Sanders v. Johnson

• Decision Date: 16 August 1926
• Docket Number: No. 25369.,25369.
• Citation: 287 S.W. 427
• Parties: SANDERS v. JOHNSON.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

287 S.W. 427

SANDERS v. JOHNSON.

No. 25369.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

August 16, 1926.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Macon County.

Suit by August Sanders against William H. Johnson. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals: Affirmed.

Elmer O. Jones, of La Plata, for appellant.

M. D. Campbell and John M. Campbell, both of Kirksville, for respondent.

WALKER, P.J.

This is a suit under the statute (section 1970, R. S. 1919) to quiet title to a small strip of land in La Plata, Macon county, lying between the lands of the parties hereto. The petition alleges that the Plaintiff owned the land in fee simple, describing it, and that the defendant claims some interest therein, the nature of which is to the plaintiff unknown. The answer was a general denial. There was a trial to the court, a jury having been waived, resulting in a judgment for the plaintiff, from which the defendant appeals.

The plaintiff claims title through a warranty deed executed to him in 1915. The defendant sought to establish a claim to title by proof of open, notorious, and continuous possession of the land for more than 22 years. A claim of this character to establish title is not available under a general denial. The plea of the statute of limitations, whether it be interposed to establish a title or to bar an action, is affirmative in its nature, and except in ejectment it must be specially Pleaded (Davies v. Keiser, 297 Mo. loc. cit. 16, 246 S. W. 897, and cases). In thus stating the general rule of pleading applicable to the instant case, we are not unmindful of the further preclusive ruling of this court as applied to suits to quiet title in Rohlf v. Hayes, 237 Mo. 340, 229 S. W. 747, in which it was held that, where defendants answered by a general denial, they denied that they claimed any title or interest in the premises, and with such denial they passed out of the case below, and upon appeal had no interest in the subject-matter of the litigation. This ruling is cited in the later case of Barr v. Stone (Mo. Sup.) 242 S. W. 663.

However, so far as it may affect the establishment of the plaintiff's claim to title, it is immaterial whether the claim of the defendant be held to have failed through the insufficiency or the preclusive effect of his answer; the plaintiff's right to the relief he seeks must be measured by the strength of the proof he offers. His claim to title is based on a warranty deed. No question is raised as to its validity. This is...