222 Mass. 398 | Mass. | 1916
The petitioners, to establish their right to registration, relied on title by prescription as well as by grant. The proof of title by grant required an examination of ancient records, surveys and plans covering more than two centuries; and in the first request the respondent asked the judge
The record states that it appeared in evidence and the judge found as a fact, that on June 8, 1852, by a duly recorded deed the land in question was conveyed by one Gibbs to Josiah Folger, under whom through mesne conveyances the petitioners claimed ownership.' While it is further found that Gibbs did not have “full record title at the date of the conveyance,” the evidence plainly shows, that one Burgess, a predecessor of the petitioners who obtained title in 1867, went upon the land in that year and also in 1868, cut the timber from both sides and all the timber from the narrow portion of “Oliver’s Neck,” the designation by which the tract in dispute has been known from colonial times. The cutting took place in the presence of one Miller and one Tis
It thus appears that for more than twenty years before the date of the filing of the petition, the petitioners and their predecessors under the claim of a full record title have occupied and improved the land without interruption by the respondent or those under whom he claims. The occupation having been open, peaceable and adverse, the respondent’s second and third requests that “The petitioners, upon all the evidence, have failed to establish that they have acquired the title to the property set forth in the petition by prescription,” and that “Upon all the evidence in this case the petition should be dismissed with costs,” were rightly denied. It follows that the finding that a title proper for registration had been made out was warranted. Wales v. Coffin, 100 Mass. 177. Bigelow Carpet Co. v. Wiggin, 209 Mass. 542, 548, 549, and cases cited.
Exceptions overruled.
The case was submitted on briefs.
Dams, J. The petition, which was filed in the Land Court on January 26, 1911, was for the registration of the title to about forty acres of land, lying partly in each of the towns of Plymouth and Wareham, extending into White Island Pond in those towns and called Oliver’s Neck.