Opinion ID: 1404721
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: tee boggs heirs title

Text: Upon his death, Henry M. Lewis devised his lands to four of his children by a will, recorded in the clerk's office on January 4, 1876. By deed of record dated October 3, 1881, three of the children, Wilson, Felix, and Hampton Lewis, conveyed certain properties to Silas Boggs, the Boggs Heirs' predecessor in title. The fourth child, Catherine Wells, then of Lincoln County, Kentucky, acknowledged the deed later in front of the Lincoln County Court Clerk on April 24, 1883, whereupon the original deed was re-recorded with the Leslie County Court Clerk on June 25, 1884, with the additional acknowledgment and lodgment certificate. The property conveyed therein, is described, as follows: [T]he following boundary of land to wit lying and being in the. County of Leslie on the right hand fork of Lewis Creek Waters of the Greasy fork Beginning at two beeches about 200 yds below the mill seat, thence north 30 poles to a Stake Thence northeast to the head of the Second Hollow to a beech by the Side of the Road a corner of a Seven Hundred acre Survey made in the name of Wilson Lewis Sr Thence to the Head of? Branch Thence with Said line to the top of the mountain Thence to the Rocky gap thence to the beginning Second tract Beginning in the Head of the Right, Hand fork of Lewis Creek on Two Dogwoods Black oak and Hickory Thence with the call of the 500 acre patent to the beginning Third tract also our interest in the Land Surveyed in the name of Henry M. Lewis and Abner L. Pace on the Right hand of Lewis Creek this is to inclose all of the Land we own on the right hand fork from the Mill Seat up Also if said Survey holds any Land on the Jennas Fork of the Greasy Fork Said Boggs is to have it this not to include any bf the Polly Lewis land nor Land of one older date with its appurtenances to have and to hold unto Silas Boggs, his heirs and assigns forever and we will warrant and defend the same with a general warrantee this day and date above witnesseth. Subsequent thereto, by deed dated January 14, 1888, Silas Boggs conveyed property to John I. Shell described, in part, as follows: Beginning . . . on the North side of [Lewis Creek;] thence square to the top of said ridge and said Shell is to have all the land that said . . . and holds on Lewis Creek from the conditional line up said creek first above mentioned[.] Later, by deed dated October 18, 1888, Silas Boggs conveyed to James Blevins, property referenced on Lewis Creek and described, in part, as follows: Beginning . . . below the mill seat a conditional . . . line between H.M. Lewis Heirs and said Boggs thence a straight line to the top of the mountain. . . . So as to include all of said boundary of land..... This 1888 deed is the last record transaction involving any of the Boggs Heirs, or their predecessors, in connection with the property acquired from Henry M. Lewis for the next one-hundred and three (103) years, that is until September 17, 1991, when the Boggs Heirs filed four Affidavits of Decent in the Leslie County Court Clerk's office for Silas Boggs, Lawrence Boggs, Sherman Boggs, and Laney Boggs Powell, the predecessors in title under which they now claim through descent. These, affidavits were notarized by Gary Hale, who at the time was employed as land man for Bledsoe, through its parent company. Mr. Hale was married to the daughter.of Ben Boggs, Jr., one of the Boggs Heirs. He testified in his deposition that, as an employee of Bledsoe, he first saw a title opinion referencing a potential claim of the Boggs Heirs under the 1881 Silas Boggs deed in 1989 or 1990. In his deposition, he was somewhat vague as to whether he ever mentioned this to any of the Boggs Heirs. Thereafter, on May 22, 1992, Shamrock Coal Company (Shamrock), who already had several operating agreements with Bledsoe, including an assigned lease of the disputed tract from the Hoskins Heirs, acquired a lease of the disputed tract from several members of the Boggs Heirs. Then, on November 4, 1992, Shamrock, pursuant to an asset purchase agreement, assigned both leases to the disputed tract back to Bledsoe. There is evidence in the record to support a finding that the Boggs Heirs only began paying taxes on the property sometime after its mining began under their lease, around 1997.