290 S.W. 713 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1926
Affirming.
Appellee, Swiss Oil Corporation, instituted this action in the Lee circuit court against a number of defendants to quiet its title to a tract of land particularly described, *790 containing 240 acres. There are a number of appellants who were defendants below, and, since it appears that several of them claim their rights under title in D.P. Pendergrass, and a number of them claim their rights under title in H.G. Crabtree, for convenience the parties will be referred to hereinafter as the oil company, Pendergrass and Crabtree, it being understood that when the latter two are named all parties claiming rights under them are included. Pendergrass answered denying the oil company's right to have its title quieted as to a particular 8-acre tract included in the 240-acre tract described in the petition, asserting ownership thereof in himself, and by way of counterclaim asking that his title be quieted. Crabtree answered denying the oil company's right to have its title quieted as to a certain 12-acre tract lying within the 240-acre boundary described in the petition, asserting ownership thereof in himself, and seeking to have his title quieted. Other defendants filed answers setting up adverse claims to portions of the 240-acre tract described in the petition, but compromises were effected before the trial hereof below as to all of then. Upon the trial below, on the issues made as between the oil company and Pendergrass and Crabtree, the chancellor concluded that it had manifested its right to have its title of the surface of the 240-acre tract of land quieted; but that it had failed to manifest its right to have its title to the minerals in and under it quieted, and entered judgment accordingly. On the counterclaim of both Pendergrass and Crabtree the chancellor was of the opinion that they did not manifest their right to the relief sought, either as to the surface or minerals of their respective tracts of land, and dismissed both of the counterclaims. The appeal has been prosecuted by Pendergrass and Crabtree from that judgment, and the oil company has prosecuted a cross-appeal from that part of the judgment dismissing its petition in so far as it sought to have its title of the minerals in and under the 240-acre tract of land quieted.
We shall address ourselves first to the appeal of Pendergrass and Crabtree from the judgment dismissing their counterclaims. In the course of the consideration of the case it develops that the basic patent upon which the title of the three parties hereto is founded has been a fruitful source of litigation for many years. On January 4, 1786, the Commonwealth of Virginia, acting *791
through Patrick Henry, the then governor, granted to John Carnan a patent for 29,823 acres of land lying on Kentucky river in what was then Fayette county, Virginia. Appellants insist that they introduced into the record herein the evidence of a perfect chain of title from the Carnan patent to themselves for the respective tracts of land claimed by them; and that nothing may be found in the record to upset their title so established. Kentucky Land Immigration Company v. Crabtree, an opinion by this court rendered October 14, 1902, which may be found in
"The dule is that where one claims under color of title and is in actual possession of a part of the land within his well defined boundary, the law, by construction, carries his possession to the full extent of his boundary, except that as against actual, adverse possession this rule will not prevail, and except that as against superior title this rule will not prevail unless the entry and possession be upon the interference."
Many opinions of this court supporting the rule are referred to in the Ramsey opinion, supra. The record affords no evidence of entry or possession upon the part of Crabtree or Pendergrass, or any of their predecessors in title, west of the dividing ridge between Big and Little Sinking creeks. Their efforts to extend such possession as they and those under whom they claim have had of other portions of their well defined boundaries to include possession under their well defined boundaries of the lands west of the ridge fail because that rule never prevails against superior title unless the entry and possession be upon the interference. The chain of title under which they claim, as has been shown, recognizes the validity and superiority of the title owned by others of the land lying west of that ridge. Consequently the chancellor properly dismissed the counterclaim of both Crabtree and Pendergrass by which they sought to have it adjudged that they own the 12 and 8 acre tracts of land respectively and to have title quieted.
