Potter v. Bonner

• Decision Date: 12 September 1917
• Docket Number: 12.
• Citation: 93 S.E. 370,174 N.C. 20
• Parties: POTTER v. BONNER ET UX.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

93 S.E. 370

174 N.C. 20

POTTER v. BONNER ET UX.

No. 12.

Supreme Court of North Carolina

September 12, 1917

Appeal from Superior Court, Beaufort County; Daniels, Judge.

Action by W. T. Potter against G. I. Bonner and wife. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal. Affirmed.

Where parties did not go on land and make physical survey, mere statement by grantor that land extended to certain point will not affect description in deed.

This is an action to try the title to land; the whole controversy being dependent on the location of the dividing line between the lot of the plaintiffs and of the defendants.

Sallie Carr Thompson, wife of W. A. Thompson, in 1909 owned a lot in Aurora, N. C., lying on the east side of Fourth street and north side of Middle street In the deed to Mrs. Thompson from F. C. Buck and wife the lot is described as:

"Beginning at the intersection of Fourth and Middle streets, and runs about east with the center of Middle street 70 yards thence about north and parallel with Fourth street 65 yards; thence about parallel with Middle street 70 yards thence with center of Fourth street 65 yards to the beginning."

By deed dated July 12, 1909, Sallie Carr Thompson and W. A. Thompson conveyed to Bessie C. Bonner, feme defendant, that portion of said lot described as follows:

"A certain tract or parcel of land in the town of Aurora Beaufort county and state of North Carolina, adjoining the lands of Nannie Dailey, F. C. Buck, and others, and bounded as follows, viz.: On the east side of Fourth street, in the town of Aurora, beginning in the center of Fourth street at a point 110 feet north of the intersection of Fourth and Middle streets, running about east and parallel with Middle street 210 feet; thence about north and parallel with Fourth street to the line of the lot belonging to the heirs of J. B. Bonner, deceased; thence about west with the Bonner line to the beginning--containing one-half acre, and being the same lot known as the F. C. Buck home place; and this deed is intended to convey the northern one-half of the said Buck lot, it being lot No. 1 as conveyed by F. C. Buck and wife, to Sallie Carr Thompson by deed dated October 23, 1906, and recorded in Book 141, page 323."

By deed dated March 8, 1917, Sallie Carr Thompson conveyed to W. T. Potter, plaintiff, that portion of the Buck lot lying south of the portion conveyed to Bessie C. Bonner, feme defendant; the description calling for the line of the defendant. The defendants admit that the dividing line is as plaintiffs claim if the following description in the deed to them controls:

"Beginning in the center of Fourth street at a point 110 feet north of the intersection of Fourth and Middle streets, running about east and parallel with Middle street 210 feet; thence about north and parallel with Fourth street to the line of the lot belonging to the heirs of J. B. Bonner, deceased; thence about west with the Bonner line to the beginning."

But they contend that the above description is enlarged by the subsequent language, and that if they own the northern half of the Buck lot the dividing line is as they contend.

The defendants further contend that at the time the deed to them was executed there was an actual location of the line as they contend it to be, and that this controls the calls in the deed.

The only evidence for the defendants bearing on the last contention is that of the defendant G. I. Bonner, who testified that he acted for his wife, Bessie Bonner, in procuring the deed executed to her; that the deed was drawn by W. A. Thompson, husband of Sallie Carr Thompson, and was delivered in the office of said Thompson; that they did not go out on the land; that there was a wire fence on the land when the deed was made running with the line claimed by the defendants; and that Thompson said to him when the deed was delivered:

"That is your line up to that fence; that is half of the Buck lot."

There is no allegation of fraud or...