206 of the Second Addition.
The claims in all of the petitions were based upon actual, adverse, open, peaceable, notorious, continuous, hostile, exclusive possession of said lands for more than ten years next last past, under color of title.
Ray W. Thompson was a defendant in each of the four suits and in each of the suits filed an answer denying that the plaintiffs were the owners of the land described in their respective petitions and asserting that he, Ray W. Thompson, was the owner of the respectively described tracts. Before the close of the plaintiffs' testimony in the first case to be tried this defendant withdrew from participation in all of the cases and consented to entry of a decree in accordance with the evidence found by the court.
Rufus Miller, also a defendant in the Wilhelm suit, filed an answer denying that plaintiff was the owner of lots 27 through 55 and lots 339 through 364 of the Fourth Addition and asserting that the defendant Miller was the owner in fee simple of those lots.
The State of Missouri filed its affidavit and motion to intervene in each of the four cases, which motion was sustained in each instance. In each case the intervenor filed an answer denying that the plaintiffs were the owners of the land described in their respective petitions and asserting that intervenor was the owner in fee simple of the described properties.
In each of the cases an attorney was appointed to act for the unknown defendants, and in each of the cases he filed an answer averring that he did not have sufficient information, knowledge or belief to admit or deny the allegations in the plaintiffs' respective petitions and asking that the court require strict proof thereof.
The four cases were tried by the trial court sitting without a jury.
George Moran and his wife, plaintiffs in the Moran suit, base their claim of color of title on three quitclaim deeds. The first deed, dated June 14, 1939, is from one Arthur Henbest, and describes the north one-third of the Second Addition (lots 1 through 104 and 313 through 416) and the north half of lot 110, excepting any lots on the west side of state highway 112, and lots taken for highway 112, and lots on which taxes had been paid since 1935. This deed was not recorded until September 8, 1954. In 1940 Moran contracted with Arthur Henbest to buy the remainder of the Second Addition and the entire Fourth Addition. A quitclaim deed from Henbest to Moran was dated March 30, 1944, and recorded October 2, 1945, and described the Second Addition along with the Fourth Addition (except lots 261 through 268, 304 through 312, and 240 through 254) except lots taken for highway 112 and lots on which taxes had been paid since 1935. As will appear from facts related below, Arthur Henbest had already in 1941 conveyed lots 209 through 217 and 252 through 260 of the Second Addition to one F. S. Moore. The third quitclaim deed was from one Ray M. Bruner and was dated January 13, 1950, and recorded September 8, 1954. This deed described the entire First, Second and Fourth Additions.
George Moran testified that he and his wife, with their two young daughters, moved to Barry County July 1, 1936. During the next three years they lived at four different locations, and during at least the latter part of that time they operated a novelty shop near Roaring River State Park. Prior to July 1, 1939, they paid Arthur Henbest $250.00 for the first of the quitclaim deeds above mentioned, and on July 1 moved to the property described in that deed. The novelty shop, which was a building approximately 12 feet by 18 feet, was taken down in two sections and moved by truck to the property bought from Arthur Henbest, where it was erected about 40 feet east of highway 112. The novelty shop was converted into a two-room home and thereafter improved from time to time. Electricity was installed in August 1939, another room was added in 1941, and a fourth room added in 1943. At the time of the trial the house consisted of four rooms with a glassed-in porch.
During the ensuing years the Morans made other improvements on the land. A driveway was built from the house to highway 112. Chicken houses, livestock sheds, hog sheds, and smokehouses were built on the east side of the highway. The Morans also built a one-room cabin, about 10 feet by 12 feet, which they rented. From 1939 until 1960 the Morans had a fruit stand and sold novelties on the property, and in 1960 erected a steel and glass building from which they sold novelties and antiques. This building was located south of their home and about 50 feet east of the highway. In 1945 the Morans had a deep well drilled about 30 feet south of their house. In 1954 a pump was installed in the well but failed to operate and in 1956 the Morans had the well drilled deeper.
At the time the Morans first moved to the property which is the subject of this suit, there was already in existence a fence along the line between the south boundary of the Second Addition and the First Addition and the north boundary of Roaring River State Park, and also along the entire east boundary of the First Addition. In 1943 the Morans built a fence along the east side of highway 112 from the State Park fence on the south to the north line of the Second Addition, thence along the north line of the Second and First Additions to the northeast corner of the First Addition, where it connected with the State Park fence running along the east line of the First Addition. The result was that the entire First and Second Additions were fenced, partly by the pre-existing State Park fence and partly by the fence built by the Morans.
On the property east of the highway, Mr. Moran testified that he kept, from time to time, cows, hogs, a horse, chickens, Guineas, ducks and geese. Approximately two acres on the east side of the highway were cleared in 1940 for a truck garden. The Morans also cut stovewood, sawlogs, and fence posts off the land and sold some of them. The also cleaned up about 15 acres of the land in a strip along the east side of the highway, from the south boundary to the north line of the Second Addition.
In 1940 the Morans contracted to buy from Arthur Henbest the land described in the second quitclaim deed earlier mentioned herein. The consideration, $275.00, was not paid until 1944, at which time the deed was executed and delivered. In the meantime, in 1943, the Morans built a fence along the north...
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