Court Opinion

ID: 9809595
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 21:18:05.429296+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:35:39.191750
License: Public Domain

Adams, J.,
dissenting: This is an action for the recovery of land, superseding the former action of ejectment, but retaining certain of its features.
“In ejectment the plaintiff must recover on the strength of his own title and not on that of the weakness of his adversary, it must be good against the world or good against the defendant by estoppel. It can make no difference whether the defendant has the title or not, the sole inquiry being whether the plaintiff, upon whom rests the burden, has it. If he fails to show that he has the title and right of possession, it does not concern him what right or title the defendant has, if any, or whether he has any at all.” Pope v. Pope, 176 N. C., 283. This statement of the law has received frequent approval of the Court. Duncan v. Duncan, 25 N. C., 316; Clark v. Diggs, 28 N. C., 159; Mobley v. Griffin, 104 N. C., 112; Rumbough v. Sackett, 141 N. C., 495; Singleton v. Roebuck, 178 N. C., 201; Moore v. Miller, 179 N. C., 396.
The various methods by which a plaintiff may establish his title are specifically set forth in Prevatt v. Harrelson, 132 N. C., 250, and Mobley v. Griffin, supra.
As pointed out in the opinion of the Court, “the plaintiff undertook to prove title by showing possession under known and visible lines and boundaries for twenty-one years before the action was brought.” The action was brought on 9 November, 1914; title to the land, therefore, was not conclusively deemed to be out of the State, as provided in C. S., 426, because this section has no application to actions brought prior to 1 May, 1917.
The State will not sue any person for, or in respect of, any real property, or the issue or profits thereof, by reason of the right or title of the State to the same . . . when the person in possession thereof, or those under whom he claims, has been in possession under colorable title for twenty-one years, this possession having been ascertained and identified under known and visible lines and boundaries. C. S., 425.
Title not having been granted by the State the plaintiff could make out his case by showing open, notorious, continuous adverse and unequivocal possession of the land in controversy, under color of title in himself and those under whom he claims, for twenty-one years before the action was brought (Moore v. Miller, supra), or by showing adverse possession for thirty years without color. Mobley v. Griffin, supra. In *255either event it would be necessary for him to show the requisite possession. His paper title without possession is unquestionably insufficient.
With these facts in mind, turn to the following instructions which were given to the jury and excepted to by the appellant: “As to the first issue: ‘Is the plaintiff the owner of and entitled to the possession of the land shown on the court map between the red lines and the solid white line on the east and south V If you find from the evidence and by its greater weight that the eastern line of the land described in the complaint, as shown on the court survey, extends from the northeast corner of the map as shown by the survey to the point on the court map indicated as the southeast corner, and if you find that the southern line of the land in controversy runs as shown on the court map, then you will answer the first issue Yes. Is the plaintiff the owner of and entitled to the possession of the land shown on the court map between the red line and the solid white line on the eastern side ? If you find by the greater weight of the evidence, if the plaintiff has satisfied you by.the greater weight of the evidence that the white line as shown on the map is the true and correct line of the land according to the description contained in the complaint, you will answer that issue Yes, and if the plaintiff has failed to so satisfy you, nothing else appearing, you will answer that issue No.”
These instructions are inaccurate and defective. In substance they direct the jury to find that the plaintiff is the owner of the controverted land if certain lines are located as the plaintiff contends. But the mere location of boundaries does not entitle the plaintiff to recover land. Here the plaintiff claims under three deeds, the last from his father. His title, as stated, is dependent upon sufficient possession with or without color; but the instructions utterly disregard and ignore the question of possession. Even where one claims to occupy land and to assert title under conveyances having visible lines and boundaries, relying upon the theory that the law extends his occupation to the outer lines of his deeds, it is necessary to prove actual possession of some part of the land. But the principle by which possession is extended to the outer boundaries of a conveyance does not apply where there is. a lappage and adverse occupation of the land contained in the lappage. Mintz v. Russ, 161 N. C., 538.
The instructions not only deprived the defendant of his legal right to insist upon this defense, but they enabled the jury to award the land to the plaintiff without proof of title in compliance with any of the recognized requirements. I think there are other errors in the record, to which it is not necessary more particularly to advert.
Because of these, errors the appellant, in my opinion, is entitled to a new trial.