Davis v. Sim

Citations

• 100 Kan. 66
• 163 P. 622
• 1917 Kan. LEXIS 265

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Possession op Real Estate — Claim of Ownership — Action for Damages. Rule followed that possession of property under claim of ownership is sufficient title to maintain an action against a wrongdoer for damages to the property.</p> <p>2. Negligence — Defective Dam — Flooding Lands — Holder of Equitable Title Entitled to Damages. Where a corporation has been informally-abandoned or dissolved and the rights of creditors protected and the corporate property apportioned and allotted to the shareholders, and the corporation authorizes the execution and delivery of instruments conveying the property in accordance therewith, an allottee who had taken possession pursuant thereto may maintain an action for damages to the property thus apportioned to him, although he did not receive formal conveyance of title until after his cause of action for damages accrued.</p> <p>.3. Evidence — Transactions with Deceased Persons. Where the civil code (§ 820) forbids parol evidence of transactions with deceased persons, proof of such transactions need not fail but may be established by circumstantial or other competent evidence.</p> <p>4. Dissolution op Corporation — Distribution of Assets — Holder of ■ Equitable Title to Land Entitled to Damages for Flooding the Same. A father, mother and their two sons were the directors of a corporation and the exclusive shareholders of its stock. The minutes of their corporation records show that they determined to wind up the corporate business, arrange for the payment of its debts, and apportion the corporate property. One son was allotted one hundred and twenty acres of the corporate property and entered into possession. The father, mother and the second son were jointly allotted the remaining three-fourths of the property, and the father, as president of the corporation, was authorized to execute deeds accordingly and to convey the interest of himself, his wife and the second son to “such party or parties as they