Stanaland v. Horne

142 S.E. 142, 165 Ga. 685, 1928 Ga. LEXIS 48
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 17, 1928
DocketNo. 6094
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 142 S.E. 142 (Stanaland v. Horne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stanaland v. Horne, 142 S.E. 142, 165 Ga. 685, 1928 Ga. LEXIS 48 (Ga. 1928).

Opinions

Beck, P. J.

M. J. Stanaland brought complaint for land against J. W. Horne. Horne vouched his grantor, E. M. Shore, into court, and both defendants pleaded prescription by seven years of peaceable and adverse possession under color of title. The plaintiff’s petition was hied on May 19, 1923. The defendants claimed under a sheriff’s deed to Shore, dated November 2, 1915, and a deed from Shore to Horne, dated November 29, 1915, with continuous adverse possession from November 2, 1915, to May 19, 1923. The land in question was the north half of lot No. 47 in the 23d district of Thomas County, Georgia. It was so described in the petition and in the sheriff’s deed to Shore. Both defendants further pleaded that it was their intention so to describe it in the deed from Shore to Horne, but that through a mistake of the scrivener, as well as of both grantor and grantee, the land was therein described as the north half of lot No. 27, instead of 47, the latter being the number then and there intended by all parties connected with the transaction. Both defendants prayed that the deed from Shore to Horne be so reformed as to correct the said mistake. Plaintiff’s objections to Shore being made a party were overruled, and plaintiff excepted pendente lite. Upon the trial a verdict in favor of the defendants was directed by the court, reforming the deed from Shore to Horne as prayed and finding the title to the land to be in Horne. A decree was en[687]*687tered accordingly. The plaintiff moved for a new trial. Later Miss Martha Stanaland presented to the court an amendment, or ex parte petition, averring the death of the plaintiff, M. J. Stanaland, and her appointment as administratrix of his estate, and praying to be made party plaintiff. Her petition was allowed and filed, but, so far as the record shows, no notice was given to the opposite party, nor was any order to show cause issued. The motion for a new trial was overruled, and the plaintiff excepted.

A motion was made to dismiss the writ of error, upon the ground that the defendants had no notice of the order making Martha Stanaland a party in the place of M. J. Stanaland. This motion must be overruled. While it does not appear that notice was given to the opposite party of the application of Miss Martha Stanaland to be made a party in the place of the original plaintiff, of whose estate she liad been appointed administratrix, nevertheless it will be presumed that the court had before it evidence of her having been duly appointed administratrix, and of notice to the opposite party of her application to be made a party. Section 5598 of the Civil Code declares, that, “When a plaintiff in any cause now or hereafter pending shall die, the executor or administrator of such plaintiff may be made party on motion, to be made in writing, of: which the defendants or their counsel shall have notice.” Tf as a matter of -fact there was no compliance with this section, the defendants should have moved at once, upon learning that the administrator had been made a party, to vacate the order, and should not have waited until the case was in this court, when if his motion to dismiss should be sustained plaintiff in the court below would be absolutely remediless.

The defendants relied in part upon prescriptive title growing out of seven years adverse possession under color of title, and, after answering the parts of the petition setting up the facts upon which plaintiff relied for a recovery, answered further, alleging that the defendant Horne had purchased the land in question from Shore, who executed to Horne a deed to the land, but by mistake of the scrivener the description of the premises was erroneous; and praying that Shore be made a party defendant, and that the deed be reformed and the description corrected. The plaintiff demurred to so much of'the answer as sought to make Shore a party. The demurrer was overruled, and an order making Shore a party was [688]*688granted. To this order the ¡ffaiutiff excepted. The objection to that part of the answer should have been sustained. The defendant is relying upon the deed conveying the land in question, as color of title. Shore had previously bought the land at sheriff’s sale, and no attempt is made to show title in Shore’s predecessor in title; and one who relies upon a writing as color of title can not have it so reformed, as against a third party, as to make it effective as color of title from its original date. A writing relied upon as color of title must describe the land claimed by the grantee in such a writing, in order to make the latter’s possession for the prescriptive period under such writing good as against a third party. For a deed to be color of title, it must purport to convey the land in question. As color of title is some writing which defines the extent and character of the claim to land, with parties from whom it may come and to whom it may be made, the grantee in a deed can acquire by prescription no greater or different estate than that defined in his deed. It is possession of the land, actually and sufficiently described in the writing, for the period of seven years which gives the prescriptive title. Possession under a writing which insufficiently describes the land, or which describes a totally different tract of land, can not ripen into a prescriptive title within seven years. And prescriptive title arising from possessio pedis is not involved in this case. Defendants do not claim to have been in possession of the land for a period of twenty years.

But while Horne could not have had his vendor, Shore, made a party for the purpose of having Shore’s deed to him corrected, so that it would set forth a correct description of the land conveyed by that deed, a new trial will not be granted and a verdict in favor of the defendant set aside for this error alone. It is not material to the defense that the deed from Shore, the purchaser at the sheriff’s sale, to Horne, his vendee, should be corrected or changed; for even if that correction had not been made, Horne could have relied upon the written title of his vendor, the sheriff’s deed; and if the evidence established that he and his predecessor in title had been in open, notorious, and adverse possession of the land under a claim of right for the statutory period, a prescriptive title would have ripened. That is, where one purchases land from another who is in possession under written evidence of title, and pays the purchase-money and goes into possession thereof, claim[689]*689ing title to the land by virtue of such purchase, his possession can be tacked to that of his vendor, and he can rely upon his vendor’s written evidence of title as color of title. And in the present case the defendant claimed to in adverse possession of the land under and by virtue of the sheriff’s deed made to his predecessor in title.

Plaintiff by his petition sets forth the following derivation of title: Warranty deed from W. L. and Mrs. W. S. Bibb, executed October 3, 1885, to T. P. Applewhite, conveying the land in controversy, under which deed Applewhite went into possession of the land on the date stated until December 2, 1904, during which time Applewhite “possessed the land in good faith under the deed, peaceable, publicly, continuously and exclusively.” On December 2, 1904, Applewhite executed his deed conveying the land to Simon P. Ivey, which deed was recorded, and Ivey executed his warranty deed conveying the land to Georgia Land & Timber Co., a corporation. In January, 1911, the Georgia Land & Timber Company by deed conveyed the land to A. J. Stanaland and C. Ii.

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

Related

Archuleta v. Pina
519 P.2d 1175 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1974)
Miller v. Rackley
34 S.E.2d 438 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1945)
Edwards v. Sosebee
4 S.E.2d 473 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1939)
Stanaland v. Horne
158 S.E. 595 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 S.E. 142, 165 Ga. 685, 1928 Ga. LEXIS 48, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stanaland-v-horne-ga-1928.