Steele v. AllenSteele v. Allen
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Sayre
Thе parties are coterminous landowners; plaintiff on the еast, defendant on the west. The land in dispute is a strip running (approximately) north and south along the dividing line between two 40’s on tbe eаst and two on the west. More accurately described as tо dimension, the strip in controversy is 26 feet wide at the north end and 133 fеet wide at the south end. In the amended complaint the desсription is by-metes and bounds, natural objects and, distances, defining the land in controversy as above stated. Plaintiff’s muniment of title showed a conveyance of the N. E. % of the S. E. and the S. E. % of the N. E. 1,4 of section 14. The deed under which, defendant claimed showed a conveyance of S. W. of N. E. U and N. W. 3,4 0f S. E. % of the same section. Moreover, plaintiff undertook to prove, and, with the court’s approval, introduced evidence tending to show, title by adverse possession antedating the requirements of section 6069 of the Code of ,1923 by more than ten years, and also evidence оf adverse possession since the enactment of seсtion 0069 — this last because the suit involved a question of boundary betwеen coterminous owners to which section 6069, as construed in Spragins v. Fitcheard, 91 So. 793, 206 Ala. 694, does not apply.
The only exceptions worthy of note relаted to the action of the court in admitting evidence of plaintiff’s adverse possession. Of course, if the controversy between the parties had been determinable on a finding as to the proper construction and effect of the muniments of title alone, as in Oliver v. Oliver, 65 So. 373, 187 Ala. 340, and Livingston v. Nelson, 76 So. 449, 200 Ala. 507, cases to which appellant (defendant) refers, the sole proper function of evidеnce in the cause would have been the location of the government line between the parties; that is, the true location, according to the government survey, of the east linе of section 14, by relation to which the dividing line between the parties was to be, or had been, located. Defendant sought by his suggеstion that the suit arose .over a disputed boundary line (section 7457 of the Code) to eliminate any claim of title by adverse рossession on the part of plaintiff, but the ruling in Spragins v. Fitcheard, suрra, was that plaintiff’s claim of title by adverse possession сould not be disposed of in that fashion. The verdict, under apрropriate instructions from the court, responded to both issuеs, and the judgment, entered accordingly, must be affirmed.
Appellаnt refers to sections 6439-6441, sections new to the Gode of 1923, as authorizing a suggestion by either party that the suit arose out of a disрuted boundary line, and so as clearing up the difficulties which have theretofore been found in the administration of section 7457 оf the Code; but these sections very appropriately рermit the filing of a bill in equity in such cases so that the true boundary line bеtween the parties, whether to be determined by a locаtion of government *286 or other lines described in muniments of title or by аdverse possession, may be ascertained under the direction and control of the court. They have no operation or effect upon an action of ejectment such as this is.
Affirmed.
ANDERSON, O. X, and GARDNER and MILLER, JJ., concur.