Bryant v. Hamblin

210 S.W. 786, 183 Ky. 716, 1919 Ky. LEXIS 574
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMarch 28, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 210 S.W. 786 (Bryant v. Hamblin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bryant v. Hamblin, 210 S.W. 786, 183 Ky. 716, 1919 Ky. LEXIS 574 (Ky. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

Jupge Quin

Affirming in part and reversing in part.

The appellant, Roberta S. Bryant, plaintiff below, is the -owner of approximately 1,000 acres of land under [717]*717what is familiarly known as tlie “Hudson and Wait Patent,” No. 24,081, dated October 18, 1855, under a survey of September 4, 1854. All land previously appropriated within the exterior boundary of said patent is expressly excluded therefrom. Plaintiff is asserting title to only so much of the land as was vacant and unappropriated on the day of the survey, the acts complained of in her petition having been committed on the tract not embraced within the exclusion. She alleged that the defendants, Pleas Hamblin and others, had entered upon her lands, on the waters of Buzzard, Crow and Cantrill creeks, and had begun cutting the timtfer and committing other trespasses thereon; and she asked that they be enjoined and restrained from committing other trespasses upon her property.

By an amended petition Richard F. Hickman, the heirs of J. F. Sutton, the heirs of Nehemiah Sumner and others were made defendants, it being alleged they were claiming an interest in the land described in the petition, and were threatening to commit trespasses upon said land. An injunction was asked against each of them.

From a judgment in ten paragraphs, entered by the court below, the plaintiff, Roberta S. Bryant, has prosecuted an appeal against Pleas Hamblin, Richard F. Hickman, the Sutton heirs, and the Sumner heirs, while Richard F. Hickman and the Sutton heirs are prosecuting an appeal against Roberta S. Bryant and Pleas Hamblin.

The several defendants not only claim all, or a major portion, of the land described in the petition, but claim the land as against one another, and to certain portions of the land involved in this lawsuit there are three or more claimants. Some of the defendants filed no pleadings, and no proof was taken in their behalf; others filed pleadings, took proof and from the judgment, in so far as it denied their claim, they have appealed.

The present appeal, therefore, resolves itself into a contest as to ownership of the land involved, as between Roberta S. Bryant, Pleas Hamblin, Richard F. Hickman, the Sutton heirs and. the Sumner heirs, the case having been briefed on behalf of each and all of the above named.

Pleas Hamblin is the son of Jackson Hamblin, and represents the heirs of his father. Title is claimed by the various parties under surveys and by adverse possession. We will discuss the case under several sub[718]*718heads, taking np in order the claims of each of the parties to the appeal.

Snmner heirs. In paragraph six of the judgment it is adjudged that the heirs of Nehemiah Sumner are entitled to the three tracts set out in their answer not covered by the claims of David Privitt or the possession and title of Pleas Hamblin. The court then specifically describes the property so adjudged to the Sumner heirs, together with the several tracts excluded therefrom.

It is agreed between the parties that appellant, Roberta S. Bryant, is the owner by title of record to the Hudson & Wait 10,000 acres patent No. 24,081. The tracts adjudged the Sumner heirs are included within the exterior boundaries of the Hudson-Wait patent.

The land claimed by the Sumner heirs is alleged to be embraced within the exclusion of the foregoing patent. By an act of the legislature of 1835 (Session Acts, p. 359) control of all vacant lands was vested in the several county courts, by the later act of 1837 (Session Acts, p. 250) provision was made for the appointment of a county treasurer, to whom application for the purchase of this land should be made, warrant for the land purchased to be issued by the county clerk upon presentation to him of a. receipt given by the treasurer.

March 9,1846, the following order was entered in the Whitley county court: “Received a bond of Middleton Meadors for twenty dollars ($20) for 800 abres of vacant land in Whitley and the clerk of the Whitley county court is authorized to issue a warrant for the same this 9th day of March, 1846.

“ (Signed) James K. Gallion, C. T.”
“The Commonwealth of Ky. to the surveyor of Whitley county, greetings. You are hereby authorized and directed by yourself or deputy to survey in one or more surveys for Middleton Meadors 800 acres of vacant and unappropriated land in your county, he having produced to me the county treasurer’s receipt for a bond for twenty dollars ($20), the price thereof, as required by Jaw, and this shall be your warrant for the same.”

Copies of the two surveys referred to in the judg?uent are found in the record, the one being for Nehemiah Sumner as assignee, the other for Sumner, Lamb and Essthouse as assignee under warrant 272 to Middleton Meadors.

[719]*719Construing the acts of 1835 and 1837 as authority for such, the Whitley county court sold much of the vacant land for notes and bonds. This manner of disposing of these lands led to the passage of the act of March 5, 1850 (Session Acts 1849-50, p. 399), legalizing the receipt of bonds in the sale of vacant land in Whitley county, said bonds or their proceeds to be appropriated for road purposes the same as if the money had been paid therefor. Said act made it unlawful thereafter for1 the Register of the Land Office to receive or .register any plat or certificate of a survey made by the surveyor of Whitley county, upon county warrants, without a certificate from the county treasurer accompanying it, showing the land had been paid for in money or labor according to the order of said court.

By an act approved March 18, 1851 (Session Acts 1850-51, p. 305) the citizens of Whitley county were given until March 1, 1852, to return plats and certificates of said surveys to the Register of the Land Office, as provided in the act of 1850.

In Bryant v. Kentucky Lumber Co., 144 Ky. 755, in speaking of these several acts, especially the last one, the court said: “The plain purpose of this act was to require all these matters to be closed up by March 1, 1852; that is, the parties who had made these surveys were given a year to pay the price and take out their grants. The necessary meaning of the statute is that they were required to pay the price and register their surveys within the time specified and that they could not do so thereafter. The Lillis. survey was made on February 28, 1851, or eight days before the passage of this act. Lillis had under the act until March 1, 1852, to return the plat and certificate of survey to the Register of the Land Office with a certificate of the treasurer of the county that the warrants had been paid for. When he did not do this, he lost all his rights under the warrant or survey. If it should be held that the statute is not mandatory, and that these surveys could be carried into grant by a compliance with the statute after the time fixed in it, then it would be meaningless, and the purpose of its enactment would be defeated. The rule is that under statutes conferring privileges on private individuals for a certain period of time, the privilege can not be exercised after the time allowed. (36 Cyc. 1160; Black on In[720]*720terpretation of Laws, 359, 26 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, 691, and oases cited.)

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Bluebook (online)
210 S.W. 786, 183 Ky. 716, 1919 Ky. LEXIS 574, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bryant-v-hamblin-kyctapp-1919.