Livingston v. Drew Lumber Co.

90 So. 466, 82 Fla. 508
Supreme Court of Florida·Decided December 20, 1921·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

West, J.

This suit was brought to have declared a for feiture of all rights and interest's of defendants in certain pine and cypress timber held by them under deeds of conveyance made by M. N'. Livingston ■ and wife to defendant Drew Lumber Company, a corporation, and by Drew Lumber Company to Wilson Cypress Company, a corporation, for cancellation of such deeds as' clouds upon complainants’ title, and for general relief. : Defendants demurred upon various grounds to the bill of complaint.' Thé demurrers upon a hearing were overruled and defendants answered. Testimony was taken and upon final hearing a decree was entered dismissing the bill but without prejudice to the complainants or any one claiming under of through them. ' ' '

[510]*510The bill of complaint was filed on February 20, 1917. From the allegations of the bill it appears that on March 28, 1904, the complainants M. N. Livingston and Margaret Livingston, his wife, conveyed the pine and cypress timber trees of certain stated dimensions then upon the land described' in the conveyance, 200 acres, to defendant Drew Lumber Company, together with right of entry and re-entry over and upon said land for the purpose of removing said timber, the stated consideration therefor being $1,000.00. This deed was recorded February 1, 1907. It contains the following provisions: “It is further understood and agreed that the Drew Lumber Company, party of the second part, shall remove the said pine trees off of said land within ten years from the date of this agreement, removing the said cypress when the said Drew Lumber Company so desires.”

This timber with other timber was on July 26, 1904, conveyed by Drew Lumber Company to defendant Wilson Cypress Company with rights-of-way, over and across the land upon which it was located necessary and convenient for the purpose of removing said timber for a period of ninety-nine years from the date thereof. On February 12, 1914, M. N. Livingston and wife conveyed a part of said land to the complainant Randall Livingston, who on April 3, 1916, conveyed the same with the cypress trees and timber thereon to complainant J. T. Henry, thereby vesting in said complainant J. T. Henry all rights, if any, in said cypress trees and timber then possessed by said complainant Randall Livingston. On the same day M. N. Livingston and wife conveyed to complainant J. T. Henry the remainder, of said land with the cypress trees and timber thereon, thereby vesting in said complainant J. T. Henry all rights, if any, in said cypress trees and timber then possessed by said complainant M. N. Livingston.

[511]*511From the final decree dismissing the bill an appeal was taken to this court. The controversy involves an interpretation of the quoted paragraph of the deed from complainants M. N. Livingston and wife to Drew Lumber Company. Several questions of procedure are presented by assignments of error, but in the oral argument counsel for appellants stated that it was desirable that the case be considered on its merits and the controlling question determined. It is not made to appear that there was error in the order overruling the demurrer to the bill or in any question of procedure.

The contention of complainants is that the legal effect of the quoted paragraph of the deed from M. N. Livingston and wife to Drew Lumber Company was to vest in the grantee the title to the cypress timber of the dimensions stated then upon the land described with the right to enter upon said land and cut -and remove said described timber within a reasonable time from the date of the conveyance; that the question of what was a reasonable time for such cutting and removal of said timber depends upon the facilities available for the transportation of such timber and the means accessible for its manufacture into such form as to make it marketable; that in view of available transportation facilities and accessibility of plants for its convenient manufacture a reasonable time for its removal had elapsed before the institution of this suit, and that therefore all rights of defendants in such timber as was conveyed by said deed then remaining upon said land had been forfeited and that the deed- of conveyance was. a cloud upon complainants’ title and should be cancelled..

On the other hand defendants, as we understand the record, contend first, that the deed from M. N. Livingston and wife to Drew Lumber Company conveyed to the [512]*512grantee the cypress trees of the dimensions stated then upon the land described, together with the right, if not perpetual for an indefinite period, to go upon such land in such manner and .by such means as might be necessary and convenient for the purpose .of cutting and removing such timber, that the deed from Drew Lumber Company to Wilson Cypress Company conveyed to the grantee the cypress timber so described with .the right for a period of ninety-nine years thereafter to enter upon said land and cut and remove such timber, that Livingston, the original grantor, was without authority to do so and it would be inequitable to permit him to terminate such indefinite period without notice to his grantee and those claiming under it with reasonable opportunity thereafter to enter upon said land and cut and remove said timber, which was not given; and second, that at the very least, under the terms of the conveyance from M. N. Livingston and wife to Drew Lumber Company defendants are entitled to a reasonable time within which to enter upon said land and cut and remove said timber therefrom, that what is a reasonable time is not to be determined by the will of said original grantor, but from a consideration of all the facts and circumstances attending the transaction, and that in view of the facts and circumstances surrounding this transáction and the parties to it, as shown by the pleadings and proof, a reasonable time had not elapsed at the time of the institution of this suit; and therefore, neither of such prerequisite conditions having been shown to exist, complainants were not entitled to a decree forfeiting defendants’ right to enter upon said land and cut and remove the timber eonveyed and cancelling the conveyances to them as clouds upon complainants’ title, but that .on the contrary, defendants’ ownership of said timber, with the right of its uninterrupted enjoyment for the [513]*513period stated, was superior to any asserted claim by complainants.

In Cummer Co. v. Yager, 75 Fla. 729, 79 South. Rep. 272, we said; “Although it is generally held that the parties to an agreement may, if they choose, make a contract whereby one will be entitled to a perpetual right to enter upon the land of the other and remove timber therefrom, it has been held in the majority of the decisions, and as we have seen, this court is in accord with this holding, that such an agreement is so unreasonable in its nature that no contract will be held to have this effect unless it is plainly manifest from its terms that such was the intention of the parties; and therefore a deed conveying timber, without stipulating the time within which it must be removed, is usually construed as implying that such removal shall be within a reasonable time, where the terms of the conveyance or the circumstances attending the transaction afford a just basis for an adjudication of such an implication or intendment.”

The conveyance of M. N.

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Livingston v. Drew Lumber Co., 90 So. 466, 82 Fla. 508 (Fla. 1921).

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