Nickerson v. Nickerson

126 N.E. 834, 235 Mass. 348, 1920 Mass. LEXIS 769
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedMarch 30, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 126 N.E. 834 (Nickerson v. Nickerson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nickerson v. Nickerson, 126 N.E. 834, 235 Mass. 348, 1920 Mass. LEXIS 769 (Mass. 1920).

Opinion

Carroll, J.

This is a petition to register a tract of land at Pleasant Bay and Fourside Harbor in the town of Chatham, the land in question being a portion of the Nickerson farm purchased by Jesse Nickerson, the petitioner’s "grandfather, in 1826. Jesse Nickerson died intestate in 1847, leaving a widow and six children, — three daughters and three sons. The daughters were married, their husbands were living, and children had been born to them. Partition was made in the Probate Court among the six children, of all the real estate of which Jesse died seised, except the reversion of the northeasterly portion of the farm, which had been set off as dower to his widow.

One of the sons, Jesse Nickerson, Jr., father of the petitioner, in 1851 purchased the share which had been assigned to his sister Mehitable, the deed being executed by her husband, Isaiah C. Bassett, his wife joining merely to release dower, the land being •described by metes and bounds. In 1863, Jesse, Jr., received a ■deed of the lot assigned to his sister Eunice, this deed being executed by her husband Nathaniel K. Kenney as grantor, she releasing dower and the land being described by metes and bounds. •Jesse Nickerson, Jr., in 1851, purchased the land assigned to his ■sister Tamson and that assigned to the representatives of his brother Sabina. In 1864 he purchased the lot assigned to his "brother David. The widow of Jesse Nickerson, Sr., died in 1862. In 1865 Jesse Nickerson, Jr., purchased from the heirs all of the land set off in dower to their mother and received from them a ■deed with full covenants of warranty, the sisters signing the deed of conveyance as grantors, but none of the husbands signing as .grantors or otherwise.

[351]*351From the time of these conveyances until his death in 1900, Jesse Nickerson, Jr., lived on the farm in full and exclusive occupation, cultivating it as tillage, mowing and pasture land, fencing it, paying taxes, mortgaging and selling parts of it and conducting salt works oh the shore. He died intestate, as did his widow who died in 1904, leaving as their only heir the petitioner, who has continued in full and exclusive occupation of the locus; and neither the possession nor title of the petitioner or of his father has been questioned by any one until the examination of the title in these proceedings preparatory to the conveyance of the estate for an aviation station revealed the exact nature of the deeds and the questions of law raised, in connection with them.

The heirs of Tamson assented to a decree for the petitioner. The heirs of Eunice and Mehitable are the respondents. They say that the deeds of the reversion of the dower land and the deeds of the lots assigned to Eunice and Mehitable were, so far as their interests are concerned, invalid, and that no title can be acquired against them, either by estoppel or adverse possession.

1. As to the land set off to the widow of Jesse Nickerson, Sr.r the reversion in this land belonged to the six children as tenants-in common; and while their respective shares could be disposed of and the title transferred by a deed in proper form, it was the settled law of this Commonwealth at the time the conveyances-were made that the separate real estate of a married woman could not be conveyed by her deed. At common law, the husband during coverture had full title to the rents and profits of the wife’s real estate. Clapp v. Stoughton, 10 Pick. 463, 469. He had a freehold estate which he might convey. Austin v. Charlestown Female Seminary, 8 Met. 196, 204. With exceptions, not here material, prior to St. 1874, c. 184, Gen. Sts. c. 108, (see now R. L. c. 153,) the conveyance of land by deed of a married woman during her coverture transferred no title. The instrument was void and of no effect in law and equity. Wing v. Deans, 214 Mass. 546. In 1865, when the warranty deed purporting to transfer the reversion in the dower estate was signed by Mehitable and Eunice, both were married; and as their husbands did not join with them in the conveyance, the deed, so far as they were concerned, was wholly invalid and transferred none of their interest in the reversion.

[352]*352The petitioner contends, however, that his father, from 1865 until his death in 1900, was in exclusive and adverse occupation under a claim of right of all the locus, including the dower land, and that from the time of his father’s death the petitioner himself has been in adverse possession of the.estate. To this the respondents reply that as Jesse Nickerson, Jr., was a tenant in common with the other owners when he entered on the land in 1865, his possession was not adverse to them, but was in support of the common title and there was no adverse possession by him while he occupied the premises.

It is true as a general rule that the possession of one tenant in common, even if exclusive, it being consistent with the right of his co-tenant, is not a disseisin, and an ouster or some equivalent act is necessary to accomplish this, and the sole possession of land by a tenant in common with the receipt of the profits will not alone be sufficient evidence of an ouster. But after the sole possession and appropriation of profits have been continued with the knowledge of the co-tenants for a long series of years, a presumption does begin to arise against them. Ingalls v. Newhall, 139 Mass. 268, 271. It was said by Bigelow, C. J., in Lefavour v. Homan, 3 Allen, 354, 355, "It may however be safely said that a sole and uninterrupted possession and pernancy of the profits by one tenant in common, with the knowledge of the other, continued for a long series of years without any possession or claim of right and without any perception of profits or demand for them by the co-tenant, if unexplained or controlled by any evidence tending to show a reason for such neglect or omission to assert a right, will furnish evidence from which a jury may and ought to infer a natural ouster and adverse possession.” A conveyance of the premises, in connection with the other acts, may be evidence of a disseisin. See Ingalls v. Newhall, 139 Mass. 268, 273. As expressed by Shaw, C. J., in Rickard v. Rickard, 13 Pick. 251, 253, in speaking of an ouster by one tenant in common, “It is also now well settled, that a long exclusive and uninterrupted possession by one, without any possession, or claim for profits by the other, is evidence from which a jury may and ought to infer an actual ouster.” Joyce v. Dyer, 189 Mass. 64.

Applying these principles and considering all the facts shown, the ruling of the judge of the Land Court that title to the dower [353]*353lands could be acquired against the heirs of Mehitable by adverse possession was right; and his finding that it had been so acquired by the petitioner was fully warranted. Jesse Nickerson, Jr., lived on the farm for twenty-five years, and after his death the petitioner continued to occupy the premises. It was not until eighteen years later that their title was questioned. During the lifetime of Mehitable she lived in Chatham, but four miles distant from the locus, and no claim was made on the petitioner or on his father. It must have been known that the exclusive occupation of the land was claimed by the petitioner and his father, and that they dealt with it as their own, using the dower land, as well as the land assigned in severalty, as their farm.

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Bluebook (online)
126 N.E. 834, 235 Mass. 348, 1920 Mass. LEXIS 769, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nickerson-v-nickerson-mass-1920.