Stuckey v. Sallis

• Citation: 221 Miss. 698,74 So.2d 749
• Decision Date: 04 October 1954
• Docket Number: No. 39273,39273
• Parties: J. G. STUCKEY et al. v. T. S. SALLIS et al.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 749

74 So.2d 749

221 Miss. 698

J. G. STUCKEY et al. v. T. S. SALLIS et al.

No. 39273.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Oct. 4, 1954.

John R. Anderson, Tupelo, Satterfield, Ewing, Williams & Shell, Jackson, for appellants.

Brown & Elledge, Fulton, for appellees.

LEE, Justice.

Mrs. T. S. Sallis and husband, W. B. Sallis, by their bill in the chancery court, sought to cancel the claim of J. G. Stuckey and others, the heirs of J. T. Stuckey, deceased, to eighty acres of land, more or less, as described therein. The answer of the defendants denied the substantial allegations of the bill, and they made their answer also a cross-bill, whereby they sought a cancellation of the claim of the complainants and the recovery from them of a sum of money for the mining of bentonite on the land. Answer under oath thereto was not waived.

In their answer under oath to the cross-bill, the complainants reiterated the substantial allegations of their original bill, namely, that when they purchased the land in question from J. T. Stuckey, he pointed out the south boundary thereof as a blazed and hacked line, put them in possession, and that they have held the same adversely ever since. When the evidence was concluded, the cause was taken under advisement; and after the submission of briefs, the court rendered a written opinion, awarding the complainants the relief for which they prayed, and denying the defendants any relief. The decree conformed to the chancellor's opinion, and the defendants appealed.

On December 2, 1905, J. T. Stuckey, being the owner of the SE 1/4 of Section 12 and the NE 1/4 of Section 13, Township 11, Range 9 East and the W 1/2 of the SW 1/4 of Section 7, Township 11, Range 10 East, conveyed the lands in Sections 12 and 7 to W. B. Sallis, retaining unto himself the land in Section 13. The dispute arose over the location of the line between Sections 12 and 13, being the line between the parties.

Two surveys were involved, one by S. M. Rotten, and the other by B. J. Brigance. The one by Rotten runs from a blackgum corner west along a blazed and hacked line to an iron stake. Under the Brigance survey the blackgum corner and the iron stake are approximately 250 and 123 feet, respectively, south of his line. If the land of the complainants extends to the Rotten line, they are entitled to prevail. On the other hand, if their land extends only to the Brigance line the defendants should have been successful.

It was the contention of the complainants that, when they purchased the land from J. T. Stuckey, he pointed out the south line thereof; it was hacked and blazed; he thereafter recognized this line; it coincides with the Rotten survey; and that they have been in possession of the land north of that line ever since.

On the contrary, it was the contention of the defendants that Stuckey did not point out the line; the true government lines should govern; the Brigance survey is in accord with those lines; the complainants have not been in adverse possession; and that the first knowledge of an adverse claim thereto was in 1948 or 1949.

Complainants offered evidence substantially to this effect: the hacked line, practically identical with the Rotten survey, has been in its present location 35 years. Sallis had a pasture on some of the land in dispute, and a part of it was fenced. A house, which he built on the land in Section 7, was north of the line, if extended. Stuckey was present when the house was 'raised.' The Brigance line, extended, would go north of that house. In 1917, the timber of Sallis was cut up to that line. In 1922, Stuckey and Sallis walked the line between them, with one Moseley hacking, and the line so hacked was actually 10 or 12 feet south of the Rotten line. In 1927, when Stuckey and Sallis sold their timber to different purchasers, those purchasers, respectively, cut their timber up to this hacked line. In 1936, when one buyer purchased timber from both Stuckey and Sallis and when both of them were present, Stuckey pointed out the line, the same as the Rotten line, and the purchaser cut the timber and paid them accordingly. Again in 1945, the timber on the plot, which was stripped for the bentonite pit, was cut and sold as the property of Sallis. The only evidence that Stuckey pointed out the south boundary at the time of sale is found in the answer of the complainants under oath to the cross-bill.

The evidence for the defendants disclosed a contract by Stuckey, of date of March 24, 1937, for a gas and mineral exploration of the N 1/2 of NE 1/4 of Section 13, and an oil lease, of date of May 15, 1944, on this governmental subdivision. Without going into detail, it is sufficient to say that the evidence sharply disputed the complainants' possession and use of the land. It did not affirmatively deny...