Elliot v. Hensley

188 Ky. 444
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJune 11, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 188 Ky. 444 (Elliot v. Hensley) 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
Elliot v. Hensley, 188 Ky. 444 (Ky. Ct. App. 1920).

Opinion

Opinion of the Court by

Chief Justice Carroll

Reversing.

In August, 1840, there was issued to Felix J. Gilbert a patent for 50 acres of land in Leslie county. On July 8,1870, W. H. DeGroot obtained four patents, Nos. 43195, 43196, 43197 and 43198, for 200 acres each, the land embraced in these patents being in one body, the southern end of which projected into the senior patent of Gilbert, and to the extent that the land patented to DeGroot lapped over the patent issued to Gilbert it is conceded that the DeGroot patents were void.

In 1876, Robinson became the owner of the land for which patent issued to Gilbert, and in March, 1885, he obtained a patent for 100 acres, the lines of this patent embracing practically all of the Gilbert patent, a large part of -the DeGroot patents 43197 ancl 43198 north of the Gilbert patent, and also a portion of the DeGroot patents, 43195 and 43196.

Gertrude Elliott, at the time this suit was brought, was the owner by, connected paper title of the four patents issued to DeGroot, but neither she nor any of her vendors had ever been in the actual possession of any of the land embraced in these patents, all of which was wild, uncultivated and uninclosed, except a few acre-son the southern boundary adjoining the Gilbert land.

In 1910, Henry M. Hensley, the appellee, who connects himself in a regular way, through purchases extending back to Robinson with the Robinson patent, as well as the patent to Gilbert that had been purchased by Robinson, brought this suit against Gertrude Elliott, the appellant, averring that he was the owner and entitled to the possession of that part of the DeGroot patents that were covered by the junior Robinson patent.

For answer to this suit, Gertrude Elliott averred that the Robinson patent, under which Hensley claimed, was junior to the DeGroot patents and, therefore, to the extent that it lapped over these patents, was void. She further set up her title to these DeGroot patents, but ad[447]*447mitted that to the extent they lapped over Felix J. Gilbert’s prior patent, the DeGroot patents were void.

After the evidence had been taken by depositions, the case was submitted to the court and there was a judgment in favor of Hensley awarding to him the ownership and possession of the land embraced within the four DeGroot patents that was covered by the lines of the patent issued to Robinson.

It also appears that Robinson, after he became the owner of the Gilbert patent in 1876 and before he obtained the patent issued to himself in 1885, had built a house and made a clearing with cultivation on the Gilbert land. A part of this clearing and cultivation undoubtedly extended into the DeGroot patent, 43198, and Hensley contends that it also extended into the DeGroot patent, 43197.

As the patent issued to Robinson in 1885 covered that part of the Gilbert patent on which the house was situated and the clearing made and also that part of the DeGroot patent that had been cultivated and cleared, the court was evidently of the opinion that this cultivation and clearing, together with the adverse holding, placed Robinson and his vendees, down to and including Hensley, not only in the actual possession of the DeGroot. patent, 43198, into which the clearing extended, but also in possession of the other three DeGroot patents, although no part of either had ever been taken into actual possession by either Robinson or those claiming under .him, by clearing, cultivation or otherwise.

The court was evidently influenced to make this decision upon the ground that these four contiguous, and coterminous DeGroot patents, which were issued on the same day to the same person, constituted one connected body of land, and this being so the actual adverse holding by Robinson and his vendees of any part of the land within either of these patents and also within the lines of his patent placed the adverse holders in the actual adverse possession of all the DeGroot patents that were within the boundary of the patent issued to Robinson, as there had never been, as we have said, any actual possession of any of the DeGroot patents by any person claiming under them.

On tlris appeal by Gertrude Elliott, it is contended — ■ first, that each of these DeGroot patents should be treated as a separate, distinct body of land from each of the other DeGroot patents and, therefore, the entry and adverse holding by Hensley, and those under whom he [448]*448claims of a part of one of these patents, would only place him in the possession of that one in which there was_ an entry and actual possession; and, therefore, it is said that if Hensley is entitled to any of the DeGroot patents, the recovery in his behalf should be confined to the land covered by patent '43198, as this was the only patent in which there was an adverse entry and holding.

Her second contention is that there was no such entry or-holding on the part of Robinson or his vendees as would entitle Hensley to recover any of these DeGroot patents on the ground of adverse possession.

In considering the case we will take up1 first the question whether these DeGroot patents should be treated in the application of the doctrine of adverse possession as one body of land or four separate and distinct tracts.

In 1885, when Robinson obtained his patent embracing as we have said, parts of the four DeGroot patents, these DeGroot senior patents, although not in the actual possession of any person, were in the constructive possion of DeGroot, except to the extent of the clearing in 43198 and this constructive possession— there being no actual possession, adverse or otherwise, extended except to this clearing — to all of the land embraced within the lines of the four patents. This constructive possession followed as a necessary consequence, the title to this land which was in DeGroot by virtue of the patents issued to him, and this title and constructive possession he could be divested of only by an actual, open, notorious and visible entry and possession by an adverse claimant for the statutory period.

As was said in Whitley County Land Company v. Powers’ Heirs, 146 Ky. 801: “It is as well settled as any principle in the land laws of the state -can be that two persons -cannot at the same time be in constructive possession of the same body of land, and that in a contest between constructive title owners the oldest title must prevail.” This principle is aptly -stated in Jones v. McCauley, 2 Duvall 14, where the court said: “There can be no constructive possession of the same land by conflicting claimants. In the absence of any actual possession, if there be -any constructive possession, it must necessarily be in the holder of the be-st title, unless he had' renounced it. And his constructive possession can never be ousted by any constructive possession claimed' under the inferior title; nothing short of renunciation or actual dis-seisin can evict him.”

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Bluebook (online)
188 Ky. 444, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/elliot-v-hensley-kyctapp-1920.