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39 Mo. 174

Kellogg v. Mullen

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided October 15, 1866

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1866-10-15

<p>Limitations —Estate Outstanding — idverse Possession. — Where both parties claim under the same grantor, a prior lease by the grantor for a term of years prevents the running of the statute of limitations; the possession of the tenant is not adverse. B. in 1847 conveyed premises to W., a lease for twenty years (expiring in 1857) then outstanding, and the tenant in possession. In 1851 B. leased to M. an adjoining lot, under which lease M. entered upon part of the premises granted to W. and held possession. Held, that the possession of M. if he entered prior to the end of the term of twenty years, was not adverse to the landlord and his grantee W. until the term expired.</p>

Relies on Willi v. Peters · Shepard v. Martin

Decided 1866-10-15

Holmes, Judge,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2The decision of the case turns upon the question of adverse possession. Both parties claim under a common grant- *177or. The deeds from this grantor convey adjoining lots. The plaintiff claims one of the lots under a deed made in 1847. The defendant claims as the lessee of the grantee under a deed of the other lot made in 1851. At the time of the first deed there was an outstanding lease from the same grantee covering the premises in dispute for a term of twenty years, which expired in 1857. The defendant then took possession of the premises under his lease from the grantee in the second deed of 1851.

¶3It is plain that there could be no adverse possession of these premises until after the expiration of the lease for twenty years under which the possession was held. If the defendant had entered before that time he would have been considered as having entered under the tenant holding under that lease or as a mere intruder, and then as against the landlord and those holding under him he would have been treated as having got the possession from such tenant — Willi v. Peters, 11 Mo. 396; Shepard v. Martin, 31 Mo. 492. If he entered after the expiration of that lease, and under his lease from the grantee in the deed of 1851, then the statute of limitations had not run against the plaintiff for ten years before the suit commenced.

¶4The instruction refused for the plaintiff should have been given. The instruction given for the defendant was not warranted by the evidence before the jury.

¶5Judgment reversed and the cause remanded.

The other judges concur.
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