Louisville & Nashville Railroad v. Gulf of Mexico Land & Improvement Co.

Citations

• 82 Miss. 180

Syllabus

<p>1. Vendor and Vendee.' Contract for conveyance. Option.</p> <p>A contract to convey a strip of land across certain sections along a railroad, on§ hundred feet wide on either side of the track, as surveyed, located and staked, at any time within two years from date, when requested by the rail road company and upon the payment of a stipulated sum, is but an option.</p> <p>2. Same. Adverse possession. Necessity of exclusime possession. Innocent pwrchaser.</p> <p>A railroad company, claiming under such a contract, never recorded, having for more than ten years used and enclosed only a strip fifty feet wide on either side of its track, th'e same being sufficient for all of its purposes, and allowed the landowner to use and enclose the balance, cannot claim said balance by adverse possession; nor can it as against innocent purchasers for value claim that the legal title to said balance was held in trust for it.</p> <p>3. Same. Possession of part of tract. Extended, by construction. limitation on doctrine.</p> <p>Actual adverse possession of a part of the land described in an unrecorded conveyance under which the possessor claims title will extend a constructive actual possession only to so much of the land as is used in connection with the tract actually possessed and which is reasonable and proper for that purpose, according to the custom of the- country.</p>