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64 Fla. 279

Futch v. Parslow

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided June 15, 1912

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1912-06-15

<p>Appealed from the Circuit Court for Hillsborough County.</p> <p>The facts in the case are stated in the opinion of the court.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“"The circumstances relied on to show that Parslow did not claim or hold adversely to Mrs. Futch before and after she became of age were submitted to the chancellor, and, in view of the conveyance of the entire property and of Parslow's acts and conduct while in possession, the chancellor was justified in finding from the evidence that Parslow did hold adversely to Mrs. Futch." (Italics supplied.)”

quoted by 1 later decision, including 60 So. 2d 531 - Cook v. Rochford

Relies on Coogler v. Rogers · Armstrong v. Wilcox

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1912-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently June 1994

7 state decisions

20191219201930194019501960197019801990decided

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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Whitfield, C. J.

¶1This appeal is from a decree quieting title to real estate. It appears that Columbus Stafford was the owner of Lot 4 of Block 8 according to the General Map of Tampa when he died leaving as his heirs, two sons, LaFayette and Columbus, Jr., and a daughter Mary, who married John Carney and died intestate in 1883, leaving her husband John Carney and a daughter Manie D. who was born in July, 1879, and married Futch.

¶2John Carney married again and had a posthumus son John Carney born in 1887, the father having died in December, 1886. On January 9th, 1884, LaFayette Stafford, joined by his wife, and Columbus Stafford executed to Alfred H. Parslow a conveyance of the entire estate. On January 9th, 1884, John Carney, who had been the husband of Mary Stafford before her death, and who with the daughter were her heirs, executed a conveyance of the property to LaFayette Stafford. In 1887 Alfred H. Parslow conveyed the land to his wife Josephine A. Parslow, through the medium of a third person.

¶3On May 19th, 1910, Mrs. Josephine A. Parslow brought suit against Manie D. Futch and her husband to quiet the title to the land in Mrs. Parslow. By an amendment John Carney was made a defendant. The answer asserts *281a title to an undivided 1-3 interest in the property to be in Manie D. Futch and John Carney, the first as the heir of Mary Stafford Carney and the latter as the heir of the elder John Carney. The answer avers that the complainant and her predecessor in title took their conveyance with knowledge of defendant’s rights, and held possession as a co-tenant with the defendants.

¶4The existence of the relation of co-tenancy does not preclude one co-tenant from establishing an adverse possession in fact as against the other co-tenant. See Coogler v. Rogers, 25 Fla. 853, 7 South. Rep. 391.

¶5There is ample evidence from which the chancellor could find that Alfred Parslow took actual possession of the lot whether lawfully or unlawfully and claimed it adversely before the death of the elder John Carney, therefore the statutory limitation of seven years continued to run against Carney’s heirs at his death in 1886, and his son and heir is barred. Armstrong v. Wilcox, 57 Fla. 30, 49 South. Rep. 41. As the suit was not brought until nearly ten years after Mrs. Manie D. Futch attained the age of 21 years, she is barred unless the possession of Parslow and his wife was not adverse to Mrs. Futch. The circumstances relied on to show that Parslow did not claim or hold adversely to Mrs. Futch before and after she became of age, were submitted to the chancellor and in view of the conveyance of the entire property and of Parslow’s acts and conduct while in possession the chancellor was justified in finding from the evidence that Parslow did hold adversely to Mrs. Futch.

¶6There is no evidence that Mrs. Futch was mislead or deceived into failing to assert her rights before they were barred by the lapse of the statutory period, and no. countervailing equity appears in her behalf to warrant *282a denial of the relief prayed for by Mrs. Parslow. Mere ignorance of her rights would not prevent the bar of the statute of limitations as to Mrs. Futeh.

¶7The conclusion reached makes it unnecessary to consider whether a cross bill filed herein was improperly stricken.

¶8The decree appealed from is affirmed.

Shackleford, Cockrell and Hocker, J. J., concur.Taylor, J., absent on account of illness.
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