Chambers v. Wilcox

3 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 269, 15 Ohio Dec. 629, 1905 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 48
CourtCourt of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division
DecidedJanuary 16, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 3 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 269 (Chambers v. Wilcox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chambers v. Wilcox, 3 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 269, 15 Ohio Dec. 629, 1905 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 48 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1905).

Opinion

Dillon, J.

One Alfred Wilcox died some time prior to 1858, seized of about one hundred and twenty-four acres of land in this county, leaving-four children his only heirs, to-wit: One son, John L. Wilcox, and three daughters, Harriet-1. Hoffman, Jane A. Tip-ton and Emily Detweiler.

On May 17, 1858, Harriet I. Hoffman and her husband quit-claimed their one-fourth interest to their brother, John L., and thereby he became the owner of the undivided one-half.

[270]*270On October 30, 1858, John L. Wilcox and his wife and Emily Detweiler and her husband deeded their three-fourth interest in thirty-seven acres of the property off the east side thereof to William W. and Jane A.’Tipton.

On November 6, 1858, John L. Wilcox and wife deeded his one-half interest in the remaining eighty-seven acres to Abraham Detweiler, the husband of Emily.

On May 8,1865, Jane A. Tipton and her husband conveyed all their title in the eighty-seven acre tract to four grantees, to-wit: John L. Wilcox and Ester F. Wilcox, his wife, Abraham Det- ' weiler and Emily, his wife.

Prior to this last-named deed, it will be observed that Emily still owned her undivided one-fourth in the eighty-seven acres, and her husband had acquired in his deed the undivided one-half thereof from John L. Wilcox. By this deed of Tipton and wife, however, to Detweiler and his wife and to John L. Wilcox and his wife, he conveyed to each one of the said parties an undivided sixteenth, so that by this deed the legal title stood as follows:

John L. Wilcox owned an undivided one-sixteenth; Ester F. Wilcox one-sixteenth; Emily Detweiler five-sixteenths; Abraham Detweiler nine-sixteenths.

It is at this point that the controversy in.this case has its start, because as has already been observed, although John L. Wileo-x and wife, by their deed- of November 6, 1858, had quit-claimed all their title to Detweiler, yet this last-named quit-claimed deed placed back in John L. Wilcox and his wife each a one-sixteenth undivided interest, so that Detweiler and his wife together only owned an undivided fourteen-sixteenth of this property-.

The- plaintiff in this ease derived his record title from Abraham and Emily Detweiler, through a rather numerous succession of subsequent owners, and therefore, áo far as the record title is concerned, there has during all these years remained outstanding an undivided two-sixteenths part in John L. and Ester F. Wilcox and their heirs.

[271]*271While the said Abraham Detweiler and wife did not personally live upon the real estate in question, they lived near thereto, and occupied the same as owners exclusively, exercising all the prerogatives of owners, paid the taxes thereon, rented the same and collected rents.. After Abraham’s death his widow and children continued so to possess and occupy said real estate until by their deeds it passed to their successor in title and the various successors in title and have so continued to hold' and occupy the real estate up to the present time. The defendants here are two of the three heirs of the said John L. and Ester Wilcox, the third heir having quit-claimed his interest to plaintiff. The petition makes the usual allegations as provided in Revised' Statutes, 5779, for the purpose of quieting title to said real estate, and also in the same petition asserts that the insertion of the names of John L. and Ester Wilcox, .as named in the quit-claim deed from Tipton and wife, was error and asks its correction.

The separate answers and cross-petitions of the defendants consist of a general denial of any error in said deed to John L. and Ester, and by cross-petition ask for partition of their respective interest in the realty, each claiming the undivided one-twenty-fourth therein; the answers further plead the statutes of limitation of twenty-one years under Revised Statutes, 4977, of four years under Revised Statutes, 4982 and of ten years under Revised Statutes, 4985, i. <?., “actions not heretofore provided for. ’ ’

From the very nature of a pure and simple petition under Revised Statutes, 5779, to quiet title, and which petition does not attempt to set forth any other purpose, cause of action or demand, it follows that none of the statutes of limitations apply nor can they be successfully pleaded against such a petition. This follows because a petition of this character does not purport to assert a cause of action but is a special proceeding whose object is to challenge and provoke any causes of action which may exist in the premises, and by which it may be claimed some outstanding title or right exists in the defendants as to the real estate under consideration. As to these causes of action thus provoked, and the defenses or counter-actions of plaintiff, the [272]*272statutes of limitations may be properly invoked. In the ease at bar, therefore, the court considers the plea of the statutes of limitations as to the petition to apply only to that cause which the plaintiff has voluntarily set forth in his petition, to-wit: That the name of John L. and Ester in the deed of 1865 was error, and the prayer for the correction of same may be considered by the court. But there is a question in my mind whether or not such a plea can be made because of the saving clause of Revised Statutes, 4974, which provides that none of the statutes of limitations shall apply “to an action by a vendee of real property, in possession thereof, to obtain a conveyance of it.”

Leaving this question open it is apparent that so far as naked legal title is concerned, the parties are tenants in common. The plaintiff, however, relies on two propositions:

First. The continuous adverse possession of himself and those under whom he claims for the entire period since 1865.

Second. That the evidence shows that the deeds were purely partition deeds and that therefore the rule that a prior quitclaim deed will not convey after-acquired realty does not apply, but that in such cases as this a covenant will be implied by law in the first deed for the attainment of justice.

In the case of deeds exclusively for partition, and where no other considerations are involved, the law for the enforcement and attainment of justice makes an exception to the usual rule for partition purposes, and such deeds of quit-claim will often be treated by the courts as containing a covenant implied by law, so as to carry with any after-acquired title in the real estate first conveyed, but I do not think there is sufficient evidence before the court to warrant this court in finding that the various deeds of quit-claim in this case, many of which I need not mention, were purely partition deeds, but on the contrary there is much evidence that some of the quit-claims were the direct result of bargain and sale. The plaintiff’s claim therefore must rest upon his first proposition. It is well settled that the statute of limitation does not begin to run in favor of one tenant in common who is in possession, because in such case the act of possession of one tenant is not inconsistent with his rights in the prem[273]*273ises of his co-tenants. Nor will adverse possession be recognized as existing between tenants in common, until some overt act or acts take place of an unequivocal character “clearly indicating an assertion of ownership of the entire premises to the exclusion ■of the right of the co-tenant.” Youngs v. Heffner, 36 Ohio St., 232.

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Bluebook (online)
3 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 269, 15 Ohio Dec. 629, 1905 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 48, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chambers-v-wilcox-ohctcomplfrankl-1905.