Walker v. Converse

Citations

• 148 Ill. 622
• 36 N.E. 202

Syllabus

<p>1. Limitation—title by, available for attach as well as for defense.. Where the bar of the Statute of Limitations has become absolute, and the party entitled is in possession under it, it is thereafter just as available for attacking as for defensive purposes, and may be successfully asserted against all the world, including the owner of the former paramount title; and the holder of such title by limitation may maintain a bill in equity to establish the same, and have the title of the former owner declared void, and removed as a cloud on complainant’s title.</p> <p>2. Same—what is “vacant and unoccupied land.” The phrase “vacant and occupied land,” as used in section 7 of our present Statute of Limitations, means lands not in the actual possession of any one. Entries upon land which are merely temporary, and made without claim of right, or with the intention of excluding others therefrom, such as-camping thereon, or leaving a chattel thereon, or occasionally building a hay-stack thereon, do not constitute actual possession, so as to-change the character of vacant land to that of land actually possessed or occupied.</p> <p>3. Same—possession to arrest running of statute. A mere trespass, upon land without claim or color of right, or repeated or continuous trespasses, can not constitute such occupan cy as will arrest the 1'unnin g of the seventh section of the Statute of Limitations. There must be such possession or occupancy as will, in law, amount to an ouster of the legal possession arising from the title.</p> <p>4. Same—tax deed as color of title. A tax deed regular on its face, and which purports to convey the fee, is color of title under the Limitation act of 1839, and a party claiming under that act is not required to show that the requirements of the statute were complied with in the levying of the tax, the advertising of the property, the recovery of the judgment, the conducting of the sale and the execution of the deed. He is not required' to go beyond th