Diem v. Diem

1962 OK 124, 372 P.2d 19, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 388
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 29, 1962
Docket39555
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 1962 OK 124 (Diem v. Diem) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Diem v. Diem, 1962 OK 124, 372 P.2d 19, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 388 (Okla. 1962).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Vice Chief Justice.

This appeal involves a disputed boundary line between two rural residential properties, or acreages, comprising a major part of the NWi/4 of Section 18, Township 21 North, Range 8 East, in Pawnee County. The land lies along the northern edge of a paved road, traversed by both U. S. Highways 99 and 64, about a mile west of deve-lan, Oklahoma. It was homesteaded by plaintiff in error’s father, but, a few years before he died in 1944, he agreed to divide it between plaintiff in error (hereinafter referred to as plaintiff), and another son and daughter in parcels of 33, 40, and 60 acres, respectively.

In anticipation of this division, plaintiff and his wife, together with plaintiff’s son, Virgil Diem, and his wife, Myril, in 1938, moved houses from Cleveland onto the 33 acres promised to plaintiff; and established homes there. Plaintiff’s house was placed more than 100 feet north of, and facing, the highway; while the younger Diems’ house was placed northeast of it, at a location more than 300 feet from the highway. Instead of constructing a driveway from his house, directly south of it, and across a shallow ravine bordering the highway, for ingress and egress to and from said highway, plaintiff created a dirt, or gravel, driveway extending for a distance in an easterly direction from his house, and then curving in a southeasterly direction, and entering the highway on higher ground at a point southeast of Virgil’s house. According to the testimony, plaintiff and Virgil had an understanding that the boundary line between their respective places would follow a diagonal line running northwesterly from the highway, along the east and northeast side of this driveway, until it reached a point due south of a certain point on the north line of the quarter section, before extending due north, and passing west of Virgil’s house, to intersect the north line of said quarter section.

In February, 1939, plaintiff’s father conveyed to him the 33 acres he promised to give him, and later, the same year, plaintiff, using his own measurements, drew up a deed to Virgil and his wife, in his own handwriting, covering a plot of ground around the latter’s house and extending to the highway, for the purpose of giving them that part of the property as a Christmas present. According to the testimony, this deed was executed by plaintiff and his wife and delivered to Virgil and his wife, but was never recorded; and no one appears to know what became of it. According to plaintiff’s testimony, this deed described the small acreage, which was to *21 belong to Virgil and his wife, in a manner that routed the boundary line between their house and his, east of the aforementioned driveway, and did not include in its grant, the strip of land said driveway traversed, or the land lying between its curve and the highway. The only deed from plaintiff and his wife to Virgil and his wife, that was ever recorded, was a typewritten one, dated December 22, 1939, covering 3¼ acres and describing same by metes and bounds in such a manner that its western boundary is a specific line running straight south from the quarter section’s northwest corner, to the highway. This line bisects plaintiff’s driveway, and the land lying within its curve, so that the deed purported to convey the land east of it to the grantees, the younger Diems. Despite this, plaintiff continued to use both the driveway and the land within its curve.

About the time Virgil and his wife moved to Henderson, Kentucky, in 1948, they sold their home to one William L. Reno. In the warranty deed, dated August 27, 1948, which they delivered to Reno, the boundaries of the property were described exactly as they were in the aforementioned deed said grantors obtained from plaintiff on December 22, 1939, as aforesaid.

The next Spring after Reno purchased the property (frequently hereinafter referred to as the “East Property”), he decided to build a hog wire fence to form a yard around the house thereon, with 200-foot dimensions, and caused a survey to be made of his western property line. By said survey, it was ascertained that said line bisected the aforedescribed driveway curve area, as aforesaid. Shortly thereafter, in May, 1949, Reno disclosed to plaintiff what the survey had shown, but did not personally interrupt plaintiff’s use, and possession, of the driveway, or the land lying within its curve.

After subsequent conveyances of the East Property from Reno to one Rex Cruzen and his wife, and mesne conveyances unnecessary to mention, one C. A. Casity and his wife, acquired said real estate in December, 1956. (In all of these deeds, said real estate was described exactly as it was in the aforementioned one of December 22, 1939). Thereafter, these owners became involved with plaintiff in a controversy over a natural gas line that originally furnished gas for the dwellings of plaintiff, the younger Diems, and another neighbor. In the late Summer or Fall of 1959, plaintiff and the Casitys became involved in another controversy. This one involved the ownership of apricots, growing on the driveway curve area. Shortly thereafter, the Casitys had their west boundary surveyed and this survey showed the boundary line to be the same as revealed by the hereinbefore mentioned survey Mr. Reno had caused to be made. The Casitys thereupon erected a wire fence or barrier on that line; and plaintiff has ever since been deprived of the use of the ground east of said line for all purposes, including those of a driveway.

The same year (1959) plaintiff instituted, in Pawnee County’s District Court, Cause No. 10829, entitled “W. Banks Diem v. C. A. Casity, et al.”, in which, among other things, he sought both to establish, and to quiet, his alleged prescriptive title to, and alleged right to possession of, the aforementioned plot, from which the Casitys had barred him, as aforesaid. In the alternative, plaintiff therein sought reformation of his aforementioned deed to his son, Virgil, and his wife. This action was later dismissed, and plaintiff then instituted the present one in February, 1960, seeking similar relief, and naming Virgil Diem and the William Renos, as well as the Casitys, as defendants.

In this present action, the Casitys filed an answer and cross petition, in which they alleged, inter alia, that plaintiff’s alleged cause of action was barred by the statute of limitations. Other defendants filed answers in which they denied, inter alia, that plaintiff had ever had the character, and length, of possession requisite for title, to the disputed plot, by prescription.

*22 At the trial before the court without a jury, there was testimony reasonably tending to show (among other things already noted, and others not mentioned) that acquisition of title to the East Property by Rex Cruzen and his wife, pursuant to their purchase from Mr. Reno and his wife, was effected by a deed dated June 12, 19S3; and that Mr. Cruzen rented the property, as a tenant, a year before so purchasing it. Mr. Cruzen’s testimony, on cross examination, was, in part, as follows:

“Q All right, now before you bought it, did you talk to him (Reno) about where the fence line was?
“A That wasn’t discussed until after I had bought the place. I presumed where the fence line was.
“Q Where did you presume the fence line was ?
“A I presume it was where the fences were. Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
1962 OK 124, 372 P.2d 19, 1962 Okla. LEXIS 388, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/diem-v-diem-okla-1962.