Strom v. Hancock Land Co.

140 P. 458, 70 Or. 101, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 224
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 7, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 140 P. 458 (Strom v. Hancock Land Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Strom v. Hancock Land Co., 140 P. 458, 70 Or. 101, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 224 (Or. 1914).

Opinion

Department 1.

Mr. Justice Ramsey

delivered the opinion of the court.

On the 22d day of March, 1912, the plaintiff commenced this suit. The complaint alleges that the plaintiff is, and for a long time prior to the date of the commencement of this suit was, the owner in fee simple and in the actual possession of lot No. 1, in block No. 1, in Delmar Shaver’s Second Addition to the City of Portland, Multnomah County, Oregon, according to the duly recorded map and plat thereof, The complaint alleges, also, that the defendant has unjustly claimed, and now unjustly claims, an estate or interest in said real property or some part thereof. [103]*103adverse to the plaintiff; that the claim of the defendant is without any right whatever; and that the defendant has no estate, right, title or interest whatever in said premises, or in part thereof. The, complaint alleges, also, title to said premises in fee under and by virtue of the statute of limitations, for the reason that neither the defendant nor any of its predecessors or grantors have been in possession of said real property within the ten years preceding the commencement of this suit, and that the plaintiff, his grantors and predecessors.in title and interest, had been in the actual, open, visible, notorious, continuous, hostile and adverse possession of the above-described property for more than ten years prior to the commencement of this suit, etc. The complaint prays for a decree declaring that the plaintiff is the owner in fee simple of said real premises, and that the defendant has no claim, right, title or interest in or to said real property, or any part thereof, and barring all claim of the defendant in or to said real property, and quieting the plaintiff’s title thereto.

The answer denies most of the allegations of the complaint, and pleads title in the defendant as to a part of the real premises described in the complaint.

The reply denied the allegations of the answer. The court below made findings and entered a decree for the plaintiff, as prayed for in the complaint. The defendant appeals, and claims that the findings and the decree of the court below are not supported by the evidence.

The parties stipulated, in the court below, that the plaintiff owns all of the premises described in the complaint lying south of the north line of the donation land claim of William Irving, and that the defendant owns all land lying north of the north line of Delmar Shaver’s Second Addition, as shown on the recorded [104]*104plat thereof, and, also, that if the north line of the William Irving donation land claim is situated south of the north line of the said Delmar Shaver’s Second Addition, then the defendant owns so much of the premises described in the complaint as is north of the north line of the William Irving donation land claim, unless the plaintiff or his predecessors or grantors have acquired title thereto, by adverse possession, in which case said premises are owned by the plaintiff.

The weight of the evidence shows that the north line of the donation land claim of William Irving is about 20 feet south of the north line of the said Second Addition of Delmar Shaver. Hence the further question to be determined is whether the plaintiff, his predecessors and grantors, had had prior to the commencement of this suit the adverse possession of the land now covered by said lot No. 1, of said block No. 1, of Delmar Shaver’s Second Addition to the City of Portland, described in the complaint, for the period of at least ten years.

The land in dispute was supposed to be a part of the donation land claim of William Irving and wife. The Delay donation land claim adjoined the Irving claim on the north, and, according to the contention of the plaintiff, the north line of the Delmar Shaver’s Second Addition coincided with the north boundary of the Irving claim and the south line of the Delay claim. As stated supra, according to recent surveys, it seems that the north line of Delmar Shaver’s Second Addition extends about 20 feet north of the north line of the Irving claim, and that about 20 feet of the north part of the property described in the complaint, and claimed by the plaintiff, is situated upon the Delay claim, and that it does not belong to the plaintiff, unless he and his grantors and predecessors [105]*105had had adverse possession thereof for at least ten continuous years prior to the commencement of this suit. The plaintiff contends that he and his predecessors in title had been in the adverse possession of said land for more than ten years, and the court below sustained his contention.

Mrs. E. Ryan was one of the witnesses for the plaintiff. She was formerly the wife of Captain William Irving, and he and she settled on the Irving claim and received title thereto as donees under the Donation Law of 1850 (Act Sept. 27, 1850, c. 76, 9 Stat. 496). The land in dispute was supposed to be on that part of said claim set apart by the government to Mrs. Irving. She remembers when the north boundary line of the Irving claim was surveyed. She resided on said claim with her husband, Captain Irving. In 1860 she and Captain Irving moved to British Columbia, and they remained there for years. Mrs. Ryan was acquainted with Joshua Delay, the owner of the Delay claim. Mrs. Ryan says that a fence was built on the line between the Irving and Delay claims about 1870 according to the government survey. She says that that fence was always recognized as the line between the claims. She testified that Irving claimed to own up to that fence. Asked whether Joshua Delay always recognized that fence as the division line between the two claims, she answered, “Yes, they never disputed it.” She says that she never heard of Delay’s questioning that that fence was on the line. (See Ev., p. 32.)

Mrs. Ryan says that she and Mr. Irving claimed to own the land up to the old fence. (Ev., pp. 31, 32.) She says that she and Irving moved to British Columbia in 1860, and that Gr. W. Shaver came over in 1860 to look after the land for her, and he looked after her land, including the land in question, and farmed [106]*106it, and. that there were some fruit trees on it. Mrs. Ryan says that during the time she resided in British Columbia she came to Portland every year. She says that the old fence referred to was a rail fence. She says, also, on cross-examination, that she remembers the part of her land that she sold to G. W. Shaver, and that the fence around her land included the land that she sold to Shaver, and also other land owned by her.

The patent to the Irvings was issued November 13, 1865.

Mrs. Elizabeth J. Irving (Ryan) conveyed to G. W. Shaver, on June 16, 1876, seven.acres and a fraction of her part of the Irving claim, and this tract is the land that was laid out as Delmar Shaver’s Second Addition by G. W. Shaver and wife in 1900, and the land in dispute is lot No. 1, in block No. 1, in said addition. When this addition was laid out, G. W. Shaver believed that all of it was on the Irving claim.

Delmar Shaver, a son of G. W. Shaver, was a witness for the plaintiff. He was born and reared on the Irving claim, and lived on it until after he was 23 years old. He lived there with his father G. W. Shaver, and is familiar with those premises. He says that the first fence that inclosed the Irving land, on which his father resided so long, was an old rail fence, and that when his father bought the seven-acre piece (in 1876) it, including what his father bought, was inclosed as one piece, and that the old rail fence was there then.

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Bluebook (online)
140 P. 458, 70 Or. 101, 1914 Ore. LEXIS 224, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strom-v-hancock-land-co-or-1914.