Barker v. Swenson

Citations

• 66 Tex. 407
• 1 S.W. 117
• 1886 Tex. LEXIS 534

Syllabus

<p>I. Land certificates—Adverse possession—Limitation—Plaintiffs claimed the land in controversy as the heirs of the party to whom the certificate, under which the land was located, issued. Defendants claimed title by virtue of an adverse possession of the certificate for two years before it was located. Held:</p> <p>(1) A land certificate is personal property, as is a promissory note or other evidence of indebtedness, and while not technically a chose in action, it has many of the characteristics of such property.</p> <p>(2) If the true owner of a certificate elect to treat its adverse possession as a conversion, and seek to recover its value, he must bring his action within two years from the accrual of his cause of action. (Andrews v. Smithwick, 20 Tex., Ill; 24 Tex., 494, and 34 Tex., 544.)</p> <p>(3) His failure to do so does not annul his right to recover that to which the paper-evidenced his title, nor can it confer such right upon another. Title to property corporeal or incorporeal, cannot be acquired by adverse possession of the mere evidence of the right of the true owner.</p> <p>(4) The right which one has through an unlocated land certificate is an intangible thing, which rests in the true owner, and cannot be adversely possessed bv another.</p> <p>(5) When a land certificate is sold under execution or in course of an administration, the right to acquire land under it passes to the purchaser on the theory that the certificate symbolizes the right which is the thing sold in such cases, as it is when the owner of such a certificate makes a voluntary sale.</p> <p>(6) Oases reviewed.</p>