133 Ga. 409 | Ga. | 1909
On August 6, 1884, John Selph, late of Berrien county, died seized and possessed of a small tract of land, leaving as his heirs at law his widow and fourteen children, five of whom were minors. In 1908 eight of the children, who were adults at the time of the death of their father, filed an application for the partition of the land, and a protest thereto was filed by the widow and other children, on the ground that the applicants had no interest in the land, as the same had been duly set aside as a year’s support to protestants in 1884, since which time the protestants had been in the continuous possession of the land. On the trial before the judge, who heard the case without the intervention of a jury, the protestants offered in evidence certified copies of the application for a year’s support by Sarah Selph, widow of John Selph, in her own behalf and for her minor children, praying an assignment of a year’s support from her deceased husband’s estate, and of an order of the ordinary’appointing five appraisers for that purpose, dated October 6, 1884. The following affidavits were offered in evidence by the protestants: (1) that of the ordinary, that no return of the appraisers nor any record thereof is to be found in his office; (2) that of J. J. Sineath, to the effect that affiant and two others of the appraisers, appointed by the ordinary to set apart a year’s support out of the estate of John Selph to his widow and minor children, set aside the entire estate of John Selph, which was of less value than $500, to the widow and minor children, and that the appraisers made return of their actings and doings to the court of ordinary in accordance with law; (3) that of W. L. Selph, to the effect that all of the appraisers are dead except J. J. Sineath, and that affiant remembers when the appraisers set aside all the estate of his father, John Selph, to his mother and minor children in 1884, and that since that time his mother has been in possession of the land, returned the same for taxes, and paid the taxes thereon, claiming the land for herself and minor children, and had placed valuable improvements thereon; (4) that of Mrs. Sarah Selph, that the land sought to be partitioned was set apart as a twelve months’ support to herself and minor children by the ordinary of Berrien county in 1884, and that she and her minor children
The protestants also set up their adverse possession for more than 20 years, in resistance to the issuance of the writ. The evidence was rather meagre on that subject. While two of the wit
Judgment reversed.