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36 Ala. 308

McQueen v. Ivey

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1860

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1860-06-15

Tried before the Hon. Robert Dougherty. This action was brought by William E. A. McQueen, against Samuel Ivey, to recover the possession of a certain tract of land described in the complaint, together with damages for its detention ; and was commenced on the 20th August, 1857. The defendant pleaded not guilty, and the statute of limitations of ten years.

Relies on Seabury v. Doe ex dem. Stewart · Sellers v. Hayes · Briggs v. Prosser

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1860-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently February 1924

13 state decisions

601860187018801890190019101920decided

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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R. W. WALKER, J.

¶1Where a party enters into the possession of land under a vendor’s bond, conditioned to make titles when the purchase-money is paid, his possession, so long as the purchase-money remains unpaid, is held to be in subordination to the title of the vendor ; and in an action by the latter for the recovery of the land, the vendee cannot claim the protection of the statute of limitations, on the ground of adverse possession under color of title. The very instrument under which the party enters and holds, shows upon its face that he cannot claim the land as his until he has paid the purchase-money. — Seabury v. Stewart & Easton, 22 Ala. 207; Bank v. Smyers, 2 Strob. Law, 28 ; Benson v. Stewart, 30 Miss. 57; Paxson v. Bailey, 17 Geo. 600; Jackson v. Camp, 1 Cowen, 605; Secrest v. McKennan, 6 Rich. Eq. 72: Woods v. Dille, 11 Ohio, 453; Stamper v. Griffin, 20 Geo. 321.

¶2But, when the vendee has complied with the terms of the contract on his part, by paying the purchase-money, such a bond is color of title; and if he thereafter remain in 'possession, claiming the land as his own, for the peripd prescribed by the statute of limitations, the legal title will be barred. — Jackson v. Foster, 12 Johns. 490; La Frombois v. Jackson, 8 Cowen, 597; Briggs v. Prosser, 14 Wend. 227; Fosgate v. Herkimer Co., 12 Barb. 352; Bank v. Smyers, 2 Strob. Law, 28 ; Ellison v. Catheart, 1 McMull. 7; Brown v. King, 5 Metc. 173; Barton v. Morris, 15 Ohio, 408; Drew v. Towle, 10 Foster, 531; Stamper v. Griffin, 12 Geo. 458; Benson v. Stewart, 30 Miss. 58 ; Lander v. Ronnsaville, 12 Texas, 195; Angell on Lim. §§405-6.

¶3Sellers & Cook v. Hayes, 17 Ala. 749, is not in conflict with the doctrine last stated. In that case, the court did hold, that the possession of the vendee, under a bond for titles, will not prevent the lien of a judgment, rendered against the vendor during the continuance of such pos-, session, frotn attaching to the land ; and this wassoheld, *313although it was shown that the vendee in that case had paid the purchase-money at the time of the purchase. Whether this fact was allowed its due weight, we do not now inquire. On examining the opinion of the court, it will be seen, that it is placed upon an assumed distinction, between an adverse possession that will give title under the statute of limitations, and such adverse possession as will enable the tenant to set up title in himself or another, or would prevent him who had the title from transferring it; and it is expressly said, that if no suit had been brought against the vendee, or those claiming under him, until twenty years from the time he took possession, the statute of limitations would have protected him from a recovery. — See page 752. This case is, therefore, not an authority against the rule we have laid down above.

¶4It results, that there was no error in the charge of the court.

¶5Judgment affirmed.

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