Andres v. Todd

296 S.W.2d 139, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 197
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 21, 1956
DocketNo. 7539
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 296 S.W.2d 139 (Andres v. Todd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Andres v. Todd, 296 S.W.2d 139, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 197 (Mo. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

McDOWELL, Presiding Judge.

This appeal is from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Phelps County, Missouri, permanently enjoining defendants from trespassing on a strip of land lying between the recognized boundary line between plaintiffs’ and defendants’ lots and the boundary line claimed by defendants.

Plaintiffs’ petition alleges they are the owners of and in possession of lot 16 in Green Acres, a sub-division of the. city of Rolla, Missouri, and that defendants own and occupy lot 15 in said addition; that the boundary line between lots 15 and 16 has been in existence and recognized for more than ten years past; that several surveys have been made establishing said division line and that the owners of the two lots have recognized and acknowledged the line so established as the division line between the two properties.

That defendants recently caused a survey to be made to establish the boundary'line between said lots, which survey moved the boundary line from the established and recognized line, 5 to 6 feet east on plaintiffs’ lot; that defendants have started to build a fence on this new line and have started to cut, dig up and destroy shrub[141]*141bery and trees belonging to these plaintiffs on plaintiffs’ lot.

That in the construction of this fence and in the cutting, digging up and destroying the shrubbery and trees, the defendants have been trespassing upon plaintiffs’ land and laying waste thereon.

That plaintiffs have remonstrated with defendants, pointed out the recognized division line between the properties and asked them to cease and desist from such trespassing until the boundary line between the properties can be settled by a court of law but defendants have refused to cease and desist as requested and have continued to trespass and are now trespassing and laying waste plaintiffs’ property.

That plaintiffs are without an adequate remedy at law; that the damage that will accrue from such acts of trespass will not be known until after the commission of said acts and are conjectural.

.The prayer is for a restraining order enjoining defendants from further trespassing on plaintiffs’ land and laying waste thereto pending the court’s further decree.

Upon the filing of this petition the trial court granted a temporary restraining order enjoining defendants from trespassing on lands claimed by plaintiffs, being that-strip of land' situate, between the boundary line of said lots as claimed by plaintiffs and the line defendants now claim to be such boundary' line and laying waste to the shrubbery and trees on said land; that defendants abide by the boundary lines between said properties as they have existed and have been recognized prior to the recent survey mentioned in the petition and until further order of this court.

Defendants filed answer admitting the ownership of the properties as alleged in the petition and denying all other allegations therein.

The answer admits that defendants recently caused a survey to be made as alleged in the petition and that they have started to build a fence on the line determined by said survey.

Defendants combined with this answer a motion to dissolve the injunction alleging that there is no equity as shown from the face of the petition; that the facts alleged in the petition do not state a cause of action and that plaintiffs have an adequate remedy at law and that the fence and the metal posts implanted by defendants are on defendants’ lot.

By agreement the cause on the merits and the motion to dissolve were tried by the court together. Judgment was entered December 21, 1955, which, in part, is as follows:

“ * * * Whereupon, it is by the Court ordered that Motion to Dissolve Temporary Injunction be and hereby is overruled, and temporary injunction made permanent.
“It is therefore considered, ordered and adjudged by the Court' that Temporary Injunction be and hereby is made permanent, and defendants restrained permanently as per order set forth in said temporary restraining order herein.”

Plaintiffs’' evidence shows that C. R. Remington, of Rolla, Missouri, was the first owner of lot 16 in Green Acres Division, having moved on the property January 13, 1942; that he occupied said lot until 1951, when he sold it to one, Grover Aeree. Remington testified that when he moved on lot 16, adjoining lot 15 was occupied and owned by one, Arthur Paul; that there was established' at that time by the owners of the two properties a boundary line between said properties which was marked by the east line of a gravel driveway on lot 15, in the front of the lot; that the parties had a stake driven down and then built a water drain made of stone and cement from the driveway to the south boundary line on the south part of the lot. This drain; was about: 12 inches wide and the highest side on the west line of the [142]*142drain was the agreed line. He testified that the first owners of lot 16 and adjoining lot 15 recognized the division line between the two lots as extending from just west of the water meter on the north line of lot 16, to the south along the east line of the driveway of lot 15, and along the west side of the rock and concrete drain built from the rear of the house on lot 16, to the south end of said lot. He stated that this line was recognized as the division line by each subsequent owner of the two lots, and each owner exercised possession up to said line until defendants became the owners of lot 15 in April, 1955.

Aeree purchased lot 16 in July, 1951, and went into possession in November. He stated he lived there until February, 1955, at which time he sold the property to plaintiffs; that while he owned lot 16, lot 15 was owned and occupied by Ray Green. He testified he and Mr. Green recognized the division line as that claimed by plaintiffs during the time he owned and occupied the lot; that there never was any dispute between he and Green as to that being the actual division line between the two properties. He testified he took care of the mowing of the grass and everything to that line. When asked who pointed out the so-called recognized line to him, he stated that Mr. Remington did; that there never was any survey made.

Jack B. Todd testified that plaintiffs purchased the lot from Mr. Aeree and that at the time he moved on said property Ray Green owned lot 15. The witness stated that at the time he purchased lot 16, Mr. Aeree pointed out the boundary line to him. He stated that the owner of lot 15, who lived thereon, never claimed any part of the land east of that recognized established line.

The evidence is undisputed that from 1942 until' 1955 the division line between the properties, as claimed by plaintiffs, was improved and occupied and used openly by them. Plaintiffs testified they planted shrubbery, trees and grass on the lot and kept lot 16 up to this recognized division line until defendants had a survey made in 1955, which established a line some 5 or 6 feet east of the recognized division line and on plaintiffs’ property. That over the objections of plaintiffs, defendants undertook to build a fence on the new surveyed line and on plaintiffs’ property; that they erected two metal posts set in concrete, dug up grass, cut down some of the shrubbery and trees and are threatening to erect a fence and take charge of said property.

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Bluebook (online)
296 S.W.2d 139, 1956 Mo. App. LEXIS 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/andres-v-todd-moctapp-1956.