Elmore County Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1910-1915, 1913-06-21

James Randall was the owner at q
wilderness tract Of Thousands Of
acres. The country was new and
undeveloped and Randall paid bu'
slight attention to his sholdiass. He
and his family lived nany miles
away and carelsssly patd slight At.
ten&ioa to their large holdinGA Verne
Fox moved into the region with his
family seeking y new homo In 1870.
He had q little money and desired
to buy q tract Of land which he
could develop into productive farm,
He met two men who said that they
mad, such farm for sale. It yas up.
ON back road, = mere Wilderness
rail, but the land promised we'll to
Fox and he paid $500 Tor eighty acres
receiving a decd from his new &C.
luaintances and taking possession
Of the vacant property without max.
ing any further inquiries. Fox built
home and year by year cleared and
developed his fields. He heard that
the road on which he faced was re-
puted to- be the boundary IT Ran
dall's tract. and that he was there
fore within 1t, bur as no ono iltcr-
.ered with him, he troubled not.
1t was 1892 before tho Randall
family went into the region to care
Tor their holdings In person and see
20 their development. They found
hat Fox's farm was within the
boundaries Of their tract and that
he had paid his money and received
ais deed from men having no rights
whatever In the property. At this
line Fox had put about sixty acres
under actual cultivation, or within
.ences az pasture for his stock. He
had made little use Of the back
twenty acres and had not developed
1t in any way, The Randalls took
immediate legal steps to oust Fox
from his holdings and recover the
property, but were defeated.
Although Fox had secured no good
title when he took tho deed and en-
cred into possession OF the property,
his continued and open use and DOS
session Of 1t az actual owner for q
period Of over twenty years gave to
him complete rights In It. This right
was based on what Is known az the
statute Of limitations. There il such
a statute In every state and they are
generally much alike, usually provid-
ing that such use and possession for
q period Of twenty years give good
title to the property even 40 against
the rightful owner. The failure of
the rightful owner to assert his
rights for period Of twenty years
costs him his title to- the property.
This Ia what is legally termed title
by adverse possession"
Fox retained his control Of the en-
tire eighty acres described under the
original. worthless deed under which
he had entered. He had entered In
good faith under the deed. believing
that deed to be good and expecting
TO possess the entire eighty acres.
The court enforced his claim. as his
possession applied to all OF the pro-
.,erty described In the deed, he hav-
Ing taken general possession and oc-
cupied 1t for twenty years.
Alex Phelps settled on the same
road at about the same time as Fox.
He verbally laid claim to an eighty
acre tract which he had roughly de-
scribed on several occasions He
made no purchase from anyone, how
ever, had no deed, or any other regu-
lar means OF acquiring ownership. He
simply sQuatted on what he viewed as
mo mans land" In the terminology
OF the law he had NO color Of title, !"
as had Fox. Phelps, too, cleared and
cultivated part Of the tract he
claimed, but had actually made use
~ ahOnf sirfv acroa In this caae
the court allowed Phelps to retain
the sixty acres he had actually
fenced and cultivated, be-
cause Of his possession for twenty
years, but AZ to the rest he secured
no rights. Az Phelps had taken un-
der NO "color OF title" his rights rest
I'd solely on occupation and he could |
make NO claim ~ to parts Of tract
which he did not actually occupy
Merely marking out the boundaries oil
eighty acres and occasionally walking
over them without making continued
lse was ruled a. not sufficient where
Phelps had had absolutely no color Of
light to the land upon which he orig
nally settled.
More frequently cases involving the
doctrine Of adverse possession involveI
nut q portion Of tract OF land and
ha cauaa nj. tha dSfficultv n a linz L