Opinion ID: 2328566
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alleged Chains of Title

Text: As we have noted, however, the record in this case does not reflect the full and complete chains of alleged titles of both petitioner and respondent. We now include, as best we can given the state of the record, an overview description of the alleged chains contained in that record as follows. Both alleged chains of title date back to the August 1889 deed to Francis Shanabrook, filed at Liber J.W.B. 13 folio 467. The problem leading to the alleged split in the chain of title appears to have arisen from an apparent boundary overlap in two conveyances made by Mr. Shanabrook. [12] First, on March 21, 1890, Mr. Shanabrook conveyed a parcel, allegedly including the disputed property in the case sub judice, to one Horace W. Miller of Philadelphia. This deed was filed at Liber J.W.B. 14 folio 402 (the Miller chain of title). Later, on November 26, 1895, Mr. Shanabrook conveyed property, [13] i.e., a railroad right of way, to the Columbia and Maryland Railway, which apparently overlapped with the property conveyed to Mr. Miller in 1890. The deed was enrolled on December 4, 1895, and later filed at Liber J.W.B. 34 folio 421 (the Railway chain of title). The deed stated that if the railway mentioned in the deed was not completed and in operation within eighteen months from the date hereof the property hereby granted shall revert to the Grantor, Mr. Shanabrook. It is alleged that the owner of the property passing up the Miller chain of title, [14] City and Suburban Railway, discovered the boundary overlap between the right of way Columbia and Maryland Railway received in 1895 and the property granted by the 1890 deed to Mr. Miller, when Mr. Miller granted the property, including the overlapping portions of the parcel, to City and Suburban Railway by deed dated May 16, 1901. The deed was filed at Liber 3 at folio 413. Respondent alleges that City and Suburban Railway only wanted to keep title to its right of way and that it sought, via a lawsuit, to have the excess of the May 16, 1901 deed purchased by Mr. Shanabrook's estate. As a result of the lawsuit, Long v. Long, Equity Court Nos. 2793 and 2959 (consolidated cases) it appears that Mr. Shanabrook's estate was directed to reacquire the excess of the property City and Suburban Railway purchased from Mr. Miller. In fact, the trustees of the Shanabrook Estate submitted a report to the Equity Court including a hand-written amendment to the report describing two different lots stating that the estate owned all of said two lots not occupied by Electric Railway (alterations added). As a result of the litigation involving the Shanabrook Estate, City and Suburban Railway officially conveyed the excess of land it purchased from Mr. Miller to Mr. Fillmore Beall and Mr. James Rogers, through Mr. Allan McDermott, receiver, by deed dated October 22, 1903 and recorded at Liber 17 folio 44. This deed contains language conveying to the estate of Mr. Shanabrook all of the described parcel except that portion thereof embraced within the limits of the description contained in the deed from Francis Shanabrooke [sic] to said City and Suburban Railway[ [15] ] dated December 4, 1895 recorded in Liber J.W.B. No. 34 folio 421 of said land records (alteration added). After obtaining the railway right of way by the deed recorded at Liber J.W.B. 34 folio 421, the Columbia and Maryland Railway allegedly failed to satisfy the deed's condition of completing and making operational its railway within eighteen months of the 1895 deed. If these facts are correct, the property would have then automatically reverted back to the grantor, Mr. Shanabrook. In a deed dated July 25, 1898 and recorded at Liber J.B. 4 folio 190, (almost five years before the granting and regranting of the Miller chain of title property in October of 1903) Mr. Shanabrook reconveyed his title to the property he reacquired by the reversion created in the deed recorded at Liber J.W.B. 34 folio 421, to an alleged successor of Columbia and Maryland Railway, the Maryland Traction Company. At this point, the record is unclear as to one or more of the exact successors in the Railway chain of title. Respondent alleges that the successors to the railway right of way deed in the Railway chain of title include City and Suburban Railway, the D.C. Transit Company, Inc., Riders' Fund Trust and The Bank of New York, but it is not clear where they fall within that chain, or whether they are indeed within that chain at all. As mentioned previously, the deeds or other documents affecting title regarding these alleged successors are not contained within the record in this case. Presumably those records are a part of the case initiated by respondent as the burden in that case is on respondent to prove that it is in possession of a valid title, see § 14-108 of the Real Property Article; that case, however, was not consolidated by the trial court with the one at bar. The incompleteness of the record before this Court and the intermediate appellate court may be due, therefore, in part to the denial of respondent's motion to consolidate. Respondent asserts that, after these predecessors in interest, it acquired title to the property in question in this case by quitclaim deed from The Bank of New York on April 8, 1997. That quitclaim deed was recorded at Liber 11386 folio 160 on April 21, 1997 prior to the filing of petitioner's cases. Petitioner asserts, however, that the October 22, 1903 deed recorded at Liber 17 folio 44 conveyed all of property in question in the case sub judice to the Shanabrook Estate, i.e., Mr. Beall and Mr. Rogers, trustees. Petitioner filed affidavits asserting that no other persons claimed any right to the property and that the whereabouts of the heirs, successors, personal representatives, devisees, and assigns of Francis Shanabrooke [sic] and all of their respective heirs, successors, personal representatives, devisees, and assigns were unknown. Petitioner, claiming adverse possession of said property, filed two complaints to quiet title and obtained default judgments on both parcels, which encompass the property involved in the case sub judice. The following chart depicts our preceding written description of the respective alleged Miller and Railway chains of title in a more concise form. The emphasized text above denotes the deed to Beall and Rogers, which mistakenly described the deed recorded at J.W.B. 34 folio 421 as conveying property to the City and Suburban Railway where that deed actually conveyed property to the Columbia and Maryland Railway. It appears that by 1903 this particular railroad property had already been re-conveyed by Shanabrook (after a reversion) to the Maryland Traction Company.