Court Opinion

ID: 9811298
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 22:16:03.912839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:11:44.192977
License: Public Domain

Smith, C. J.,
dissenting. I am constrained to enter a dissent to so much of the opinion of the court as declares title to have been acquired by the defendant by means of a possession for seven years under a deed professing to pass the entire estate. His entry upon the land by virtue of the writ was an undoubted assertion of sole ownership, and the expulsion of the co-tenant an ouster which, continued for the prescribed time, would have the effect of completing the title. But upon the day of recovering possession and soon afterwards it was restored to the plaintiff under a contract of lease, aixd he held the land for nearly two years. A tenant let into possession as lessee is not allowed to withhold it from the lessor by virtue of any superior right in himself, but when the possession has been surrendered he may assert his own and contest the title of the other in any subsequent action between them. “The relation and the rights growing out of it,!’ says Bynum, J., referring to the lessee’s occupation, “ can be destroyed only by surrendering the possession to the landlord, as it existed prior to the lease, idhen that is done and not before, the defendant is at arms length and can assert his title by action or otherwise. Abbott v. Cromartie, 72 N. C., 292; Gilliam v. Moore, Busb., 95.
The statute requires an uninterrupted adversary occupation for the whole period of seven years under color of title, during which the party is exposed to the action and the land subject to the re-entry of the owner and the effect of his neglect to do either is to bar his claim and vest title in *176the occupant. “ The rule of law,” remarks Pearson, J., in Reynolds v. Gathens, 5 Jones, 437, “is when one holds possession, and exposes himself to an action for twenty years without color of title, or for seven years with color of title, as between individuals, and supposing, the land to have been granted, so as to oust the state, we think acquires a good title,” and this he defines as constituting adverse possession under the law.
During a part of the required seven years the plaintiff, a co-tenant with the defendant and entitled to an undivided moiety, is in possession of the common property with the assent of the latter, and could not maintain his action; and to allow this to enure to the benefit of the defendant and be counted as part of the time, is in my opinion, not only to dispense with the provisions of the statute, but involves also the absurdity of one’s holding adversely to himself. In this action the plaintiff, being freed from the lease, was at liberty to assert his own better right to the premises, and that his own possession in the judgment of the law was in support of a superior rather than an inferior and subordinate title.
Per Curiam. Reversed;