Dreher v. Hill

5 Tenn. App. 10, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 30
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMarch 5, 1927
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 5 Tenn. App. 10 (Dreher v. Hill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dreher v. Hill, 5 Tenn. App. 10, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 30 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

FAW, P. J.

This is an action of ejectment brought by bill filed on February 8, 1919, in the chancery court at Altamont, Grundy county, in which complainant Dreher alleges that he is the owner and entitled to the possession of a tract containing one hundred acres of land in the 2nd (formerly the 5th) Civil District of Grundy county, Tennessee (which land is described by metes and bounds in the bill), and that defendant, “through some inferior and spurious claim” has entered upon said land and has undertaken to tak§ possession thereof, and has enclosed the same by wire fence, and is exercising acts of ownership thereover, and is thus casting a cloud over the title of complainant. The prayer of the bill is appropriate to its averments.

In his answer, filed June 24, 1919, the defendant admits that he is in possession of the land described in the bill, and has all, or a part, of it enclosed by a .good and substantial wire fence, and.is exercising acts of ownership over same, and he says that he has been so possessing said land for several years.

But defendant denies that complainant is the owner and entitled to the possession of said land, and he avers that complainant has no title thereto, nor to any part thereof.

Defendant avers that complainant’s cause of action accrued more than seven years before the bill was filed in this cause, and before any suit was brought by complainant against defendant, and defendant pleads and relies upon the statutes of limitations of seven years as a complete bar to complainant’s, right of actioip

Upon the issues thus formed the case went to proof, and, after proof had been taken on behalf of both parties, the defendant was, *12 on his application, permitted to amend his answer by adding thereto (what he termed) a “plea of estoppel,” and in which amendment to the answer defendant avers, “that one J. M. Bouldin, by deed date June 17, 1868, sold and conveyed to one Ym. Rogers, 1500 acres of land, including the land in controversy in this cause, for the sum of $750, of which sum $250 was in hand paid, the balance to be paid in two equal installments of $250 each, due respectively in one and two years from date. See deed on file.

“That said Ym. Rogers, having made default and failed to pay said deferred payments, the said J. M. Bouldin, on June 18, 1869, filed his bill in your Honor’s court against said Ym. Rogers to enforce his lien or equity and have said land sold to pay the aforesaid deferred payments. That process was served on said Rogers on the 6th day of October, 1869; that said Rogers failed to make defense to said bill and pro confesso was taken against him, and such other proceedings were had in said cause that, on the 15th day of May, 1871, said Bouldin recovered a judgment against Rogers in said cause on said notes, and the court adjudged the same to be a lien on said land and directed the Clerk and Master to advertise and sell said land in said ease said recovery was not satisfied, within three months; that said recovery was not satisfied and the Clerk and Master sold said land under said order of the court' on the 4th day of December, 1871; when J. M. Bouldin became the purchaser that said sale and purchase of said land was duly reported by the Clerk and Master to the January term, 1872, of this court and in all things confirmed by the court; that the court on October 10,- 1877, passed a decree correcting the decree confirming said sale by directing the Clerk and Master to make J. M. Bouldin a deed for said land, and that said Ym. Rogers did not convey to complainants the land in controversy until more than three years after the aforesaid sale of said land to J. M. Bouldin and the confirmation thereof by this court.

“Therefore defendant, Virgil Hill, insists and for plea says that Ym. Rogers would, by virtue of said sale and confirmation, be estopped from claiming said land, complainant being the vendee of said Ym, Rogers and being in direct privity with him is estopped from claiming the ownership of the lands in controversy and that complainant’s bill should be dismissed.

“All the decrees or rather copies thereof in case of J. M. Bouldin v. Ym. Rogers, are filed in this cause by complainant to which reference is here had and made part of this plea. Also the original file in said cause is also in the file in which is the subpoena to answer on Ym. Rogers is found.”

The Chancellor heard the ease on the pleadings and proof, and thereupon dismissed the complainant’s bill at his cost, whereupon *13 th.e complainant appealed to the Supreme Court, and the ease was thereafter transferred by the Supreme Court to this court, and the complainant has assigned errors here.

In the chancery court complainant put in evidence registered muniments of title which (it was stipulated) covered the land in controversy, as follows:

(1) Grant No. 10411 fo'r five thousand acres of land, issued August 5, 1849, by the State of Tennessee to. Davidson Tate and Jackson Tate.
(2) A general warranty deed, dated December 27, 1850, conveying fifteen hundred acres of land from Davidson Tate and Jackson Tate to Robert Tate.
(3) A deed made by John Tipton, sheriff of Grundy county, to J. M. Bouldin, dated September 9, 1868, for fifteen hundred acres of land, which deed (as appears from its recitals), was made pursuant to a sale by the sheriff on May 6, 1867, under a venditioni exponas issued from the circuit court of Grundy county, and based on an order of condemnation entered in said circuit court at the suit of one ¥m. D. Dorris against Robert Tate, which suit had originated in a court of a Justice of the Peace where judgment had been rendered against Robert Tate and execution from said judgment had been levied on said fifteen hundred acres of land as the property of Robert Tate.
(4) A general warranty deed, dated June 17, 1868, conveying fifteen hundred acres of land, from J. M. Bouldin to ¥m. Rogers.
(5) The record (consisting of the original bill and the decrees entered on the minutes of the court) in the suit brought by J. M. Bouldin against ¥m. Rogers in the chancery court of Grundy county on June 18, 1869, as set forth in the amendment to defendant’s answer which we have heretofore quoted, and to which record more particular reference will be hereinafter made.
(6) A general warranty deed, dated October 23, 1875, made by ¥m. Rogers and wife to Carl P. Dreher, and purporting to convey a tract of one hundred acres of land which is identified as the particular tract of land in controversy in this case.

It appears from the undisputed testimony of the complainant C. E. (Charles E.) Dreher that Carl E. Dreher, the grantee named in the aforesaid deed made by ¥m. Rogers, died several years before the bill in this case was filed, and that complainant is his son and “sole heir.”

The defendant introduced in evidence Grant No. 5936, dated May. 24, 1837, by which the State of Tennessee granted to Steven Haight five thousand acres of land; and defendant proved by his witness w. H. Havron, county surveyor of Warren county, that the land in controversy was covered by said grant.

*14 On cross-examination,' defendant’s said witness W. IT.

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Related

Donlon v. Donlon
418 S.W.2d 448 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1967)
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98 S.W.2d 1071 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1936)
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14 Tenn. App. 347 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1931)

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Bluebook (online)
5 Tenn. App. 10, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dreher-v-hill-tennctapp-1927.