Webster v. Pittsburg, Cleveland & Toledo Railroad

Citations

• 78 Ohio St. (N.S.) 87

Syllabus

<p>Action for ejectment or to compel appropriation of property — Section 6448, Revised Statutes — Statutes of limitations — Does not begin to run against reversioner or remainderman — Until death of life tenant.</p> <p>1. As the right of entry and immediate possession is essential to recovery in an action of ejectment, the statute of limitations does not start to run until the right of entry and possession accrues; and where the real estate is in the possession of a life tenant, such 'statute does not begin to run against the reversioner or remainderman until the death of the life tenant, or until his life estate be otherwise terminated.</p> <p>2. No possssion can be deemed adverse to a party who has not at the time the right of entry and possession.</p> <p>3. W, a married woman, died in 1872, seized in fee simple of certain real estate, leaving a husband surviving her, and several children, who are her heirs at law. The husband took an estate by curtesy. In the year 1882, the P. C. & T. railroad company, without proceeding to appropriate the right to do so, and without any contract with the owners or any of them, took possession of the premises and constructed its railroad thereon and thereover, and has ever since held possession without title. The life tenant died in 1892, and the heirs commenced this case in the probate court under Section 6448, Revised Statutes, August 14, 1904.</p> <p>Held: That the action was not barred by the twenty-one year statute of limitations, and that the statutory bar did not begin to run until the death of the life tenant.</p>