Stone v. Kansas City & Westport Belt Railway Co.

169 S.W. 88, 261 Mo. 61, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 241
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 14, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 169 S.W. 88 (Stone v. Kansas City & Westport Belt Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Stone v. Kansas City & Westport Belt Railway Co., 169 S.W. 88, 261 Mo. 61, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 241 (Mo. 1914).

Opinion

ROY, 0.

This is a proceeding to quiet title to real estate. There was a judgment for plaintiff from which defendant has appealed.

Title!'"3

The petition was filed September 26,1908, and contains the following: “Plaintiff for his cause of action against said defendants states that he is the owner of all of lots 101 and 104 in Campbell’s Addition to the town of West-port, now a part of Kansas City, Jackson county, Missouri, except a right of way over and across said lots, extending for a distance of ten feet on each side of the center line of the present railroad now located over [66]*66and across said property. Plaintiff further states that defendants, Kansas City and Westport Belt Railway Company and the Metropolitan Street Railway Company claim an interest in and to a part of said property adverse to that of plaintiff, the part claimed by said defendants, being a strip of ground over and across said lots, extending fifty feet on each side of the center line of said railroad.” Then follows the usual prayer for relief in such cases.

The answer contains the following: “Comes now the Kansas City & Westport Belt Railway Company, and for its separate answer to the petition of the plaintiff filed herein states that it is now, and has been for thirty years or more, the owner of the easement over and upon, and in the possession of, the property described in plaintiff’s petition, to-wit: All of lots 101 and 104, Campbell’s Addition to the town of Westport, now a part of Kansas City, Jackson county, Missouri. Wherefore defendant prays the court to enter a decree herein declaring this defendant to be the owner of the easement referred to herein over said lots, and further declare that plaintiff has no right, title or interest in or to said property, and for its costs herein expended.”

The reply was as follows:

“Now comes plaintiff and for reply to the answer filed herein by defendant Kansas City & Westport Belt Railway Company denies that said defendant is in possession of or entitled to any right of way or easement over the land described in plaintiff’s petition, except the right of way in such petition described, and denies that defendant has been in possession of any right of way over said land except the right of way described in plaintiff’s petition, for a period of thirty years or for any other period of time.

“Plaintiff for further reply to said answer says that if said defendant or any person or corporation under whom it claims ever had any right of way over and across said land, except the right of way described [67]*67in plaintiff’s petition, it or they have long since been lost and extinguished by abandonment.

“Plaintiff for further reply to said answer says that all the rights of said defendant Kansas City & Westport Belt Railway Company over and across said property was fixed and determined by a judgment of the circuit court of Jackson county, Missouri, at Kansas City, in an action wherein Sophia Perkins, John S. Perkins and Robert Perkins, under whom plaintiff claims title to the property described in plaintiff’s petition, were plaintiffs, and the Kansas City, Osceola & Southern Ry. Co., John I. Blair, DeWitt C. Blair, C. Ledyard Blair, Clarence B. Mitchell, Henry Pfeiffer and said defendant Kansas City & Westport Belt Railway Company, were defendants, in which judgment the right of said defendant to an easement or right of way over and across said property was fixed and determined and such right of way established as described in plaintiff’s petition. Wherefore plaintiff asks judgment as in his petition prayed. ’ ’

On April 23, 1868, Theodore S. and Oliver Case, having color of title to said lots 101 and 104, and being in possession thereof, executed a deed of trust on the lots to George W. Doggett as trustee to secure the payment of a debt to Stephen Perkins, with the usual provisions for sale by'trustee in case of default, but there was no provision for a sale by a substitute trustee. It was acknowledged, and recorded on April 29, 1868.

The plaintiff read in evidence an entry in the records of the circuit court of Jackson county, dated October 31, 1874, as- follows:

• “This day comes Stephen Perkins, by his attorney, and presents his petition, sworn to, stating among other things that he is the beneficiary or cestui que trust in a certain deed of trust executed on the 23d day of April, 1868, by Theodore S. Case, Julia M. Case and Oliver Case, to George W. Doggett, trustee, [68]*68conveying certain real estate and personal property therein described, and situated in the city of West-port, county of Jackson and State of Missouri, to said Doggett in trust to secure the payment of certain notes therein described of which said Perkins was then and still is the legal owner and holder. That a part of the interest and principal of said notes remains due and unpaid and that said George W. Doggett, trustee, has since died, leaving no one authorized by the terms of said deed to execute the same, and praying the court for the appointment of the sheriff of the county trustee to execute said trust.

“It is therefore ordered and adjudged that C. B. L. Boothe, sheriff of the county, be and is hereby appointed trustee in place and stead of said George W. Doggett, deceased, to execute said trust:”

There was no showing of the service of any summons or notice on any one to appear in such proceeding. The defendant objected to such evidence on the ground of irrelevancy, incompetency and immateriality, and because the court had no power to make such appointment on the showing.recited in the order. The objection was overruled.

• Plaintiff read in evidence a deed of assignment by the register in bankruptcy in the District Court of the United States for the Western 'District of Missouri, assigning the property and estate of Oliver Case & Co. and Theodore S. Case, bankrupts, to John A. Ross, assignee in 'bankruptcy.. Also a deed dated June 18, 1877, executed by John A. Ross, assignee in bankruptcy, as aforesaid, and by C. B. L. Boothe, sheriff, the substitute trustee, to Stephen Perkins, foreclosing the deed of trust dated April 23,1868, to which defendant made the formal objections, and also objected on the ground that it-was not shown that the parties had any authority to make the deed. That deed was not. recorded until June 22, 1891. It recited that it was [69]*69made in pursuance of an order of said district court and that the sale had been approved by that court.

On August 27,1873, after the execution of the foregoing deed of trust and' before its foreclosure, the Oases executed a conveyance of a right of way to the Kansas City, Memphis & Mobile Railroad Company, twenty-five feet wide on each side of the center line of its railroad through lots 102, 103, 104 and 178 in said addition. There was no lot 178 in that addition. Immediately following the execution of that deed, the grantee graded its road through lots 101 and 104 on the line where defendant’s track now runs.

After the purchase by Stephen Perkins under the foreclosure of the deed of trust on the lots, he took possession and built a fence around the lots including the grade of the railroad.

On January 28, 1887, the Kansas City & Southeastern Railroad Company became the owner by. mesne conveyances of the railroad and its right of way through lots 101 and 104, all of which were at that time enclosed by said fence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
169 S.W. 88, 261 Mo. 61, 1914 Mo. LEXIS 241, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stone-v-kansas-city-westport-belt-railway-co-mo-1914.