Brose v. Boise City Railway & Terminal Co.

51 P. 753, 5 Idaho 694, 1897 Ida. LEXIS 68
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 23, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 51 P. 753 (Brose v. Boise City Railway & Terminal Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brose v. Boise City Railway & Terminal Co., 51 P. 753, 5 Idaho 694, 1897 Ida. LEXIS 68 (Idaho 1897).

Opinion

SULLIVAN, C. J.

This is an action in ejectment. It is alleged in the complaint that on the twentieth day of December, 1890, the plaintiff (who is the respondent here), was the owner and seised in fee of the premises described in the complaint, and alleged ouster by the appellant, the Boise City Bail-way and Terminal Company, a corporation, on or about the twentieth day of May, 1893. The answer specifically denied the allegations of the complaint, except, however, it admitted that it wus in possession of the premises, but alleged that its possession was lawful, and also set up as a further defense the statute of limitations. By supplemental answer it averred that since the commencement of the action it had acquired title to the premises, and was the owner and entitled to the possession thereof. Upon the issues thus made, the cause was tried by the court and a jury, and a verdict was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, and judgment entered thereon. Appellant’s motion for a new trial was denied, and this appeal is from the judgment and order denying the motion for a new trial.

It appears from the transcript that pne J. H. Slater settled upon unsurveyed lands of the United States, and filed a notice of the land so claimed by him with the recorder of Ada county, the county in which said land was situated. Said land claim notice was filed for record on March 24, 1866. [699]*699Thereafter one Thomas Davis filed his notice of land claim in the office of the recorder aforesaid, whereby he claimed a certain tract of land bordering or bounding the said Slater land claim on the easterly or southeasterly side. The land claim notice of said Davis was filed for record on May 3, 1867. One W. L. Thompson filed his land claim notice in the office of said recorder on April 5, 1865, whereby he claimed a certain tract of land bordering on the northwesterly side of a part of the said Slater land claim. It also appears that one John McClelland filed his land claim notice in the said recorder’s office on April 5, 1865, whereby he claimed certain land bordering on the westerly side of the said Slater land claim.

The legislative assembly of the territory of Idaho, at its second session, passed an act entitled, “An act prescribing the mode of maintaining and defending possessory actions on the public lands in this territory.” (See 2d Sess. Laws 1864, p. 421.) The second section of said act provides the maximum number of acres which each claim may contain, its form, and how the boundaries thereof shall be marked on the ground. The third section provides that such land claim shall be accurately described in a written notice, which notice shall be recorded in the office of the recorder of the county wherein such land claim is situated. The provisions of said act were incorporated into the Bevised Statutes of 1887, sections 4552-4556, inclusive.

The government survey was extended over the lands included in said land claims in the month of November, 1867. Thereafter Slater, Davis, and Thompson adjusted their said land claims so as to make them conform to the lines of the public survey, by which adjustment said Slater secured lots 6 and 7 in section 10, township 3 north, range 2 east, of Boise meridian, and Davis secured lots 3, 4, 5, and 10 in said section 10, and said Thompson got lots 1 and 3 in section 9, and lot 8 and southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 4, said township and range. Thereafter said Davis entered said lots 3, 4, 5, and 10 under the pre-emption laws of the Bnited States, and a United States patent was issued to him therefor, which patent was received at the Boise City land office, December 23, 1869. Said Slater entered said lots 6 and [700]*7007 under the pre-emption laws of Congress, and a patent was issued to him therefor, which patent was received at the said land office on December 23, 1869. The said Thompson made pre-emption entry of certain land that fell to him by said adjustment, and the United States patent therefor was received at said land office, May 18, 1870. (The original claims we shall designate as “land claims," and, after their adjustment to the public survey, we shall designate them as “pre-emption claims.”) Under said adjustment and pre-emption entry of Davis, he procured title under his said patent for a part of the land included within the original land claim of J. H. Slater, as shown by appellant’s exhibit No. 16. Slater, under his said adjustment and pre-emption entry, procured title by his patent to a part of land included in the land claim of said Davis, and also to a part of the land covered by said lands claims of Thompson and McClelland. After final proof had been made under said pre-emption entries, Davis, by deed dated September 2, 1869, conveyed to J. H. Slater a triangular tract of land, particularly describing it by metes and bounds, it being a part of said lot 5, and included the land in dispute. It also, appears that said Slater conveyed to said Davis a part of said lot 7, and also eonvejred to said Thompson a part of said lot 6 bv deed dated July 13, 1869. Said Slater also conveyed to Mc-Clelland a part of said lot 6, it being that part which was included in McClelland’s land claim, as shown by respondent’s exhibit No. 16. Thus, it is shown that, after said conveyances had been executed, each of said parties held the legal title to substantially the same land as was included in their several land claims, notices of which were filed in the office of the county recorder of said Ada county at the dates heretofore stated. If it be true that, shortly after said land claims had been adjusted to the public survey and entry thereof as preemption claims, each of said parties conveyed to the other or others such part or parts of his pre-emption entry as he had acquired from the other original land claims, by the adjustment aforesaid, it would at least indicate that they had entered into an agreement as now provided in such cases by the provisions of section 2274 of the Bevised Statutes of the United States, [701]*701and had carried such agreement into effect by means of said conveyances.

Several maps or plats of the land in dispute in connection with other lands are before us, some of which were introduced by the appellant, and some by the respondent. Map No. 16, an exhibit of the appellant, purports to show the said land claims of Davis, Slater, Thompson, and McClelland, and their boundaries; also to show the boundaries of the said pre-emption claims. The said land claims of Davis and Slater, both before and after they were adjusted to the public survey, adjoined Front street, in Boise City, on the southwest side. Said street extends north, fifty-five degrees west, as shown by the certified plat of the government survey. And I think that as said street extends north, fifty-five degrees west, instead of east and west, that fact may have been the cause of certain directions or calls stated in the deeds hereinafter referred to being ambiguous and uncertain. Said plat also shows that the west boundary line of said lot 6, near the southwest corner thereof, was intersected by a fence at the time the government survey was made, in November, 1867. Said plat also shows that a public road intersected said boundary line a short distance north of said fence. It also appears that Boise river is not to exceed a quarter of a mile from the southwest corner of said lot, and across which river was a ferry known as “Thompson and McClelland’s Ferry.” McClelland; one of the owners of said ferry, testified on behalf of the respondent in this case as follows: “I have resided in Boise City thirty-two years and over. I am acquainted with what is known as Lover’s Lane.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 P. 753, 5 Idaho 694, 1897 Ida. LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brose-v-boise-city-railway-terminal-co-idaho-1897.