Reap v. Dougher

Citations

• 261 Pa. 23
• 103 A. 1014
• 1918 Pa. LEXIS 680

Syllabus

<p>Ejectment- — -Tenants in common — Possession by cotenamt — Adverse possession — Conflicting evidence — Witnesses—Competency— Acts of May 23, 1887, P. L. 158, Section 5, and June 11, 1891, P. L. 287 — Case for jury.</p> <p>1. Where a eotenant sets up adverse possession against another cotenant, he must show distinct notice of his changed attitude concerning his occupancy to the other eotenant followed by twenty-one years of actual, hostile possession. The acts or declarations relied upon as showing such changed attitude must be the equivalent of an actual ouster.</p> <p>2. In an action of ejectment where plaintiffs were entitled to the property claimed by adverse possession, if defendant had not obtained title by possession adverse to plaintiffs, it was admitted that plaintiffs and those under whom they claimed had been in possession from 1868 until 1888 when defendants went into possession. Plaintiffs offered evidence to prove that their possession continued thereafter for a sufficient time to give them title. It appeared that defendant was in possession from the time of his entry for more than twenty-one years, but plaintiffs contended that his possession was not adverse to theirs. It also appeared that plaintiffs and certain others held as cotenants, that defendant had married one of the cotenants, and plaintiffs contended that the defendant entered on the premises in right of his wife as a tenant in common, not in his own right. Defendant contended that he entered in his own right and that plaintiffs had notice that he claimed in his own right. The evidence was conflicting and the trial judge submitted the case to the jury who found a verdict for plaintiffs upon which judgment was entered; Held> no error. ¡</p> <p>3. In such case defendant and his wife were rendered incompetent by the Act of May 23, 1887, P. L. 158, Section 5, Clause E, to testify to anything occurring prior to the death of the mother of the plaintiffs, who claimed her interest in the property