The 240-acre tract claimed by appellant lies wholly within the boundary of land conveyed by Thomas Duckham to Oliver Crawrord in 1839, the boundary of which has been quoted above. On October 26, 1875, Oliver Crawford conveyed a portion of the tract of land he so acquired to Jacob Crabtree, and the description given in the deed of conveyance was sufficiently ambiguous that it gave rise to several subsequent actions. See Smith v. Wallace, 100 S.W. 1186, and Ashcraft v. Cox, *797 three opinions reported respectively in 50 S.W. 986, 76 S.W. 121, and 77 S.W. 718. In an action to enforce payment of the purchase money lien reserved by Crawford in the conveyance to Crabtree that tract of land was sold and was purchased by E.R.W. Cox; and it was conveyed to him by the master commissioner of the Lee circuit court on October 17, 1885. The eastern boundary of the tract conveyed by Crawford to Crabtree called for certain cliffs rather than for the dividing ridge between Big Sinking and Little Sinking creeks, as it was described in the deed from Duckham to Crawford; and that was largely responsible for the controversies in the actions decided by the opinions, supra. However we may view the controversy presented by the parties to this appeal as to the extent to which E.R.W. Cox acquired title by his purchase at the commissioners' sale, supra, whether merely to the sandstone cliffs, east of Little Sinking creek, as Crabtree and Pendergrass contend, or whether to the dividing ridge between the two creeks, as the oil company contends, seems wholly immaterial, in view of the fact that subsequently Cox obtained title to all of the land lying between the sandstone cliffs and the dividing ridge between the two creeks mentioned by deed from James B. Sizemore, sheriff of Lee county, dated November 2, 1905. It had been levied on and sold by the sheriff under an execution and was purchased by and conveyed to E.R.W. Cox. The title of the land between the sandstone cliffs and dividing ridge so acquired by Cox is connected by the evidence on file herein with the title acquired to it by Crawford by his deed from Duckham. On November 21, 1923, Cox conveyed the 240-acre tract of land described in the oil company's petition to Millard F. Cable. Prior to this conveyance a survey was made and the deed contained a description of the tract of land by metes and bounds according to the field notes of the survey. Cable in turn conveyed it to the oil company. The parties are agreed that the tract of land as bounded and described in the latter two deeds covers both the 12 and 8 acre tracts claimed by Crabtree and Pendergrass, respectively: as they also are agreed that the boundary conveyed by the deed from Duckham to Crawford in 1839, which runs with the dividing ridge between Big Sinking and Little Sinking creeks, covers them. Under the facts appearing herein, above set forth, as between the oil *798 company, claiming under Duckham, and Crabtree and Pendergrass, claiming under Haggin's heirs, since the judgment and commissioners' report, on which the title of the latter to a portion of the Carnan survey is founded, expressly recognized Duckham's title of and right to have conveyed such portions of the Carnan survey as he had conveyed, Crabtree and Pendergrass can not be heard to say that the oil company failed to establish title in itself by failing to supply the evidence connecting Duckham's title with the grant by the Commonwealth to Carnan. They are estopped by the chain of title of record relied upon by them. Consequently their efforts by the appeal to reverse the judgment in so far as it adjudged the oil company to own the surface estate in the 12 and 8 acre tracts respectively are not sufficient.
For the reasons indicated the judgment will be affirmed on the appeal.
On the cross-appeal the oil company insists that the chancellor erred in not adjudging it to own the minerals in and under its 240-acre tract of land. The chancellor's judgment dismissing the oil company's petition, in so far as it sought to be adjudged to own the minerals in and under its 240-acre tract of land and to have its title thereof quieted, seems to have been founded upon this fact appearing in the record: The deed by which Duckham conveyed the tract of land to Crawford in 1839 contained this provision: "Reserving all mines and minerals in the bowels of the earth." As between appellants, Pendergrass and Crabtree, and appellee, the oil company, this court has concluded that it will be unnecessary, under the facts appearing in this record, to consider and determine the consequences flowing from the quoted portion of that deed. Whether under all the facts surrounding the transaction which appear in the record, those words effected a severance of the surface and the mineral estates or not we have concluded it is unnecessary to determine. If a severance was effected so that the judgment of the chancellor is correct in refusing to adjudge the oil company to be the owner of the oil and minerals in and under the tract of land described in its petition, that fact is not sufficient to justify a judgment that Crabtree and Pendergrass are the owners thereof. It has hereinbefore been demonstrated that, under the chain of title by which they assert their ownership of the 12 and 8 acre tracts respectively and the minerals thereunder, they do not own them. They made their *799 answers counterclaims against the oil company, and, to establish that they were entitled to the relief that they sought by their counterclaims, it was incumbent upon them to go further than to establish that the oil company did not own either the surface or the mineral estate in the 240-acre tract of land. The judgment herein which dismissed their counterclaims and thereby decreed that Crabtree and Pendergrass own no interest in either the surface or the mineral estates in the 12 and 8 acre tracts claimed by them respectively gave to appellee, the oil company, all the relief that any judgment which might be rendered herein could give. The question that might arise, if it should be determined herein that the quoted portion of the deed from Duckham to Crawford effected a severance of the mineral and surface estates is a question that can properly be determined only in an action between the oil company and those to whom the mineral estate belongs if the severance be held to have been effected. For that reason the court concludes that it is unnecessary to discuss and determine the questions presented by the oil company's cross-appeal. The oil company appears to be in possession of the 240-acre tract. All relief that it could obtain in so far as its rights are affected by the claims of appellants, Pendergrass and Crabtree, has been afforded by the judgment appealed from by Pendergrass and Crabtree which is herein affirmed. That is true because they have been adjudged to have no valid claim to ownership or possession of either the surface or mineral estates in the 12 and 8 acre tracts, and consequently can not interfere with the oil company in any use to which it may put them. For that reason it is deemed to be unnecessary on the cross-appeal to grant the oil company further relief.
For the reasons indicated, the judgment herein will be affirmed on both the original and the cross appeals.
Judgment affirmed.