Title: Davis v. Townsend
Citation: 435 So. 2d 1280
Docket Number: N/A
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: August 5, 1983

435 So. 2d 1280 (1983)
Mitchell DAVIS, Jr., et al.
v.
Roscoe TOWNSEND, et al.
82-613.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
August 5, 1983.
*1281 Harold Howell of Howell, Sarto &amp; Howell, Prattville, for appellants.
Theron O. McDowell, Jr., Prattville, for appellees.
JONES, Justice.
This case arose from a property ownership dispute in Autauga County. Plaintiffs/Appellees, undisputed record title holders, brought a quiet title action against Defendants/Appellants, who claimed ownership through the doctrine of adverse possession. The trial court, after hearing conflicting ore tenus testimony, quieted title in Plaintiffs. Defendants appeal, contending that the trial court erred as a matter of law in excluding from evidence the unprobated and unrecorded will through which they claimed color of title, and, additionally, that the judgment was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. We affirm.
Gillis Townsend, married to Bama Townsend, acquired eighty acres of land by warranty deed in June 1920. Bama Townsend's sister gave birth to Beatrice Davis while residing on this property. Gillis and Bama raised Beatrice as their own child. Gillis Townsend died intestate on July 9, 1940, and the property descended to his heirs-at-law, subject to his widow's rights of dower and quarantine. Bama Townsend continued to reside on the property, along with her brother, Amos Goodson, until she died, testate, on February 8, 1951. Plaintiffs/Appellees (the Townsend heirs) claim ownership through Gillis Townsend, while Defendants/Appellants (the Davis heirs) claim ownership through Beatrice Davis.
Beatrice Davis married and moved away from the property, but later returned and maintained a residence on the homeplace for about ten years. Amos Goodwin was the last person to live on the property, residing first by permission of Bama Townsend, and then, allegedly, by permission of the Townsend heirs. Amos died in 1965, and Beatrice died in 1966. Shortly thereafter, the homeplace became uninhabitable and was demolished.
The record shows Bama Townsend paid taxes on the property in 1951 and 1952, and Amos Goodson paid property taxes for the years 1953 through 1966. John DeRamus paid property taxes, in the name of the Gillis Townsend estate, from 1967 through 1982. Property taxes were also paid from 1967 through 1982 in the name of the Davis estate.
The evidence, in essence, revealed: 1) The property consisted primarily of wooded acreage and was not farmed; 2) the Davis heirs, and at least one other person with their permission, cut firewood on certain portions of the property several times; 3) Beatrice Davis and her heirs occasionally *1282 visited and hunted on the property; and 4) the Davis heirs allowed someone to take old lumber from the homeplace on one occasion. The evidence also showed that the Townsend heirs entered the land periodically, picked scuppernongs, allowed people to cut firewood, attempted to sell timber, and exercised other similar possessory acts.
The dispositive legal issue is whether the trial court erred in refusing to admit into evidence to prove color of title under § 6-5-200 the will of Bama Townsend. The trial judge refused to admit the will because it was not recorded. Code 1975, § 6-5-200, states, in relevant part:
The Townsend heirs do not dispute the Davis heirs' definition of color of title, that being a writing which, in appearance, purports to transmit title or the right of possession, but which, in reality, does not. Bowles v. Lowery, 181 Ala. 603, 62 So. 107 (1913). Rather, the Townsend heirs contend that § 6-5-200 requires the color of title document to have been "duly recorded." Therefore, they say, because the will of Bama Townsend has never been probated or recorded, it does not furnish color of title, is without any legal force or effect, and was properly excluded by the trial judge. We agree.
Ala.Code, 1940, Tit. 61, § 43 (the applicable statute), states: "Wills shall not be effective unless filed for probate within five years from the date of the death of the testator." Bama Townsend's will was not filed for probate within the requisite statutory period, and, therefore, cannot be effective. Furthermore, the Court has held: "A will is ineffective until duly probated. No court can take notice of or give effect to a will until probated...." (Emphasis added.) Caverno v. Webb, 239 Ala. 671, 196 So. 723 (1940); and in Sheridan v. Schimpf, 120 Ala. 475, 24 So. 940 (1898):
Having determined that the trial judge did not err in excluding the unprobated and unrecorded will,[1] we turn to the remaining *1283 issue: whether, under the ore tenus standard of review, sufficient evidence existed upon which the trial judge could conclude the Davis heirs did not meet their heavy burden of proving all the requisite elements of an adverse possession claim. Close examination of the record reveals sufficient evidence to support the trial judge's findings.
In Casey v. McIntosh, 361 So. 2d 1040, 1042 (Ala.1978), the Court stated:
The evidence concerning adverse possession conflicted and furnished a basis upon which the trial court could have reasonably concluded that the possessory acts alleged by the Davis heirs did not constitute adverse possession. The result reached by the lower court is not palpably wrong or manifestly unjust. Therefore, the presumption of correctness accorded the trial court's judgment under our ore tenus standard of review is not overcome. The judgment is due to be, and hereby is, affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, SHORES and BEATTY, JJ., concur.
[1]  Our holding addressing the effect of an unrecorded will respecting color of title should not be understood as indicating that the result would be different if the will had been recorded, but not probated. We need not, and do not, address the issue whether an unprobated will, recorded under Code 1975, § 43-1-50, or otherwise, would constitute color of title under § 6-5-200.