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52 Vt. 415

Earl v. Griffith

Supreme Court of Vermont

Decided January 15, 1880

Supreme Court of Vermont · decided 1880-01-15

Trespass qua. elau. for entering, and cutting and carrying away timber, &c., from lot No. 16 of the Steel-clip grant, in Mount Tabor. Plea, general issue, and trial by the court, September Term, 1877, Ross, J., presiding. Exceptions and a petition for a Dew trial were filed by tbe defendant, and heard together at this term.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1880-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently July 1952

3 state decisions

1018801890190019101920193019401950decided

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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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered by

Barrett, J.

¶2There is no question as to the location of lot No. 16 of the Steele-clip grant, nor as to the validity of the plaintiff’s title to it, except as affected by the alleged adverse occupancy and possession. The title drew to it possession for every purpose, except immunity against the effect of an actual adverse possession, continued for fifteen years. The lot was laid out, and its boundaries distinctly marked, so as to be easily traceable, and the corners could be easily found, during all the time in which the alleged acts of adverse occupancy were occurring. While Henry E. Goodell was owner, between May 13,1850, and June 8, 1853, he yearly cut and took from various parts of the lot large quantities of timber logs. After the plaintiff became owner, up to seven or eight years ago, he cut and took lumber from the lot three or four times. These were acts of possession operating upon the whole lot as actual possession ; and having been done in connection with, and under, a valid paper title, they interrupted any merely constructive possession claimed and attempted to be shown in behalf of the defendant. It is needless, therefore, to give consideration to what is shown or claimed as to the building *421of the house on the south west corner of lot No. 6, range 10, and the woi'king up of the farm around it, on the corners of the four lots, by Silas Barrett. It is only claimed that that operated a constructive possession of the part of lot No. 16, embraced within the boundaries of said lot No. 6, — that encroachment of No. 6, on said No. 16, being without right. Without remark upon the validity of such claim, it is sufficient for this case to say, that any constructive possession — such as is claimed in behalf of the defendant in this case, would be effectually interrupted by any actual possession of the true owner of the title. This is conclusive in the cause, and we refrain from further discussion. Judgment affirmed.

¶3As to the petition for new trial it is denied for two reasons : First, the newly-discovered evidence, though perhaps pertinent as tending to show claim of right, would be wholly ineffectual towards a different result, in view of the other established facts in the case ; secondly, there appears to have been nothing to prevent or impede the hearing of the evidence on the trial in the County Court, except that the party' and his attorneys did not think of it as being important, till after the trial was over. The petition is denied with costs.

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