134 Ark. 548 | Ark. | 1918
Appellant R. H. Moorebead brought suit to quiet bis title to tbe west half of tbe northwest quarter and the east half of tbe northwest quarter of tbe southwest quarter of section 36, township 6 south, range 10 west, in Jefferson County, Arkansas. He claimed title as son and heir-at-law of Robin Crawley, deceased, and by adverse possession for more than seven years. The parties made defendants to this suit denied that appellant was tbe son of Crawley, and this was tbe principal question of fact in tbe case. Tbe court found that appellant was not tbe son of Crawley and dismissed tbe complaint for want of equity except as to a portion of the land of which appellant bad bad actual possession for a sufficient length of time to acquire title in that manner.
Crawley entered tbe land as a homestead in 1870 and obtained a patent from tbe United States on November 20, 1875. It is undisputed that Crawley’s wife was appellant’s mother, and appellant moved on tbe land with Crawley and bis mother when tbe land was first entered and be bas lived there since. Crawley died about 1897 and bis wife a year later. Tbe parties all came from North Carolina together as slaves in 1850.
Appellant testified as follows: That bis mother belonged tó a Moorebead and that be took that name on that account. His father’s owner was named Standfield, but Ms father’s name was changed to Crawley when his yonng mistress to whom he belonged married a man of that name. That his father and mother had two children, the other child dying in infancy. That his father and mother were married after the manner of slaves in North Carolina before he was born, and that he was born in 1848. His father and mother were again married after they came to Pine Bluff.
The point is made by appellant, and appears to be well taken, that in any event he would have title to an undivided half interest in the land. The estate was a new acquisition, and Crawley died without issue if Moore-head was not a child, and Moorehead’s mother would have taken a half interest as dower, and Moorehead would have inherited this interest from his mother. But as the son of both Crawley and his wife he inherited all the land, and not an undivided half interest only.
This disposes of all the land except the east half of the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter, as to which tract of land a clerk’s tax deed was issued on June 21,1895, to Ferd Havis and C. Weil, based upon a sale of that land for the taxes for tbe year 1892. Tbe validity of this tax sale is not called in question, and the execution of this deed operated, therefore, to pass the title to the land there described. Havis conveyed his interest in the land to Weil, who died testate leaving the persons referred to in the record as the Weil heirs as his devisees, and the action of the court in quieting their title to the twenty acres last described is affirmed. An attempt was made to show that Moorehead had by adverse possession reacquired this title, after losing it by the sale for taxes, but the court found that the land was “wild and unoccupied, ’ ’ and we think' the testimony supports that finding. As to the other two tracts the decree will be reversed and the cause remanded with directions to the court below to ascertain the amount of taxes paid.