Music Service Corp. v. Walton

432 P.2d 334, 20 Utah 2d 16, 1967 Utah LEXIS 516
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 3, 1967
DocketNo. 10704
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 432 P.2d 334 (Music Service Corp. v. Walton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Music Service Corp. v. Walton, 432 P.2d 334, 20 Utah 2d 16, 1967 Utah LEXIS 516 (Utah 1967).

Opinions

CALLISTER, Justice:

The plaintiff, Music Service Corporation, brought this action initially for trespass to get the defendant, Cleo Walton, to remove his encroachment from a certain strip of real property. From a decision quieting title to the strip of land in the defendant the plaintiff prosecutes this appeal.

This dispute is over a long narrow strip of property about 12 feet wide which separates two tracts of land, tract A and tract B. The property is located at about 200 West 3900 South, Salt Lake County, Utah. The plaintiff is the present owner of tract B, located to the east of the disputed strip, while the defendant is the owner of tract A, located just to the west of the strip of land in question. In May of 1959 the defendant Cleo Walton purchased tract A. In 1960 the plaintiff’s predecessor, P. L. Henderson, purchased tract B, which was located to the east of Walton’s property but separated from it by the long 12-foot-wide strip. The property separating the above two tracts was marked by a hog-wire fence on the east side and, 12 feet west of that, by another hog-wire fence.

Sometime in 1960 Walton met with Henderson to decide who had rights to the strip which separated their properties. Both were aware at the time that the descriptions in their deeds did not include the 12-foot-wide strip and that their tracts were not contiguous. In order to have a common [19]*19boundary line between tract A and tract B, Walton and Henderson agreed to tear down both hog-wire fences and to construct a chain link fence marking a common boundary line between both tracts. Henderson proceeded to build the chain link fence approximately on the same line of the hog-wire fence which marked the east boundary of the disputed strip. Shortly after the fence was built Walton proceeded to move car bodies right up to the chain link fence and has continued to occupy the premises.

On June 10, 1965, the plaintiff, Music Service Corporation, claimed ownership of the strip and demanded that the defendant Walton cease and desist from occupying the 12-foot strip. Walton refused and the plaintiff brought suit for trespass to get rid of the encroachment.

At trial the plaintiff, in an effort to prove ownership, introduced into evidence a Uniform Real Estate Contract from White Investment Company describing about 11 acres of land which allegedly included the strip of land in dispute. The purchase from White took place on July 15, 1959. The 11 acres of property was located primarily south of tract A and tract B, but it extended northward separating the two tracts. The strip separating the Walton and Henderson tracts provided the only access to the balance of the 11 acres. The plaintiff contended that at the time it made the purchase the strip was still bounded by the two hog-wire fences. The Uniform Real Estate Contract had an obligation against it in favor of C. W. Wilkins. This obligation was due to the fact that White, who had purchased the property from Wilkins in 1957, had not completely paid off the purchase price. The plaintiff, in order to clear up that defect, introduced the warranty deed from C. W. Wilkins to White. This deed was recorded on March 12, 1965. The record also indicates that after the plaintiff purchased the 11 acres from White it also purchased tract A from P. L. Henderson.

Walton denied that he had encroached on any of plaintiff’s property and claimed superior right to the property up to the chain link fence on the basis that he had gained title by adverse possession, by agreement, and by acquiescence. Walton further asserted that the Wilkins deed to White was a wild deed.

The trial court found that, although the Wilkins deed to White described the disputed property therein, it was nevertheless a wild deed being a deed from a person not in the chain of title, and was therefore without any force or effect as far as conveying any interest to the disputed strip. The court further found that the Salt Lake County Recorder’s records failed to reflect any gap between the two tracts and that the land had been inaccurately surveyed prior to the plats being made. On the basis of those findings the court quieted title to the strip in defendant Walton in accord.-[20]*20anee with the 1960 agreement between P. L. Henderson and the defendant.

The plaintiff appeals primarily on two grounds. Plaintiff first contends that the trial court erred in not finding that it had title to the property in dispute. Connected with this charge, plaintiff contends that there was insufficient evidence in the record upon which the court could find that at the time Wilkins gave the deed to White, Wilkins did not own the property described and gave nothing more than a “wild deed.” Plaintiff’s next contention is that the trial court erred as a matter of law in finding that Walton’s title was superior to the plaintiff Music Service Corporation’s based on the 1960 boundary line agreement by Walton and Henderson.

In the present case both the plaintiff and the defendant claim title to the disputed strip from different sources, and not from any common grantor. Since each claims to be the owner, the burden is usually on each to make good by evidence of title. Since this case is in essence a quiet title action, each party should assume the burden of establishing by competent evidence its title to the land respectively claimed. Gilpin Investment Co. v. Perigo Mines Co. (Colo.), 421 P.2d 477 (1966); Durkin v. Ward, 66 Or. 335, 133 P. 345, 346 (1913). The justification for requiring each to prove his own title is that “an adjudication of title should be based upon some evidence.” Pitts v. Pitts (Mo.), 388 S.W.2d 337 (1965).

We therefore proceed first to consider the title of plaintiff as shown by the record. The following language from the court in Cottrell v. Pickering, 32 Utah 62, 88 P. 696 (1907), indicates what a party must do in these disputes to prove title:

* * * Of course, where one proves a perfect chain of paper title from its original source, no proof of actual possession at all is required. In such event the presumption would be all sufficient and the title would be a complete and perfect title. But, when this is not done, a title prima facie is shown by a grant from some one who held possession, or by such grant and possession under it by the grantee. As against a mere technical objection by anyone who, at the time the objection is made, appears to be a mere stranger to the title, such a prima facie title would seem quite sufficient. To require more against such an objector would require every one to prove a perfect chain of title as against every stranger making any kind of claim. This the law does not require. If the objector has a better or stronger title than the prima facie title proved, then he must show it, and until he does the prima facie title prevails.

In a similar vein the court in Babcock v. Dangerfield et al., 98 Utah 10, 94 P.2d 862 (1939), indicated that while it was true that in an action to quiet title the plaintiff must survive by the strength of his own [21]*21title rather than the weakness of defendant’s nevertheless all the plaintiff need do was to prove prima facie that he had title which, if not overcome by defendant, would he sufficient.

The record indicates that the plaintiff in this case failed to introduce into evidence its abstract of title.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Dunlap v. Stichting Mayflower Mountain Fonds
2003 UT App 283 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2003)
Amoco Production Company v. United States
852 F.2d 1574 (Tenth Circuit, 1988)
Amoco Production Co. v. United States
852 F.2d 1574 (Tenth Circuit, 1988)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
432 P.2d 334, 20 Utah 2d 16, 1967 Utah LEXIS 516, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/music-service-corp-v-walton-utah-1967.