Rogers v. Manning

• Decision Date: 06 June 1946
• Docket Number: 15482.
• Citation: 38 S.E.2d 724,200 Ga. 844
• Parties: ROGERS v. MANNING.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

38 S.E.2d 724

200 Ga. 844

ROGERS v. MANNING.

No. 15482.

Supreme Court of Georgia

June 6, 1946

Syllabus by the Court.

1. While it was error to admit in evidence a letter from a stranger to the suit, over the objection that it was irrelevant, prejudicial, hurtful, and hearsay, the error was harmless, and therefore will not require a reversal, for the reason that other witnesses were allowed to testify without objection to substantially all that was stated in the letter.

2. A request to charge the jury must be legal, apt, and precisely adjusted to some principle involved in the case, and be authorized by the evidence.

(a) The requests dealt with in the corresponding division of the opinion failed to meet these requirements, and the court did not err in refusing them.

3. The charge of the court dealing with prescription, adverse possession, and color of title, set forth in the third division of the opinion, was not erroneous for any reason assigned.

4. In a statutory suit to recover land, the evidence for the plaintiff showing that he purchased the property in good faith in 1927, at which time he entered possession and continuously worked the pine trees for turpentine purposes until 1940, and the evidence for the defendant merely showing that the plaintiff knew of an outstanding title before the defendant acquired her deed in 1939, the verdict for the defendant is without evidence to support it, and the trial judge erred in not granting a new trial.

This is a suit to recover land, filed in Wayne Superior court by W C. Rogers against Agnes Manning, and alleging substantially the following: The defendant was in possession of a described tract of land, known as lot number 56 in the third land district of Wayne County, to which the petitioner claimed title. The defendant had received the profits from said land of the value of $200 per year since January 1 1940, and refused to deliver possession or pay the profits to the petitioner. From February 7, 1927, to January 1, 1940 the petitioner held the land in complete adverse possession, which was evidenced by cultivating the trees, preparing fire breaks, raking the pine trees, cupping the pine trees continuously, and otherwise working the trees on the land for turpentine purposes. The petitioner prayed for process, service, and a recovery of the property with mesne profits. Attached to the petition was an abstract of title, showing four conveyances: the first from Southeast Georgia Land Company to Glynn Realty Company, dated January 25, 1926, and the last from Brunswick Peninsula Company to the plaintiff, dated February 7, 1927.

The defendant answered, denying that the value of the land was $200 per year, but admitting that she refused to deliver possession to the petitioner. Further answering, the defendant averred that Southeast Georgia Land Company, one of the grantors under which the petitioner claimed, conveyed the property by warranty deed to William Baywell on December 17, 1913; and that William Baywell conveyed the land to her by warranty deed on June 28, 1939.

So far as appears, there was no demurrer to either pleading.

C. M. Johnson testified for the plaintiff in part: He was employed by the plaintiff in 1928, and rode the woods on the land in controversy that year. He terminated his employment in September, 1932. During 1928 and 1929 streaks were put on the trees regularly. The chipping began early in the spring, and the scrape was usually taken off in October. The pine trees were raked in the winter. Someone worked in the woods every week.

The plaintiff testified: He did not know that there was any outstanding title before he bought the land. At the time he bought it, he got an attorney's opinion as to the soundness of the title. His attorneys in Brunswick who abstracted the title and wrote the deed said that the title was good. No one at any time from February 7, 1927, the date of the purchase, until 1940, objected to his using the property, which was occupied under a chain of title. The land is worth $7.20 per acre, and there are from 250 to 260 acres in the tract. Since the defendant took charge of the land, her husband has worked the timber. There was an agreement that neither party was to work it, but the defendant's husband did not stick to the agreement. The yearly rental value of the land is from $150 to $200 per year. The land is worth about $1,500, and the plaintiff paid $7.12 per acre for his land. At the time of his purchase he bought approximately 3,857 acres from Brunswick Peninsula Company. He never knew William Baywell, but in 1940 he learned that the defendant had bought the land. He told her and her husband that he owned the property, and tried to get an arbitration. Nothing was said about buying them out, but he told the defendant that he would rather give her what he would have to pay out in court to clear up the title. He worked the trees for turpentine purposes consecutively from 1927 to 1939, and until the defendant's husband ran his hands off of the land.

