Miller v. Corpman. ⚫deed may be read in evidence without proof of the possession of the land conveyed by the deed. Long v. McDowell, 87 Mo. 197. RAILEY, C.—On February 2, 1915, plaintiffs Anna V. Miller and Susie Jeffers filed, in the Circuit Court of Stoddard County, Missouri, a petition against appellants H. C. Corpman and Maggie Corpman, to ascertain and determine the respective titles, interests, etc., of said parties in and to the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 28, in Township 28 of Range 10 east, located in Stoddard County. On the application of appellants, the venue was changed, and the case tried before the court without a jury, in Mississippi County. Defendants answered, and admitted therein that they claimed to be the owners in fee simple of the real estate aforesaid. They deny every other allegation in plaintiffs' petition. They further aver that in 1887, H. C. Corpman purchased all the outstanding title, if any they had, of S. P. Jeffers and Annie C. Jeffers, father and mother of plaintiffs, Annie V. Miller and Susie Jeffers, both of whom are dead; that said S. P. Jeffers and wife executed and delivered to Walter Phelan a power of attorney vesting in him authority to convey the land aforesaid, and that, pursuant to said power vested in him, said Walter Phelan sold and conveyed said land to defendant H. C. Corpman. They further aver that they have acquired title to said real estate by adverse possession under the ten- and thirty-year Statute of Limitations. The reply is a general denial of the new matter contained in said answer. On October 22, 1917, the court found that plaintiffs are each entitled to an undivided one-fourth interest in said land, and that the defendants are jointly entitled to an undivided one-half interest therein. Judgment was entered in accordance with the above findings. Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were filed by defendants, overruled, and the cause duly appealed by them to this court. Miller v. Corpman. It was agreed between the parties in interest that the title to the land in controversy passed out of the United States Government, and into the State of Missouri, on March 16, 1869, and that C. Alonzo Kitchen was the common source of title, and acquired the above land, in his name, as above described, on September 21, 1869. It was admitted by plaintiffs that Mrs. Anna C. Jeffers was the only child of C. Alonzo Kitchen, at the time of the pendency of the tax suit, which resulted in the tax deed, offered in evidence by defendants, to Charles E. Stokes. Clara B. Burrus testified, in substance, that she was the grandmother of plaintiffs; that the mother of plaintiffs was Anna C. Jeffers; that said Anna C. Jeffers was the daughter of witness by Cornelius Alonzo Kitchen; that Mrs. Anna C. Jeffers was the only child of that marriage; that she (witness) executed the quit-claim deed to Anna V. Miller and Susie Jeffers, who are sisters; that both plaintiffs are daughters of said Anna C. Jeffers; that Price Jeffers was the husband of said Anna C. Jeffers; that the latter died in 1901, and Price Jeffers died in April, 1914; that the husband of witness owned lands in Stoddard, Butler and Dunklin counties, in Missouri; that she could not say her husband was ever in possession of the land in question; that her husband, Alonzo Kitchen, died in the Spring of 1870; that she had no recollection of his claiming the above land, and had no knowledge of his paying taxes thereon. Plaintiffs then offered in evidence a quit-claim deed from Clara B. Burrus, to Anna V. Miller and Susie Jeffers, dated April 8, 1915. Appellants have not set out any part of said deed in the abstract, but objected to the introduction of same on the alleged ground that the grantor had no title. As the objection to the admission of said deed was overruled, we presume it covered the land in question. Defendants offered in evidence a sheriff's tax deed to C. E. Stokes, dated December 6, 1879, conveying the land in question, and which will be referred to later. Miller v. Corpman. Appellants also offered in evidence a warranty deed, from Charles E. Stokes and wife, to Henry Bohlcke, dated January 27, 1882, conveying the land in controversy, which will also be considered later. Defendants offered in evidence a warranty deed from H. Bohlcke and wife to H. C. Corpman, dated October 24, 1887, conveying the land in question. Defendants next offered in evidence a quit-claim deed from Anna C. Jeffers, and S. P. Jeffers, to Walter Phelan, dated July 31, 1894, which was duly acknowledged and recorded, covering the undivided onehalf interest of the land in question. Defendants offered in evidence a warranty deed purporting to have been executed on November 27, 1894, by said Anna C. Jeffers and S. P. Jeffers, her husband, by Walter Phelan, their alleged attorney in fact, and by said Walter Phelan in his own behalf, conveying the land in question to defendant, H. C. Corpman. In order to avoid repetition, the foregoing and other testimony offered by defendants will be considered in the opinion. The case was submitted