24 Haw. 361 | Haw. | 1918
OPINION OF THE COURT BY
This is an action to qniet title under the statute. The plaintiff claims in his complaint title to all of a certain described tract of land which descended from Piko, the original awardee, who died intestate in 1853, leaving no children surviving him, the land going one-half to his wife who survived him and the other half to four nepheAvs and nieces, of whom the plaintiff is one. The widow died soon after the death of Piko leaving surviving her a daughter, Pakina, from whom the defendant has succeeded to the
The defendant contends that the decision is erroneous for the reason that the plaintiff being a cotenant in common and admitting the cotenancy of defendant, the occupancy of plaintiff and defendant being a joint occupancy
That one tenant in common may acquire the title of a cotenant by adverse possession is well recognized (Nahinai v. Lai, 3 Haw. 317; Kauhikoa, v. Hobron, 5 Haw. 491; Aiona v. Ponahawai Coffee Co., 20 Haw. 724) where the one ousts the other and claims the title which the other did hold, all of the necessary elements of adverse possession being present. Here the plaintiff occupied and claimed about one-half of the land under claim of ownership of a one-half interest for a period of nearly fifty years, the defendant occupying and claiming the other half until 1913, when the defendant obtained a deed from Kaimiola who it is not found ever prior to that time claimed any interest in the land. We are bound by the facts found by the trial court and cannot presume the existence of any fact not shown in the findings as the evidence is not before us, for which reason that part of the exception to the decision that it is contrary to the evidence cannot be considered. We think that the decision and judgment are correct and that the plaintiff has succeeded by long continuous' adverse possession and user to the interest which otherwise would have passed to Kaimiola and from him, by virtue of his deed made in 1913, to the defendant. All of the elements of adverse possession, according to the findings of fact made by the trial court, were present. The plaintiff, who held the legal title to less than onedialf of the land in controversy and which was owned in cotenancy, actually occupied for more than forty years about one-half of the land claiming a one-lialf interest therein (the other half being occupied by a co-tenant, admitted to be the owner thereof,) by such adverse possession and user acquired title to a small interest in the land the title to which otherwise would have been in
The exceptions are overruled.