Satcher v. Grice

• Decision Date: 03 September 1898
• Citation: 31 S.E. 3,53 S.C. 126
• Parties: SATCHER et al. v. GRICE et al.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

31 S.E. 3

53 S.C. 126

SATCHER et al.

v.GRICE et al.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Sept. 3, 1898.

Adverse Possession—Presumption — Disability op Owner —Accrual op Cause op Action—Wills—Title of Devisee.

1. In an action for possession of land which has been held by a stranger for more than 20 years, where there is no evidence that his possession was permissive, or in subordination to plaintiff's rights, it is presumed to have been adverse.

2. Under Code Civ. Proc. § 108, providing that, to prevent or arrest the running of the statute of limitations, a person entitled to commence an action for lands must show a disability "at the time such title shall first descend or accrue, " the fact that plaintiff is a minor when the action is commenced does not arrest the statute, where it has already commenced to run against the one under whom the minor claims.

3. While there is no statute limiting the time for admitting a will to probate, and while Rev St. 1893, § 2006, provides that no devise shall be admitted as evidence until after probate of the will, yet the title of a devisee vests immediately on testator's death, and hence it is from that time that the statute of limitations commences to run against his right of action to recover the land.

Appeal from common pleas circuit court of Edgefield county.

Action by Amos W. Satcher and others against Lucretia Grice and others. From a judgment of nonsuit, plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

Croft & Tillman, for appellants.

Sheppard Bros., for respondents.

JONES, J. This is an action to recover the possession of land, and the appeal is from a judgment of nonsuit based on the ground that plaintiffs' action is barred by the statute of limitations. The plaintiffs claimed title to the land in dispute under the will of their grandfather, Amos W. Satcher, Sr., who died in 1842, seised and possessed of the said land. The will was dated January 18, 1842, but was not probated until in May, 1896, a few days before the commencement of this action. The second clause of the will devised the land to his daughters, Lizzie, Cherry, and Nancy, and the third clause devised the same land to them, "to hold jointly as long as they live, ana, should either die without issue, their part to go to the other, and at their death to their brothers and sisters, and to their issues of their bodies." Lizzie and Nancy died previous to 1860, without issue. Cherry married Eldred S. Grice, and died, without issue, in 1871, in possession of the land. Eldred S. Grice remained in possession until his death, in 1895. Some time after the death of his first wife, Cherry, Eldred S. Grice married the defendant Lucretia Grice, who, with her son and co-defendant, have been in possession since his death. The plaintiffs are the children or issue of Ira H. Satcher, Henry Satcher, and Lois Watson, who were children of the testator. These brothers and sisters of Cherry were living at the time of her death, in 1871. Under this will Cherry took a life estate in the land, and at her death the brothers and sisters named took a fee conditional, the words "and to their issues of their bodies" being words of inheritance, and not of purchase. The...