Pendergrass v. Swiss Oil Corporation
| Decision Date | 14 December 1926 |
| Parties | Pendergrass, et al. v. Swiss Oil Corporation. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
2. Adverse Possession — Defined Boundaries of Land, Claimed Under Color of Title, Failed Against Superior Title, where There had Been no Entry and Possession on Interference. — Where there had been no entry and possession on the interference, rule that, where one claims under color of title, possession of part of land extends to full extent of defined boundaries did not apply and defined boundaries failed as against those having superior title.
3. Estoppel — Remote grantees, claiming land under chain of title were estopped by claim of title of record, relied on by them, to claim that remote grantees of D. failed to establish D.'s title.
4. Mines and Minerals — Parties Counterclaiming in Suit to Quiet Title Must Recover on Strength of their Own Title. — Where plaintiffs sued to quiet title to certain tract, parties counterclaiming, to be adjudged owners of minerals under surface, had to go further than to establish that plaintiffs did not own it.
5. Mines and Minerals — Where Plaintiffs were Adjudged Owners of Surface, but Not of Minerals, and Counterclaims for Both Surface and Minerals were Dismissed, Relief Granted was Sufficient. — In suit to quiet title, judgment quieting title to surface, but not to minerals under it, and finding that parties filing counterclaims had not manifested right to either surface or minerals, and dismissing counterclaims, held to grant sufficient relief.
Appeal from Lee Circuit Court.
L.G. CAMPBELL, A.F. BYRD and ROBT. H. WINN for appellants.
E.L. McDONALD, E.C. O'REAR and HUGH RIDDELL for appellee.
Affirming.
Appellee, Swiss Oil Corporation, instituted this action in the Lee circuit court against a number of defendants to quiet its title to a tract of land particularly described containing 240 acres. There are a number of appellants who were defendants below, and, since it appears that several of them claim their rights under title in D.P. Pendergrass, and a number of them claim their rights under title in H.G. Crabtree, for convenience the parties will be referred to hereinafter as the oil company, Pendergrass and Crabtree, it being understood that when the latter two are named all parties claiming rights under them are included. Pendergrass answered denying the oil company's right to have its title quieted as to a particular 8-acre tract included in the 240-acre tract described in the petition, asserting ownership thereof in himself, and by way of counterclaim asking that his title be quieted. Crabtree answered denying the oil company's right to have its title quieted as to a certain 12-acre tract lying within the 240-acre boundary described in the petition, asserting ownership thereof in himself, and seeking to have his title quieted. Other defendants filed answers setting up adverse claims to portions of the 240-acre tract described in the petition, but compromises were effected before the trial hereof below as to all of them. Upon the trial below, on the issues made as between the oil company and Pendergrass and Crabtree, the chancellor concluded that it had manifested its right to have its title of the surface of the 240-acre tract of land quieted; but that it had failed to manifest its right to have its title to the minerals in and under it quieted, and entered judgment accordingly. On the counterclaim of both Pendergrass and Crabtree the chancellor was of the opinion that they did not manifest their right to the relief sought, either as to the surface or minerals of their respective tracts of land, and dismissed both of the counterclaims. The appeal has been prosecuted by Pendergrass and Crabtree from that judgment, and the oil company has prosecuted a cross-appeal from that part of the judgment dismissing its petition in so far as it sought to have its title of the minerals in and under the 240-acre tract of land quieted.
We shall address ourselves first to the appeal of Pendergrass and Crabtree from the judgment dismissing their counterclaims. In the course of the consideration of the case it develops that the basic patent upon which the title of the three parties hereto is founded has been a fruitful source of litigation for many years. On January 4, 1786, the Commonwealth of Virginia, acting through Patrick Henry, the then governor, granted to John Carnan a patent for 29,823 acres of land lying on Kentucky river in what was then Fayette county, Virginia. Appellants insist that they introduced into the record herein the evidence of a perfect chain of title from the Carnan patent to themselves for the respective tracts of land claimed by them; and that nothing may be found in the record to upset their title so established. Kentucky Land & Immigration Company v. Crabtree, an opinion by this court rendered October 14, 1902, which may be found in 113 Ky. 992, is one of the many cases in which this court has dealt with disputed land boundaries where titles were based upon the Carnan survey. Appellants have filed in this record exactly the same muniments of title that were filed in that action by which the title of a portion of the Carnan survey passed through many intervening owners and rested in David Pryse. Many objections to the intervening links in the chain of title were offered in that action, and the history of the devolution of title from Carnan, the original patentee, to David Pryse was recited in that opinion. The objections were rejected and that was held to be "a perfect chain of title." In the subsequent case of Courtney v. Ashcraft, 105 S.W. 106, the same chain of title from Carnan to David Pryse was again approved by this court. The chain of title from the Carnan grant to David Pryse was again approved by this court in Kentucky Land & Immigration Company v. Sloan, 78 S.W. 175. Crabtree and Pendergrass filed as evidence in this record the various deeds and transfers of title from David Pryse to themselves under which it is asserted that they respectively became the owners of the tracts of land claimed by them herein, and insist that they thereby have established their title and right to be adjudged the owners thereof. They vigorously insist that in view of the three opinions of this court, supra, wherein that portion of their chain of title by which their title was linked to the grant by the Commonwealth and passed from Carnan to David Pryse was expressly approved and held to be "a perfect chain of title," all questions that might arise as to the validity of any of the links of that portion of their chain of title has been forever settled and put at rest. If we should concede that to be true, it would also be true that no one claiming under that chain of title could claim title to land not covered by or embraced within the respective conveyances and other means by which the title passed from one to another. The tract of land covered by the Carnan patent is a parallelogram in shape, approximately seven miles long by five miles wide. The Kentucky river forms its southern boundary, the distance which it runs with the river being five miles when reduced to a straight line. On May 10, 1793, John Carnan conveyed 17,823 acres of his patent to Thomas Flahaven, the boundary being established by running a line through the survey N. 9 W. from a point on the Kentucky river and parallel with the two long outside lines of the original tract, the boundary conveyed being the eastern portion of the survey and 920 poles in width. Reference to the opinion in Kentucky Land & Immigration Company v. Crabtree, supra, will disclose that subsequently the tract so conveyed to Flahaven was divided and its western half was allotted to the heirs of James Haggin, deceased, by commissioners appointed for the purpose, who reported at the February term, 1853, in an action then pending in the Fayette circuit court. Crabtree and Pendergrass claim title to the 8 and 12 acre tracts of land respectively under the title so acquired by Haggin's heirs. The oil company's claim to title of the 240-acre tract of land is founded upon a deed made by Thomas Duckham to Oliver Crawford October 16, 1839. The land in dispute, title of which is in controversy, is conceded by all parties to lie within the Carnan survey and within that portion of it conveyed by him to Thomas Flahaven, as above stated. Appellants to establish their title to it must manifest that it is also included within the land allotted to the heirs of James Haggin in the action in the Fayette circuit court to which reference has been made. That action seems to have involved conflicting claims to various portions of the Flahaven tract asserted by many claimants. The action in the main seems to have had for its purpose a partition of the Flahaven tract between Daniel Breck and the heirs of James Haggin. We gather from a consideration of the portion of that old record which was filed in evidence herein that Breck's ownership of a half interest in the Flahaven tract was founded upon a conveyance to him by Thomas...
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Wilson v. Chappell
... ... Timber Co. v. Ison, 231 Ky. 404, 21 S.W.2d 659; ... Pendergrass v. Swiss Oil Corp., 217 Ky. 789, 290 ... S.W. 713; Pursifull v. Green, 214 Ky. 516, 283 S.W ... ...