Emory Dean testified: He leased the timber from the plaintiff in 1934, and during the time he worked it no one objected to his exercising the lease. Brunswick Peninsula Company took over the lease the next year and worked the timber for the next six years. At the time he went there, there was evidence that the trees had been worked for at least six years. A copy of the lease to Emory Dean, dated March 29, 1934, was introduced in evidence without objection.

Arnis Rogers, a nephew of the plaintiff, testified: He worked on the land, looking after stock, but was not connected with the turpentine except from 1928 to 1934, and when Emory Dean leased it he worked for him. The witness looked after the turpentine, and after the crew of men who recupped it. His work began the first part of 1935. The work of the crew under him was pretty regular. They put a streak on the boxes every week, dipped it out sometime in November, and began raking boxes after November. The operation was continuous while he was there. Emory Dean worked the trees from 1928 to 1934, during all of which time there was no objection by anyone.

C. B. Jones testified: He began working on the land in 1937, and quit in 1939. His work consisted of producing turpentine, chipping, dipping, and raking pine trees, which activities were every month in the year.

Vernon Rogers, a nephew of the plaintiff, testified: The plaintiff operated on the land in 1927. Someone else began in 1934. During the time the plaintiff worked the land, the witness plowed fire lines all over it and worked the timber for turpentine purposes. Emory Dean looked after it in 1934 and 1935, after which Mr. Page of Brunswick Peninsula Company bought the lease. Page, C. B. Jones, Emory Dean, and the witness worked it from 1927 until the last of 1939.

Dennis Lane testified: He hauled logs on the land for the plaintiff in 1930, and observed that the turpentine was being worked. No one interfered with him.

The defendant testified: Her husband made the land trade for her in June, 1939, with William Baywell, who resided in Indiana, and got a deed from him. After the purchase of the land, the plaintiff offered to give her $50 on the trade or to give her the east side for lot 56. She told him that, if he would give her both sides of the railroad, she would trade. He didn't say anything to that. The plaintiff mentioned William Baywell's name and asked whom she bought the land from, and she told him that she bought it from William Baywell. The plaintiff said that William Baywell owned it, and offered her $50 for her trade, but he did not go through with it. That was the only time when she talked with the plaintiff about the land. Her husband did the trading for her. She got in touch with William Baywell by letter. It is not true that she and her husband found the land title in the records and got in touch with Baywell. Her husband and Jim Dean told her about it. She paid $100 for the land. She lived about a mile from the property, and had been on the land before she bought it. She saw turpentine work going on, but did not ask the people whom they were working for. Mr. Jones said he was working it for the Brunswick Peninsula Company under a lease. She did not ask the plaintiff if he owned the land before she bought it. There were cups hanging on the land and streaks on the faces when she bought it. The plaintiff talked with her in 1940 about the land. He did not offer to arbitrate.

J. D. Manning testified for the defendant: The plaintiff told him that William Baywell owned a piece of land, but would not sell it to the plaintiff. That was before the defendant bought it. The plaintiff said that he had leased the timber from William Baywell. The above conversation was one or two years before the defendant bought the land.

R. L. Harris testified: He took office as tax commissioner of Wayne County in 1933, and William Baywell made returns on land in lot 56 for 12 years or more. Someone paid the taxes on it from the time he took office until 1939. The witness did not recall whether or not the plaintiff had been paying taxes on lot 56. He paid on some acreage in lot 56.

Lewis Manning, the husband of the defendant, testified: He bought some land from William Baywell, who lived in Indiana when the witness got the deed from him; and has heard that Baywell is dead. Raymond Pierce wrote the deed. Pierce told the witness that he had good title. He had known the plaintiff all his life and had worked for him. The plaintiff told him that William Baywell owned the land. Before and after he purchased the land for his wife, the plaintiff offered the defendant $50 on a trade. After the witness bought the land he went into possession. At the time he bought it he thought that ...