to this court upon the abstract of record, and briefs of appellants, no brief having been filed here in behalf of respondents. I. This case having been tried by the court without a jury, its finding of facts, if sustained by substantial evidence, is conclusive in this court. [Lee v. Conran, 213 Mo. 1. c. 412; Minor v. Burton, 228 Mo. 558; Slicer Practice. v. Owens, 241 Mo. 1. c. 323; Abeles v. Pillman, Appellate 261 Mo. 1. c. 376; Buford v. Moore, 177 S. W. 1. c. 872; Truitt v. Bender, 193 S. W. 1. c. 839; Coulson v. La Plant, 196 S. W. 1144; Roloson v. Riggs, 274 Mo. 1. c. 528; Case v. Sipes, 280 Mo. 1. c. 115, 217 S. W. 306, and cases cited; Christine v. Luyties, 280 Mo. 1. c. 426, 217 S. W. 55; Cowan v. Young, 282 Mo. 1. c. 45, 220 S. W. 1. c. 872; Bingham v. Edmonds, 210 S. W. 885; Nevins v. Gilliland, 290 Mo. 1. c. 299-300, 234 S. W. 1. c. 819; Kline Cloak & Coat Co. v. Morris, 240 S. W. 1. c. 100; Barr v. Stone, 242 S. W. 1. c. 663; Zeitinger v. Hargadine-McKittrick Dry Goods Co., 250 S. W. I. c. 917.] Miller v. Corpman. The trial court heard a large portion of the testimony offered by appellants, over respondents' objection, subject to the latter, and therefore made no definite ruling in respect to said matters. The rule of procedure Failure to Rule. adopted by the trial court, in respect to foregoing matters, has been condemned by the appellate courts of this State. [Seafield v. Bohne, 169 Mo. 1. c. 546; Asbury v. Hicklin, 181 Mo. 1. c. 658; Morrison v. Turnbaugh, 192 Mo. 427; State v. Swearengin, 269 Mo. 185; Stone v. Fry, 191 Mo. App. 1. c. 613; Hannon-Hickey Bros. Const. Co. v. Ry. Co., 247 S. W. 1. c. 440.] The plaintiffs, however, are not complaining of the above ruling, and the defendants are in no position to do so. It was agreed at the trial that the title to the land. in question passed out of the United States Government, and into the State of Missouri, on March 16, 1869, 'and that C. Alonzo Kitchen was the common source of title, and that it was conveyed to him under the above name on September 21, 1869. It was admitted that Mrs. Anna C. Jeffers was the only child of C. Alonzo Kitchen, at the time of the pendency of the tax suit, which resulted in the tax deed, offered in evidence by defendants, to Charles E. Stokes. It was shown by Mrs. Burrus, the mother of Anna C. Jeffers, that the latter was the only child of Cornelius Alonzo Kitchen, and that the latter died in the Spring of 1870. The trial court was, therefore, justified in finding, from the undisputed facts, that on the death of C. Alonzo Kitchen, in 1870, Anna C. Jeffers, his daughter, became the legal owner of the real estate in question, subject to the dower interest of her mother, Clara B. Burrus, therein. These plaintiffs were the only children of Anna C. Jeffers and Price Jeffers, her husband. The latter died in April, 1914, and the former died in 1901. Clara B. Burrus executed a quit-claim deed to plaintiffs on April 8, 1915, and thereby conveyed to them her dower interest in said land, if it had not become barred by limitation. It was shown by defendants that Anna C. Jeffers and Title by Miller v. Corpman. her husband, on July 31, 1894, executed a quit-claim deed to Walter Phelan, for the undivided one-half of the land in controversy, and, hence the court found that defendants were the owners of said interest. It is, therefore, manifest from the foregoing that plaintiffs are the legal owners of the undivided one-half of the land in question, unless the defendants and their predecessors in title, by deed or otherwise, acquired from said Anna C. Jeffers the undivided half interest which she did not convey to Phelan in the quit-claim deed aforesaid. II. It is claimed that whatever title Anna C. Jeffers acquired to the land in controversy by inheritance through her father, C. Alonzo Kitchen, who died in 1870, was lost to her by reason of the sheriff's tax deed read in evidence by defendants. Said deed recites that Last Above at the March term, 1880, of the Stoddard Cir, cuit Court, the sheriff exposed to sale at public auction, for ready money, "the above described real estate, and Charles E. Stokes being the highest bidder for the following described real estate, viz: Described Tract. "The Southwest one-half of Southeast quarter of Section 28, in township 28, range 10, and the Southeast quarter of Section 36, in township 24, range 12, for the sum of two and 35/100 dollars, also part of Northeast fractional quarter part of Southwest fractional quarter and Northwest quarter; all of. Section 28, in township 27, range 8, for the sum of Five and 06/100 dollars. The said last above described tract was stricken off and sold to the said Charles E. Stokes for the sum bid therefor by him as above set forth. "Now, therefore, in consideration of the premises, and of the sum of seven and 35/100 dollars, to me, the said sheriff, in hand paid by the said Charles E. Stokes, the receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, and by virtue of the authority in me vested by law, I, J. G. Lewis, sheriff as aforesaid, do hereby assign, transfer and con |