Lewis v. Webb

165 S.W.2d 892, 204 Ark. 950, 1942 Ark. LEXIS 267
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 23, 1942
Docket4-6862
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 165 S.W.2d 892 (Lewis v. Webb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lewis v. Webb, 165 S.W.2d 892, 204 Ark. 950, 1942 Ark. LEXIS 267 (Ark. 1942).

Opinion

Humphreys, J.

On April 29, 1941, appellant herein, plaintiff below, brought suit against J. W. Webb, appellee herein, defendant below, in the chancery court .of Phillips county, Arkansas, alleging that she was the owner and in possession of: “The 2/3 of the south half of the northwest quarter of section seventeen, in township one south, range two east of the fifth principal meridian, also described as 53 1/3 acres off the west end of the south half of the northwest quarter of section seventeen, township one south, range two east of the fifth principal meridian, Phillips county, Arkansas.”

It was alleged in her complaint that on the 7th day of December, 1938, J. W. Webb obtained a deed from Wallace Harper and wife conveying said real estate to him, and that after procuring said deed he, J. W. Webb, attempted by threats of violence to oust her tenant from said premises and has stopped him by such threats from pursuing his farm work.

She further alleged in her complaint that, at the time of the conveyance by Wallace Harper and his wife, the Harpers had no title to or rights in said premises, and that the deed casts a cloud upon her title; and being without remedy at law she prayed that said deed be canceled, set aside and held for naught, and that J. W. Webb be restrained from interfering with her possession of said premises.

On the second day of May, 1941, Hon. E. M. Pipkin, judge of the Phillips circuit court, in the absence of the chancellor and after a hearing before him, issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting J. W. Webb from going upon said property and taking possession thereof.

On May 3, 1941, J. W. Webb filed an answer to the complaint and a motion to dissolve the temporary restraining order. In his answer, he denied that Elvira W. Lewis has any title or interest in said real estate or any right to the possession thereof; that on the contrary his grantor, Wallace Harper, obtained a tax deed to said land from the state of Arkansas on the 14th day of April, 1932, and that his grantor had been and was at the time of the execution of the deed to him in the actual, open, notorious, adverse and exclusive possession of said property for more than eight years; that the said property was forfeited to the Greenbrier Drainage District of Phillips county, Arkansas, for the nonpayment of the assessments due it, and that said property was bought in by said drainage district at a sale for the purpose of foreclosing the lien of the district for the payment of taxes, and that after said district acquired title thereto he entered into a contract with said district for the purchase of said lands for the sum of $300 and paid $100 as part of the purchase price therefor, and that he is now operating said property under a contract or agreement with said district for the purchase of said land; that thereafter he arranged for the cultivation of said land during the year 1941, but that appellant, through her husband, has interfered with, threatened and tried to intimidate appellee in the operation of said property and the cultivation of said land; that on the second day of May, 1941, the Hon. E. M. Pipkin, judge of the Phillips circuit court, at a hearing before him, issued a temporary restraining order enjoining appellee from going upon said property and taking possession thereof, and that the effect of such a restraining order will be to place appellant in the possession of said land which she does not own and in which she has no interest and will prevent appellee from using or cultivating said land during the year 1941 either in person or by tenant and prayed that said temporary restraining order be dissolved and set aside, and that upon final hearing the complaint of appellant be dismissed for the want of equity.

On May 13,1941, after a hearing, the chancery court of Phillips county decided that he had jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the alleged cause of action and continued in effect until further order of the court the restraining order theretofore issued by the circuit judge in his absence, but required Elvira W. Lewis to give a bond in the sum of $200 conditioned for the payment of any damages that appellee might sustain on account of the issuance of the restraining order. Pursuant to the order appellant gave the required bond which was approved and filed on May 19, 1941.

In the course of the trial of the cause, a great mass of testimony was introduced including the proceedings in a number of lawsuits between parties in the alleged chain of title of appellant, the muniments.of title relied on by appellant and appellee and the testimony of many witnesses relating to the actual possession of the real estate in question covering a long period of time. It could serve no useful purpose to set out-all this testimony in this opinion and to do so would extend the opinion to a most unusual length. We do not regard it necessary to do so to determine the issues involved between appellant and appellee. Suffice it to say that the particular tract of land involved in this suit, consisting of 53 1/3 acres, was owned by Beulah Hill who had inherited it from her mother and a brother. The land is a part of the 160 acres which was formerly owned by Gabe Johnson. Gabe Johnson died in the year 1912 and left four children surviving him, one of whom was the mother of Beulah Hill. Later, one of these children died unmarried and without issue and his interest was inherited by the other three children. There was a partition of the land on or about 1918, which resulted in Beulah Hill acquiring 40 acres by inheritance from her mother and 13 1/3 acres as her share of her uncle’s interest, thus giving her 53 1/3 acres, being the west 53 1/3 acres of the south half of the northwest quarter of section 17, township 1 south, range 2 east, in Phillips county, Arkansas. On July 3, 1929, Beulah Hill and her father, Henry Giles, who was living with her on said tract of land, executed to appellant, Elvira W. Lewis, their note for $500 for advances which had been made Beulah Hill and Henry Giles to operate the farm, bearing interest at ten per cent, from date until paid, due and payable January 1, 1931, and executed a mortgage or deed of trust to secure same. The land was described as being situated in Phillips county, state of Arkansas, as follows: “2/3 of south half of the northwest quarter of section 17, township 1, range 2 east, containing 53.33 acres.”

This note was never paid. Appellant, through her husband, made the following marginal entry on said mortgage or deed of trust: “Jan. 1st, 36, 50 int. on this mtge. Elvira W. Lewis by J. C. Lewis.”

The attestation of this marginal entry on the record by the clerk was not dated. There also appears on the margin of the record of the mortgage the following entry: “$20 paid on within indebtedness the 1st day of Dec., 1937. Elvira W. Lewis by Joe M. Walker, Atty. This April 19, 1940. Attest: Jack McDonald, Clerk by H. H. Trumper.”

This note was never paid, but the mortgage was foreclosed at the July term, 1940, of the chancery court of Phillips county, and the sale of the land under the foreclosure proceedings was approved on October 17, 1940. Appellant was the purchaser at the sale and procured a deed from the commissioner, and this was introduced in evidence as one of her muniments of title. The deed she procured from the commissioner contained the -same description as the description in her mortgage or deed of trust.

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Related

Lewis v. Webb
189 S.W.2d 376 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1945)

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Bluebook (online)
165 S.W.2d 892, 204 Ark. 950, 1942 Ark. LEXIS 267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-webb-ark-1942.