79 Miss. 698 | Miss. | 1901
delivered the opinion of the court.
The original bill in this ease sought to have set off to complainants a one-seventh part of Rustic Lawn plantation, in Jefferson county, to which they claimed a legal title. The original bill was filed July 2, 1897, and it was amended September 28, 1897, by introducing additional matter and' other parties to the suit, and it was finally dismissed; but before its dismissal, and on the day thereof, further leave to amend the bill, by making new parties, was requested of the court, and by it denied. Neither by the original bill nor by it as amended were all necessary parties brought before the court as to the relief finally claimed, but at the time of the dismissal of the case the names of all the parties necessary to adjudicate the entire title 'to the property, in any view of the facts, were named in the bill, and might have been readily brought before the court by the amendment proposed. From the record it appears that the Rustic Lawn plantation was, in 1844, the property of John W. Dunbar, who in that year made his last will and testament, by which he devised said plantation to his brother, William H. Dunbar, for his life, and after his death to his children. But because said will was attested by two witnesses only, it was inoperative to pass real estate, whereupon the brothers and sisters of William II. Dunbar, except Mrs. Martha D. Claiborne, to whom said land descended, out of respect to the wishes
It only remains to consider what interest, if any, the grantees of Mrs. Martha Claiborne have in Kustic Lawn plantation. Vvilliam II. Dunbar died in 1887, and had, in 1860, conveyed this .plantation, by way of mortgage, to secure L. D. Aldrich hi the payment of a large sum of money, which mortgage was foreclosed in 1868, when Mr. Aldrich became the purchaser thereof; and during the life of William EE. Dunbar, and until the title to the property passed from him by sale under said mortgage, he claimed to be the sole owner thereof, as against Mrs. Claiborne, as well as all others, and since the purchase thereof by L. D. Aldrich, and a deed thereof to him of date June 1, 1870, he and his devisees had been, before suit brought, for more than ten years in the 'adverse possession and enjoyment of said plantation, claiming the fee against all the world; and we think the title of Mrs. Claiborne, acquired by her as an heir of John W. Dunbar, is long since barred by the statute of limitation of ten years.
Affirmed.