42 Minn. 163 | Minn. | 1889
Lead Opinion
This is an action to determine adverse claims. The plaintiff alleged title to the land in question in fee-simple, and that he had occupied and possessed it as a homestead for more than 25 years. Defendants denied plaintiff’s alleged title, but admitted his possession for the period of 16 years; thus conceding the fact and character of the possession, but not for the period of time claimed by •the plaintiff. Much of the testimony received by the trial court was objected to by appellant defendants, but we have discovered no prejudicial error, especially in view of the finding of fact upon plaintiff’s claim of adverse possession for more than 20 years prior to the commencement of the action. The testimony clearly justified the court in finding that it was the intention of all parties to include in the deed of date January 25, 1859, executed and delivered by Paul Bibeau, at ■plaintiff’s request, to Bibeau’s daughter, then plaintiff’s wife, all of the land then used and occupied by plaintiff as his farm, but held in secret trust by Bibeau. And this same intention existed when, in the year 1880, the deeds were made which, as was supposed, placed the legal title to the farm in plaintiff. Under an arrangement for an exchange of lands made between plaintiff and Mardi, before purchasing from the general government, the small tract in question was to be deeded by the latter to plaintiff. On plaintiff’s solicitation Mardi deeded it to Bibeau. The testimony was ample, in connection with the facts and circumstances, to warrant the conclusion that this tract was omitted solely by mistake from the Bibeau deed, and that the same mistake followed in the deeds made in 1880. It is evident that all parties supposed until about the year 1884 that the description in the deeds covered the land in controversy. Bibeau, although living •in the neighborhood until his decease in 1865, asserted no claim to it as owner or otherwise, and, after his death, his heirs, the appellants, claimed no rights prior to the making of the final decree in probate court in the matter of his estate, May 27,1887, so far as we
While the testimony in this case may not have justified the court below in finding, as it did, that plaintiff held adversely as early as March 1, 1856, it was obvious that Bibeau was disseised in 1859, immediately upon the execution and delivery of the defective conveyance. The testimony in support of the finding as to adverse possession for a period of at least 20 years immediately preceding the commencement of the action is abundant. It was competent to show that it was intended by the parties to include the land in question in the Bibeau deed, and that it was omitted by mistake, as tending to establish the claim that Bibeau’s grantee had possession, from its date, in good faith, and with intent to hold adversely. And it was competent to show the same intention to convey, and a like omission in the deeds under which plaintiff took possession, for the purpose of presenting the relation of the possession taken by plaintiff to that relinquished by his wife.
Order affirmed.
Rehearing
On rehearing the following opinion was filed, February 24, 1890:
Upon a re-examination of the record, we are of the opinion that in two or three instances the trial court erred in permitting Vandall to testify as to the effect or general purport of his conversations with Bibeau, deceased. It was as inadmissible, under the statute, as would have been the exact words of the conversation. But these errors were without prejudice. The only tendency of the objectionable testimony was to prove that it was the intention of the parties that the land in dispute should be conveyed by the deed from Bibeau to Mrs. Vandall, and that they supposed it was; and the only pertinency of this fact was to characterize the entry and possession of Mrs. Vandall, under this deed, as being co-extensive with the description intended and supposed by all to be contained in it. But the uneontradieted competent evidence in the case as to the original tripartite arrangement between. Vandall, Mardi, and Le Gris, as to