Cantou v. Walker

154 P.2d 530, 61 Wyo. 56, 1945 Wyo. LEXIS 2
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 2, 1945
Docket2309
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 154 P.2d 530 (Cantou v. Walker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cantou v. Walker, 154 P.2d 530, 61 Wyo. 56, 1945 Wyo. LEXIS 2 (Wyo. 1945).

Opinion

*60 OPINION

itlNER, Justice.

This was an action for alleged trespass by sheep owned by Carl Walker, upon lands situated in Hot Springs County, Wyoming, the title to which John P. Cantou claimed, the latter as plaintiff in the District Court of said County and appellant here, having instituted the litigation against Walker, the defendant below and now the respondent.

Plaintiff filed his petition May 27, 1943, in the Court aforesaid. In substance it stated that he has been and is now the owner since on or before August 20, 1935, and entitled to the possession of Lots 4, 5 and 8 of Section 15, and Tracts 37K, 37L, 37M and 37P, in Township 43 North, Range 91 West of the 6th P. M; that these lands are good grazing lands with considerable feed and grass thereon; that this feed has been destroyed and used by the defendant’s sheep which have also trampled and cut up the soil to its permanent injury; that on or about the date aforesaid and since then the defendant has continuously entered upon said lands and caused them to be depastured by said sheep, causing the grass and growing grain to be trodden down and injured. Damages were asked in a specific sum and that defendant be enjoined and restrained from permitting or causing his sheep to enter upon these lands.

The defendant in his answer alleged substantially that at the time of the commencement of this action and long prior thereto, and at all times since, the de *61 fendant was and is the owner and entitled to the possession of all the tracts of land described in the plaintiff’s petition containing 162.03 acres, a little more or less. As to Lots 4, 5 and 8, the answer makes no statement. It does, however, allege that said tracts are described in the Original Government Survey as the SW%NE%, SE%NE^4, NEl^SE%, and SE%SE% of said Section 15; that attached to said answer and incorporated therein by reference is a map showing correctly the location and area of-these subdivisions of Section 15. Defendant denied each allegation of plaintiff’s pleading not specifically admitted, qualified or denied. The answer prayed that plaintiff take nothing by his action.

Plaintiff filed a reply amounting to a general denial of the new matter set out in this answer.

The cause was tried before the Court without a jury April 5, 1944, with the result that a judgment was entered in plaintiff’s favor for .nominal damages in the sum of One Dollar, each party was ordered to pay his own costs and the injunction sought by plaintiff was denied. The Court found preliminary to ordering said judgment that defendant had committed a technical -trespass upon Lots 4, 5 and 8; that there was no proof of damage and that it would be an injustice to grant plaintiff an injunction.

On the trial to sustain their respective claims to ownership and possession of the real property above mentioned certain proofs were submitted. The plaintiff offered in evidence a United States Government patent to lands which were described therein as:

“west half of the southwest quarter of Section fourteen, the Lots four, five, and eight of Section fifteen, the north half of the northwest quarter of Section twenty-three, and the Tracts thirty-seven “K”, thirty-seven “L”, thirty-seven “M”, and thirty-seven “P” in *62 Township forty-three north of Range ninety-one west of the Sixth Principal Meridian, Wyoming, containing three hundred thirty-four acres and twenty-seven hundredths of an acre, * * *”;

this instrument was received without objection. The Court also received in evidence without objection and on behalf of the plaintiff a plat from the United States Land Office, same being a plat of the resurvey of Township 43 North, Range 91 West, in connection with testimony given by a licensed surveyor as to the acreage of the aforesaid tracts and lots and that this acreage was described on the plat in those terms only.

The defendant offered in evidence a copy of a decree for the specific performance of an agreement to convey certain lands in a suit determined in the District Court of Fremont County, Wyoming, wherein Carl Walker, the defendant below in the case at bar, was plaintiff and John P. Cantou, plaintiff in the present litigation, was defendant. This copy was duly certified by the Clerk of that Court and had been recorded in the office of the County Clerk of Hot Springs County, February 24, 1942. The decree aforesaid was dated February 17, 1942, and entered Nunc Pro Tunc as of February 14, 1941. Plaintiff Cantou objected to the reception in evidence of this decree as “incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial” but the objection was overruled. The record does not show that plaintiff reserved his objection to this ruling.

This decree, briefly summarized, recites that upon motion made by Walker’s counsel the Court gave judgment in his favor upon the pleadings of the parties and an original judgment and decree was made and entered March 10, 1941, setting out that fact and directing that Cantou convey to Walker by warranty deed the following real property, to-wit:

“Sy2NEU, El/2SE% Section 15; W%SW% Section *63 14; NW%, E%SW%, W%SE%, SW%NE&, SE%SE%, Section 28, Township 43 North, Range 91 West, 6th Principal Meridian, Hot Springs County, Wyoming, together with the appurtenaces thereunto belonging ;

that the original decree directed that defendant Can-tou make this conveyance “within ten days from the date of service upon him or upon his attorney of record of notice of the entry” of said original judgment and that in the event of Cantou’s failure to do this:

“that then and in that event the judgment and decree then made should be taken and considered for all purposes as a conveyance and transfer of the title to said above described lands from the defendant, John P. Cantou unto the plaintiff, Carl Walker; and that a certified copy of said judgment and decree might be taken and considered and filed for record in any jurisdiction deemed necessary or expedient by the said Carl Walker as evidence of and evidencing the transfer of title to said lands as aforesaid, * * *”.

The decree further recited that the time fixed for making conveyance had elapsed and the defendant had failed to comply with the judgment of the Court and it was consequently further adjudged that:

“ * * * this judgment and decree be and the same is hereby constituted as an instrument of conveyance from the defendant to the plaintiff for all of the lands and premises herein above described; and that a certified copy of this judgment and decree may be used and filed for record in any and all jurisdictions as a full and complete conveyance of such title and evidence of the same.”

In connection with this decree there was submitted on the defendant Walker’s behalf the testimony of the County Surveyor of Washakie County, that the description of the lands in the decree for specific performance summarized as above, to-wit: S%NE]4 and the E14SE*4 of Section 15 aforesaid was the same *64

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
154 P.2d 530, 61 Wyo. 56, 1945 Wyo. LEXIS 2, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cantou-v-walker-wyo-1945.