Wilder v. Currie

95 So. 2d 563, 231 Miss. 461, 1957 Miss. LEXIS 531
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJune 3, 1957
DocketNo. 40493
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 95 So. 2d 563 (Wilder v. Currie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wilder v. Currie, 95 So. 2d 563, 231 Miss. 461, 1957 Miss. LEXIS 531 (Mich. 1957).

Opinion

Roberds, P. J.

This is a legal contest over the ownership of a one-half undivided interest in a small tract of land, consisting of about twenty acres, described in the bill, and located in the western part of the City of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Eugene Wilder and Mrs. Katherine Wilder Rawls claim to be the owners of such one-half interest in the proportions, respectively, of 8/18ths and l/18th of the whole. They filed the bill herein asserting such ownership in themselves and admitting that the other half interest was owned in equal proportions by defendants, but charging that defendants were also wrongfully claiming to be the sole owners of the entire parcel. The bill prayed for adjudication of the title in the parties as set out in the bill and for sale of the land, division of the proceeds and for general relief.

Appellees, by answer, denied appellants owned any interest in the land, and, by cross bill, asserted that appellees owned the entire interest. They prayed for cancellation of all claims of appellants and for confirmation of their title to the entire tract.

The chancellor decreed title to be in appellees and confirmed their title, from which decree complainants appealed to this Court.

Appellants are Eugene Wilder and Mrs. Katherine Wilder Rawls. Appellees are Mrs. Terry Anderson Currie, Edward Alexander Currie, Jr., Overton A. Currie and Daniel McMahon Currie, widow and children and the heirs-at-law of Alexander Currie, who departed this life intestate May 5, 1947. In this opinion we will [472]*472refer to appellants as The Wilders and to appellees as The Cnrries, unless otherwise designated.

A number of questions are raised on this appeal.

After the pleadings had been read to the chancellor, he, upon motion of The Curries, dismissed the bill, The Wilders having offered no evidence. We think that was error under the circumstances. The allegations of the bill with its exhibits, in our opinion, deraigned title to the one-half interest into The Wilders. The answer, as' we construe it, did not deny the essential, material facts asserted in the bill. It did deny the conclusions which The Wilders drew from the asserted facts. In their cross bill The Curries alleged that The Wilders had lost title by laches and that they, The Curries, had gained title by acts of adverse possession. The case was tried mainly upon the theory of acquisition of title by adverse possession. Laches and adverse possession are affirmative defenses. The Wilders denied that they had been guilty of laches and denied The Curries had acquired title by acts of adverse possession. Under the circumstances it was error to dismiss the bill at this stage of the trial. Griffith, Miss. Chancery Practice, Sections 350 and 371.

The principal issue in this cause is whether or not The Curries became vested with title to the disputed one-half interest by acts of adverse possession exercised over the property by themselves, by Aucy Mayfield and by Alexander Currie, their predecessors in title. That depends largely upon whether or not the relation of tenants in common existed between The Curries and The Wilders and their predecessors in title. In Anderson v. Boyd, Miss. , 91 So. 2d 537, this Court said: “It is well established that possession which in ordinary cases would constitute adverse possession is not sufficient where entry was made as a tenant-in-common. In order to establish ouster of cotenants by a tenant-in-common [473]*473in possession, so as to initiate and constitute adverse possession, cotenants out of possession must have knowledge of the adverse claim, either by actual knowledge or the equivalent thereof. Nichols v. Gaddis & McLaurin, Inc., Miss. 1954, 75 So. 2d 625; Hurst v. J. M. Griffin & Sons, Inc., 1950, 209 Miss. 381, 46 So. 2d 440, 47 So. 2d 811; Vanzandt v. Vanzandt, Miss. 1956, 85 So. 2d 792.” See also Howard v. Wactor, 41 So. 2d 259 (Miss.).

Did such relation come about in this case? On September 28, 1932, the land was owned by Mrs. Ruth Wilder Fox and a number of other Wilders as tenants in common. Mrs. Fox owned a one-half undivided interest and the other co-owners together had title to the other one-half undivided interest. The Curries, when this bill was filed, had record title to the one-half interest of Mrs. Fox and Eugene Wilder and Mrs. Rawls had record title to the other one-half interest. On September 28, 1932, Mrs. Ruth Wilder Fox executed to Alexander Currie what purported to he a warranty deed to the entire property. As a part of the consideration for that deed the grantee assumed and agreed to pay all hack taxes against the property. Including taxes and damages for the year 1930-1931 and all accruing taxes. Mrs. Fox, as stated, owned only a one-half undivided interest and, of course, that was all she conveyed to Mr. Currie, although the deed purported to convey the entire title. The deed only conveyed what she had. Cohea v. Hemingway, et al., 71 Miss. 22, 14 So. 734; Hurst v. Griffin & Sons, 209 Miss. 381, 46 So. 2d 440. By this purchase Alexander Currie became a tenant in common with the other co-owners. Cohea v. Hemingway, supra; Clark v. Rainey, 72 Miss. 151, 16 So. 16; Howard v. Wactor, supra; Anderson v. Boyd, supra; 86 C. J. S., p. 362; LeBlanc v. Busby, 223 Miss. 415, 78 So. 2d 456. In Anderson v. Boyd, supra, the reporter deduced this rule: 1 ‘ One who purchases or obtains by conveyance the undivided share [474]*474of a tenant in common becomes a cotenant with the remaining owner or owners.” The nature and essentials of the relation are set forth in 86 C. J. S., supra, in this language: £ £ Tenants in common hold by several and distinct titles, with unity of possession; and each tenant owns an undivided fraction, being entitled to an interest in every inch of the property.---” The tenants may claim their several titles and interests from the same or entirely different sources; the shares may be unequal and the modes of acquisition of titles may be unlike. Tenants in common are united only by their right to possession of the property. Each tenant has an undivided fraction and each is entitled to an interest in every inch of the soil, each being entitled to occupy the whole in common with the others and to receive his share of the rents and profits. The correlative duties of the parties arise not from some outside relationship, .such as guardian and ward, but from the common ownership and the common right to occupy and use the property. In joint tenancy unity of interest, title, time, and possession are essential elements. Thus is seen the distinguishing characteristics of the two tenancies. From the foregoing it is evident that when Alexander Currie was conveyed a one-half undivided interest in the property in controversy by Mrs. Fox, he became a tenant in common with the other co-tenants.

But The Curries say that although that might be true considering only the effect of the conveyance of September 28, 1932, to Alexander Currie by Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
95 So. 2d 563, 231 Miss. 461, 1957 Miss. LEXIS 531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilder-v-currie-miss-1957.