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201 Ala. 260

77 So 674

West v. Chandler

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided November 15, 1917

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1917-11-15

County; John, H. Disque, Judge. Action by William Chandler against Charles West and Lee Friebaum. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendants appeal. Statutory hction in the nature of ejectment, brought by appellee against the appellants before the court without a jury, and resulting in a judgment for the plaintiff, from which the defendants prosecute this appeal.

Relies on Dodge v. Irvington Land Co. · Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Philyaw · Vidmer v. Lloyd

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed and remanded · Decided 1917-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 48 later decisions — most recently June 1969 · most notably Chandler v. Whatley (1939), Ex Parte Jackson (1925)

48 state decisions

240191719201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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GARDNER, J.

¶1 The plaintiff offered no proof to show that his grantor or those through whom he claimed title had ever had possession of the property sued for, nor did he offer proof tending to show complete title in his grantor. E’or the purpose, therefore, of making' out a prima facie case for recovery, plaintiff rested — we presume, upon proof of prior actual possession, under the rule announced in Dodge v. Irvington Land Co., 158 Ala. 91, 48 South. 383, 22 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1100; also Louisville & Nashville R. R. Co. v. Philyaw, 88 Ala. 264, 6 South. 837; Vidmer v. Lloyd, 193 Ala. 386, 69 South. 480, Ann. Cas. 1917A, 576.

¶2 The evidence upon the question of the pri- or actual possession of the plaintiff has been-carefully considered by the court in consultation, and we have reached the conclusion that the testimony was insufficient in this respect to make out a prima facie case for the plaintiff under the principle of the above-cited authorities. We therefore conclude there was error in the trial court entering judgment for the plaintiff, and, in the exercise of our discretion, we think it advisable to remand the cause for another trial, rather than render judgment here. The judgment will be reversed, and the cause remanded.

¶3 Reversed and remanded.

ANDERSON, C. J., and McCLELLAN and SAYRE,-JX, concur.
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