Court Opinion

ID: 9669288
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:47:59.118077+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:55.041417
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing
In its able motion for rehearing the appellant says that the appellee began claiming the lots in question as his homestead in September, 1948, and that it was prior to this date that the hedge was set out and timber was cut by the appellee. Since the rule of law, as correctly stated by it, is that in, such cases there must be an intent to occupy the land concurring with acts of improvements indicating such intent within a reasonable time to occupy, it argues that the appellee here has not shown that his intention to occupy said property was accompanied by the acts of preparation, showing an unmistakeable intention to occupy. It says that in the present case there is only, the cutting of a little underbrush and planting of some hedge prior to having formed any intent to occupy said property as a homestead.
We believe that the appellant in this argument has overlooked the fact that the appellee himself testified that his intent to occupy the land as a home was present at the time he was clearing the trees and underbrush from the lots in March or April of 1948. This being the testimony of the appellee before the trial court, it was an ample showing of the presence of the appellee’s intent to occupy at the time he was doing such work. The making of statements to other people of his claim in September, 1948, therefore must be considered only as additional evidence of the existence of an intent by appellees and does not fix as a matter of law, the date of September, 1948, as the beginning point of his intention to occupy.
The' motion for rehearing is overruled.