53 S.E. 226 | N.C. | 1906
Plaintiffs brought the action to recover possession of a tract of land and damages for cutting timber therefrom. They claimed to have established title under the provisions of a recent act of the General Assembly, entitled "An act to facilitate and cheapen the trial of actions involving the title to or interest in real estate," being chapter 773, Laws 1905. The chain of title of each of the parties was set out in the pleadings. The plaintiffs' is as follows: 1. Deed from Elisha A. Chamblee to John Stallings, dated 25 May, 1835. 2. Deed from John Stallings to Charles Northcott, dated 30 November, 1836. 3. Deed from Charles Northcott to John A. Anderson. 4. Deed from John A. Anderson to Luke McGlaughon, dated 12 March, 1844. 5. The will of Luke McGlaughon, dated 10 April, 1858, and proof that the plaintiff, G. H. Mitchell, married Martha McGlaughon, daughter of Luke McGlaughon, and after her death, the other daughter of Luke McGlaughon, Nancy Vann, widow of Jesse Vann, and that the other plaintiffs are the children of said daughters, the latter being dead. (398) Plaintiffs claim under the said will and by descent from their mothers, except G. H. Mitchell, who claims as tenant by the curtesy. Plaintiffs introduced in evidence the deed from John A. Anderson to Luke McGlaughon, which recites the other deeds of prior date and refers to them as deeds conveying the same tract of land, but did not introduce any of the other deeds. They then offered to prove by G. H. Mitchell that the deed from John Stallings to Charles Northcott was lost, except the lower part of it, which the witness had in his possession, *296
and further, that he had seen the deed before it was mutilated and destroyed and that it had been duly registered sometime before this action was brought and that the records of Hertford County were burned in 1862. This evidence was offered to show that said deed conveyed the land in dispute. The court excluded the evidence, and the plaintiffs excepted. There was evidence on the part of the plaintiffs tending to show that the land, which is known as the "Stallings Tract," has fixed and definite boundaries which consisted of marked trees around the tract, and that this is the same land described in the complaint. There was no evidence of adverse possession in plaintiffs, or those under whom they claimed, for seven years. The defendants introduced the deeds constituting their chain of title and evidence which, as they claimed, tended to show title in them, but it is not necessary to set it forth. Defendants moved to nonsuit the plaintiffs at the close of their testimony, which motion was refused. At the close of all the testimony, they moved again to nonsuit the plaintiffs. The motion was granted and the action dismissed. Plaintiffs excepted and appealed.
The mode of proving title to land in this State has become so thoroughly settled by the decisions of the Court that it is hardly necessary to enter again upon a discussion of the subject or to do more than refer to the most recent cases in which the different methods have been stated.Campbell v. Everhart,
We need not pass upon the question of evidence. The general subject is discussed in Avery v. Stewart,
The ruling of his Honor was clearly right and must be sustained.
No Error. *299