Estate of Burgess Ex Rel. Burgess v. Trotter

6 So. 3d 1109, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 740, 2008 WL 5146502
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 9, 2008
Docket2007-CA-01266-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 6 So. 3d 1109 (Estate of Burgess Ex Rel. Burgess v. Trotter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Burgess Ex Rel. Burgess v. Trotter, 6 So. 3d 1109, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 740, 2008 WL 5146502 (Mich. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

GRIFFIS, J.,

for the Court.

¶ 1. Alex Trotter filed a complaint to quiet and remove clouds on title against adjoining landowners, Francis N. Burgess, Sr.; Francis N. Burgess, Jr.; and Lula Burgess. The Burgesses filed a counterclaim to quiet title and remove clouds on the same property. After the initial trial, the chancellor determined that Trotter owned the property in dispute and found that the ambiguously conveyed 140-yard strip of property should be located at the driveway of the Burgesses’ home thereby creating a right of access from the home to the Bolton-Brownsville Road.

¶ 2. The Burgesses then appealed. In Burgess v. Trotter, 840 So.2d 762 (Miss.Ct.App.2003) (“Burgess /”), this Court reversed and remanded the case for the chancellor to reconsider and determine: (1) the ownership of parcel two as shown on our attached exhibit, 1 and (2) the location of the 140-yard strip mentioned in the 1941 deed because it had not been definitely located.

¶ 3. On remand, the chancellor found that Trotter owned parcel two and provided a definite legal description of the 140-yard strip located along the Burgesses’ driveway. It is from this judgment that the Burgesses now appeal. We find no error in the chancellor’s findings on remand and affirm.

FACTS

¶ 4. This controversy involves land located in the NW 1/4 of the SW 1/4 of Section 20, Township 7 North, Range 2 West, Second Judicial District, Hinds County, Mississippi. Stella V. Trotter is the common source of title for this land. In 1911, Stella V. Trotter and her husband, R.W. Trotter, conveyed by warranty deed the E 1/2 of the SW 1/4 and five acres off the east side of the W 1/2 of the SW 1/4 to W.S. Hendricks. Hendricks later conveyed this land to Emma Hardy in 1921. In 1927, Hardy conveyed this same and other land by warranty deed to A.L. Burgess. 2

¶ 5. The current dispute stems from the ownership of parcel two — the frontage property abutting the former Bolton-Brownsville Road. Our attached exhibit shows the location of both the former Bolton-Brownsville Road and the current Bolton-Brownsville Road. Both parties stipulated in a pretrial order that the Bolton-Brownsville Road was moved to its new location sometime prior to 1923. 3

*1112 ¶ 6. In 1941, Stella V. Trotter and R.W. Trotter conveyed by warranty deed to A.L. Burgess the following property:

A narrow strip of land approximately 140 yards long, lying between the old and new Bolton and Brownsville Highway, and adjoining the land now owned by said A.L. Burgess, and being in the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 20, Township 7 in Range 2 West, containing one acre more or less.

¶ 7. In 1997, Francis Burgess, Sr. (“Burgess”), attempted to sell all of the Bur-gesses’ property in Hinds County except for his fenced homestead. After the land was surveyed, Burgess claims that he discovered for the first time that his property line was not the western border of parcel two at the old Bolton-Brownsville Road; instead, it was the western border of parcel one which lies east of the road. Trotter, however, testified in both trials that his family had always considered the Bur-gesses’ property to be east of the old Bolton-Brownsville Road.

¶ 8. Upon the parties’ claims to quiet title, the chancellor determined that Trotter owned most of the disputed property. She also found that the ambiguous language in the 1941 deed conveyed “a strip beginning at the [sjouth edge of the Burgess driveway running [e]ast over to the Burgess property” giving the Burgesses access across Trotter’s property to the new Bolton-Brownsville Road.

¶ 9. In Burgess I, this Court determined that the chancellor did not consider whether there was a mistake as to the ownership of parcel two. Further, the chancellor did not specifically locate the 140-yard strip described in the 1941 deed. Therefore, this Court reversed and remanded the case for the chancellor to reconsider and determine: (1) the ownership of parcel two and (2) the definite location of the 140-yard strip mentioned in the 1941 deed. 4

¶ 10. In the interest of clarity, before we delve further into the complicated facts of this appeal, we will now list the three relevant deeds and the corresponding land conveyed by each deed:

1911 deed: Conveyed the E 1/2 of the SW 1/4 and five acres off the east side of the W 1/2 of the SW 1/4 (this area includes parcel one on our exhibit, but it does not include parcel two). The legal description of the land conveyed in this deed is clear and unambiguous.
1927 deed: Conveyed to A.L. Burgess the exact property described in the 1911 deed.
1941 deed: Conveyed to A.L. Burgess a 140-yard strip of land, the location of which is at issue here because the legal description of the land conveyed is ambiguous. On remand, the chancellor determined this land was located along the Burgesses’ driveway. The Burgesses claim that it should be located at parcel three on our exhibit.

f 11. Attorney K.F. Boackle testified as a real estate expert on behalf of the Bur-gesses. Boackle opined that “the 1911 deed was intended to bring the then present Burgess land, which was [east of the old highway], over to the old Bolton-Brownsville Highway.” Boackle stated that the survey, which was conducted in 1997, revealed that the 1911 deed did not bring the Burgesses’ land over to the old highway; thus, he stated that Trotter had record title. However, Boackle opined that the Burgesses had equitable title *1113 based on an interpretation of the deeds. Boackle based his opinion on an old pin found by a surveyor that marked the southwest corner along the old road bed. He stated that the parties to the deed and them subsequent grantees were mistaken as to where the property line was actually located because they did not use professional surveyors. Thus, he believed that the 1927 conveyance was intended to extend the Burgesses’ property over to the old road.

¶ 12. Next, Boackle addressed the 1941 deed. He opined that the purpose of the 1941 deed was to extend the Burgesses’ property from the old road over to the eastern side of the new Bolton-Brownsville Road. Boackle’s interpretation of the 1941 deed gave the Burgesses 1.33 acres of land that would front the new Bolton-Brownsville Road (parcel three). He said that the eastern and western boundaries of this “strip” would be the old and new road. He determined that the northern boundary would be the half-section line and the southern boundary would be one of the fences that the surveyor testified was destroyed sometime after 1997. Boackle said that when he viewed the property he found wire in the trees where the fence was located on the survey. Boackle said that he rejected the 140-yard measurement in the deed in favor of the one acre because Mississippi law emphasizes quantity over distance. Boackle’s description, however, was 1.33 acres instead of one acre.

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6 So. 3d 1109, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 740, 2008 WL 5146502, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-burgess-ex-rel-burgess-v-trotter-missctapp-2008.