Yancey v. Savannah & W.R. Co.

• Citation: 13 So. 311,101 Ala. 234
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court
• Decision Date: 08 June 1893
• Parties: YANCEY v. SAVANNAH & W. R. CO.

13 So. 311

101 Ala. 234

YANCEY v. SAVANNAH & W. R. CO.

Supreme Court of Alabama

June 8, 1893

Appeal from circuit court, Clay county; Le Roy F. Box, Judge.

Statutory ejectment by William A. Yancey against the Savannah & Western Railroad Company. Defendant had judgment, and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

This cause was tried before the court, without the intervention of a jury, on the following agreed statement of facts: "On the 1st day of December, 1872, W. A. Yancey, the plaintiff in this case, executed to the Savannah & Memphis Railroad Company, an Alabama corporation, its successors and assigns a deed to a certain tract of land in Clay county, Ala. A copy of the deed is hereto attached, and marked 'Exhibit A.' The deed was attested by two witnesses, and its execution in duly admitted. The lands sued for in this case are the lands described and embraced in the deed hereinbefore named, and marked 'Exhibit A.' Shortly after the execution of the deed hereinbefore mentioned, the Savannah &amp Memphis Railroad Company surveyed its line of road to Birmingham, Ala., and located its right of way, and leveled and graded the roadbed through the lands sued for, and embraced in the deed hereinbefore named. The terminus of said railroad at said time was at Goodwater, Ala., to which point it was then operated. The railroad was built and completed in the spring of 1887, through the lands sued for, and completed in 1888 to Birmingham, Ala., to which point it is now operated. The charter of the Savannah & Memphis Railroad Company authorized it to construct its road to Birmingham Ala. The Savanah & Western Railroad Company, the defendant in this case, is an Alabama corporation, and the successor of the Savannah & Memphis Railroad Company, the original grantee in the deed hereto attached, and hereinbefore mentioned. That while said charter of said railroad company, now owning said line of railway, authorized its construction to Birmingham Ala., yet the termini fixed by the charter of the company contracted with by plaintiff was from Opelika, Ala., on the south, to some point on the Tennessee river, near Tuscumbia on the north or west. Said road was finally completed, and is now operated, from Opelika, Ala., to Birmingham, Ala., and is not yet completed beyond the latter point. Its charter fixes no time in which it shall be completed. After the execution of the deed from the plaintiff, above set out, with the exception of the survey of the route through the lands sued for, and the grading of the line of way for said road nothing was done, or attempted to be done, by the grantee, in the way of completing the road through said lands, for the period of 13 years, though during all that time it was working on other parts of said road, and operating it from Opelika to Goodwater. That after the lapse of, to wit, for the term of, five years from the execution of said deed, plaintiff having never actually parted with the possession of said lands, except as herein mentioned and shown, plaintiff...