58 Neb. 74 | Neb. | 1899
In this case, originally, Leonidas K. Holmes was plaintiff and the Lincoln Salt Lake Company, Joseph Burns, Edward Bignell, John Lindloff, B. R. Cowdrey, and A. R. Humphrey, commissioner of public lands and buildings, were defendants. After this action was begun in the district- court of Lancaster county, Anna B. Holmes was ordered to be made a defendant, and thereafter she
• As no complaint is made in this court by Leonidas K. Holmes the averments of his petition are unimportant, except to the extent they may throw light upon the issues litigated between Anna B. Holmes and certain of her co-defendants. Leonidas K. Holmes, in his amended petition, alleged that he was the owner of the leasehold and was in possession of certain saline lands of the state of Nebraska of the area of 116 acres in a single tract; that his dwelling-house was situated on the south fifteen acres of a part of said tract which he had leased from the state of Nebraska in 1889, upon which fifteen-acre tract thereafter he had ifiaced improvements of the value of $3,000; that plaintiff was the head of a family, and that said forty-acre tract constituted a part of his homestead. It was further alleged in the petition that John Lindloff had obtained from the state of Nebraska a lease on the forty-acre tract, in which was included the fifteen acres above referred to; that the lease to plaintiff and to Lindloff were of the same date; that soon after the said date plaintiff and Lindloff agreed, to make an exchange whereby plaintiff would receive the rights of Lindloff in the fifteen-acre" tract above described, and between themselves said lessees executed writings for the agreed pur
“Comes now Anna B. Holmes, one of the above-named defendants, and, answering for herself only, denies each and every allegation in the answer herein filed of the defendants not hereinafter expressly admitted.
“2. This defendant alleges that she is the wife of the plaintiff Leonidas K. Holmes, and has been for more than seven years last past, and that she, together with said plaintiff as husband and wife, with their family, at the*78 beginning of this suit and for many years prior thereto, lived upon and occupied as a homestead the hereinafter described property, * * * containing about 100 acres.
“8. This defendant further says that the plaintiff is, and at the beginning of this suit was, the owner of the above described land and all thereof, and that the same constituted, and at all time?, for more than twenty years, has been, the homestead of said plaintiff.
“4. The defendant the Lincoln Salt Lake Company claims to have some interest in said lands by reason of a pretended conveyance by quitclaim to a portion thereof, and by reason of a pretended assignment of a land contract from one John Lindloff to a portion thereof, and such pretended conveyances cast a cloud upon the title .to said lands, to the great damage and injury to this defendant.
“Wherefore this defendant prays that title may be quieted as against the Salt Lake Company and that their said pretended conveyances may be canceled and held for naught, from the record of her said title, and that said premises may.be declared the homestead of this defendant and may be discharged of any and all claims to the Lincoln Salt Lake Company, and that she may recover her costs herein, and have such further and other and different relief as she, in equity and good conscience, is entitled to.”
By a reply of all the defendants, except Anna B. Holmes, there was a denial of each averment of her answer and cross-petition, aside from the averment that the Lincoln Salt Lake Company has some interest in the property described, which latter averment was admitted to be true. There was a trial to the court, followed by findings which negatived the averments of Burns, Bignell, and the Lincoln Salt Lake Company, whereon they sought to found rights because of instruments being of record in Lancaster county. There were also findings which sustained plaintiff’s averments as to the alleged mistake between Lindloff and plaintiff, and that the Lin-
The issues and findings above set forth, in so far as they are pertinent to our present purposes, may be summarized as follows: Mrs. Holmes founded her right of protection in the enjoyment of a homestead on the facts that she was the wife of Leonidas K. Holmes, in whom then was, and for twenty years had been, the title to the property as to which her claim was made, and she alleged that the claim made by the Lincoln Salt Lake Company casts a cloud upon the title of the property involved in this litigation, which cloud she prayed might be removed. By the answer of her adversaries they alleged their own title and denied hers, and upon this issue the court found against her, and this finding furnished sufficient support for- the judgment which was rendered, and accordingly it is
Affirmed.