Staton v. Mullis

• Decision Date: 28 February 1885
• Citation: 92 N.C. 623
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: ENNIS STATON v. JACOB MULLIS.

92 N.C. 623

ENNIS STATON

v.JACOB MULLIS.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

February Term, 1885.

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

CIVIL ACTION for the possession of land, heard before MacRae, Judge, and a jury, at Spring Term, 1884, of UNION Superior Court.

The facts appear fully in the opinion.

There was a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff, and the defendant appealed.

Messrs. Payne & Vann and Haywood & Haywood, for the plaintiff .

Messrs. Covington & Adams and J. W. Hinsdale, for the defendant .

TABULAR OR GRAPHIC MATERIAL SET AT THIS POINT IS NOT DISPLAYABLE TABLE

SMITH, C. J.

In support of his title to the land in dispute, the plaintiff introduced a grant from the State, issued on the 20th day of December, 1799, to Francis Coburn, and successive deeds from him to the plaintiff. The last in the series is a deed made on May 3, 1832, by Frederick Staton to his son, the plaintiff, purporting to convey a tract of five hundred acres, parcel of the original grant. Objection was made to the admission in evidence of the grant and of the two deeds, more especially that from John Cobb to Vernal Adams for two hundred acres, executed in October, 1814, upon various grounds that have been abandoned as untenable, in the argument before us, under the ruling in the case of Davis v. Higgins, 91 N. C., 382.

Objection was also taken to the operation of several of the deeds, particularly to that executed in October, 1819, by Vernal Adams to Frederick Staton, and to that by the latter to the plaintiff, as conveying, for want of words of inheritance, a life estate only to the respective grantees. In reference to this construction of the deeds it is only necessary to say, that in form they are quite as favorable to a construction which passes an estate in fee as that before the court in Allen v. Bowen, 74 N. C., 155, and equally admit the transfer of the concluding words “his heirs and assigns forever,” which follow the clause of warranty, to the operative conveying words of the instrument.

In Allen v. Bowen, supra, the intention is declared to be to “sell all the right, title and claim” of the grantor in the premises, and the concluding clause is as follows: “And we, Thomas A. Pritchett and Elizabeth his wife, do, for themselves, their heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns forever, the land to the said William Bowen, his heirs, executors, administrators, and assigns forever, clear of all incumbrances whatever.” While this was an independent sentence, separated by a period from the preceding operative words, it was transposed and annexed to them, to give the deed effect as a conveyance of the inheritance, in carrying out the manifest intent of the parties to it.

The deed now under examination, from Frederick Staton to the plaintiff, and in this feature the others are similar, conveys the described land, with appurtenances belonging, to the grantee in fee simple, and without a pause or interruption proceeds, “And I, the said Frederick Staton, for myself, my heirs and assigns doth hereby warrant and forever defend the above bargained land free and clear from myself, my heirs and assigns, and from the lawful claim or claims of any person or persons claiming any lawful claims whatsoever unto the said Ennis Staton, his heirs and assigns forever.” The instrument expresses the intent to convey the inheritance, and that intent may be effectuated with equal, if not stronger reasons, by transposing and annexing to the conveying words the concluding part of the sentence. The warranty is spent before reaching that part, and is full and complete without it. There is no division in the sentences to interfere with the transposition of the inheritable words from the place where they are not needed, and their annexation to the conveying terms by which the intended effect of the instrument will be secured.

The cases relied on in the brief of appellant's counsel, as modifying the decision in that case, Stell v. Barham, 87 N. C., 62, and Batchelor v. Whitaker, 88 N. C., 350, do not profess to overrule it, but to draw distinctions which render it inapplicable as a precedent. Whether they are consistent is not material in the present inquiry, since the plaintiff, if he only acquires an estate for his own life under his father's deed, was living when the present term began; and though it is suggested that he has since died, such life estate is sufficient to sustain the action, so far as title is concerned. The deed at least constitutes color of title, and accompanied with continuous adverse occupancy since its execution, during the long interval of time that has followed, is sufficient to perfect the life estate.

We do not yield our assent to the contention of counsel, that this possession did not become adverse until after the death of Frederick Staton, the deed to whom, upon a like rule of construction, would pass but an estate for his life, since Vernal Adams, his immediate grantor, and those who preceded him in the claim of title up to Coburn, to whom the grant from the State issued, for a similar supposed defect, had no greater estate in the land than for their several lives.

The previous owners all died before the institution of the suit, but the record does not show when their respective deaths occurred, except that Frederick Staton died about the close of the late civil war. The conveyance from Coburn to Cobb, bears date in 1806, and if the latter was then of full age and capable of contracting, he would have been about 87 years of age when the summons was sued out, and if he or any other, died any considerable period before the death of Frederick Staton, the estate would have come to an end, and the plaintiff's possession then rendered hostile, continued for the required interval, would have sufficed to perfect his life estate against all claimants.

We cannot infer from the mere admission that these prior life-tenants died previous to the commencement of the suit, the time when their several deaths occurred, and the question arises, upon whom devolves the duty of showing that the plaintiff's possession under his deed, apparently hostile, was not really so for the necessary period of time to bar a reversionary estate retained in another, who is not barred of his entry and right of action. In our opinion the burden of proving that the possession is not adverse to the owner of such reversion for a period sufficient to bar his recovery, and to this end the date of his death, devolved upon the defendant. He is called upon to defeat the plaintiff's apparent title by proof of a superior outstanding title in another, since, in the absence of such evidence, possession under the deed for a sufficient space would confirm the estate proposing to pass under the deed.

Again, the act of accepting the deed from his father, does not operate as an estoppel, even inter partes beyond the estate conveyed, upon the plaintiff, nor is he thereby precluded from denying that any reversionary estate remained in Frederick, for the instrument upon its face does not show that all the estate vested in him was not thereby transmitted to the plaintiff. The title being out of the State by reason of the grant, it came to an end at the death of the first life-tenant, Cobb, under his defective deed, and all the estate claimed under deeds with adequate possession of the land, was adverse to the owners of the reversion, and gave effect to those deeds. Osborne v. Anderson, 89 N. C., 261.

Passing from this aspect of the case, we come to the consideration of the exceptions, which rest upon the alleged inability of the plaintiff to locate the grant or his own deed by the lines therein mentioned, so as to include any of the land in possession of the defendant, and the want of evidence of his possession under his deed. The surveyor, C. W. Watkins, examined by the...