Opinion ID: 1744526
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 16

Heading: Bovard Never Claimed Ownership

Text: Particularly persuasive is the testimony by the appellants and by Marvin and Orval Hobbs, that neither before nor after the death of John Hoover did Spencer Bovard ever mention, even remotely, owning a part of the land in Arkansas. It is inconceivable to us that he would not have done so. Even if not while John Hoover was alive, the probability that after Hoover's death, Spencer Bovard, whose interest was dependent on an unrecorded declaration of trust subject to being defeated at any time by an innocent purchaser, would not have said something to John Hoover's wife and daughter at a decent interval after the funeral, is unthinkable. Mrs. Deleon testified that it was not until November of 1949, nearly two years after the death of John Hoover, that she first learned of the Bovard trust, and then evidently by chance. Nor does Spencer Bovard deny this testimony.