Court Opinion

ID: 9673490
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 04:12:55.783059+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:22.422163
License: Public Domain

REAVLEY, Justice
(dissenting).
The question presented by this appeal is not whether title to land may be determined in an action which seeks only in-junctive relief. The question is whether an injunction may be issued to protect only the peaceable possession of land apart from an action to determine title.
Plaintiffs Mischer et al. allege that they were in actual peaceable possession as owners of the land, grazing cattle, when defendant Frost cut their fence and turned out their cattle. They sought to enjoin the defendant from destroying their fence or interfering with their possession of the property until defendant “shows a superior title to the premises.”
The trial court dismissed the suit on the strength of defendant’s special exception to the effect that the plaintiffs’ suit necessarily requires a determination of title, which in turn requires the trespass to try title form of action. This court now sustains the trial court in sustaining the special exception. I disagree.
We must judge the matter by the petition, and it says nothing about a title dispute between these parties. It does not seek an adjudication of title. It seeks only to protect peaceable possession. The only reason for this court saying that a determination of title is required is that we say so.
The opinion of the majority includes statements set forth in an alternative pleading by plaintiffs which suggest that it may have been the defendant who enjoyed nine years of peaceable possession while plaintiffs stand upon a mere three months occupancy. However, we should assume for present purposes that the primary allegations are correct and that plaintiffs were ousted from peaceable possession.
The difficulty is with prior statements that an injunction for possession of land may be granted in an independent action only against a trespasser. The plaintiffs here did not allege that defendant was a trespasser. However, equity should not be so restricted. The person in peaceable possession of land who is forcibly evicted by another should not be put to the choice of either exercising greater force to repossess the land or of taking the burden and expense of the plaintiff in a trespass to try title action. He should have access to the court to regain his possession. If the intruder has claim of title, it is he who should initiate the suit to adjudicate that title.
We place a heavy burden on the plaintiff in a title suit; ordinarily he must prove his title from the sovereign as against all others. It is strange that we should tell an ousted occupant of land that so long as a title controversy exists, he must seek his possession only in the course of — and as ancillary relief to — a trespass to try title suit. The issue in a trespass to try title suit is not which one of the contending parties has a better title; the *170plaintiff may prove better title than the defendant and still lose his case. The prior peaceable possessor may own the better title, but if he cannot afford to assume the expense of bringing a trespass to try title action, which would usually far exceed the expense of an injunction suit to protect possession, or if he has an imperfection in his chain of title, possession is left to the stronger (or the meaner) of the contenders. With possession goes the benefit of use and, perhaps in five or ten years, final security under the statutes of limitation. So long as the court leaves the law to permit this state of affairs, we promote neither peace nor equity.