21 Ky.L.Rptr. 418
Court of Appeals of Kentucky.
DEAN et al. v. BAUGHMAN et al.
June 7, 1899.
ACTION: Affirmed.


Appeal from circuit court, Knox county. "Not to be officially reported."
Action by Milton Dean and others against A. F. Baughman and others to quiet title to land.
Judgment for defendants, and plaintiffs appeal.

HOBSON, J.
Appellants sued to have their title quieted to a small piece of land, alleged to be a part of a patent issued to Burns & Myers June 17, 1798, for 968 acres. The evidence is very conflicting as to whether the land is embraced within the patent. The court below, upon a full hearing, gave judgment for the defendant; and, after a careful investigation of the record, we are not inclined to disturb his judgment. The proof is very clear that Daniel Dean, under whom appellants claim, located the corner of the Burns & Myers patent at a point that would not include this land. It is also clear that at his death appellants did not consider this land a part of his estate, and that, when all the rest of his land was sold to pay his debts, a considerable balance of indebtedness was left unpaid, because, as they supposed, he had no other property. The plats of the original survey of this patent and the two adjoining patents show very clearly that the two sycamores on the river stood in a bend of the river where it crooked to the north, and not in a crook towards the south. These plats are strong evidence that these two sycamores stood above the mouth of Parrott Branch, and, if we locate this corner there, it throws the other corner about where Daniel Dean said it was, and makes the line running out from the river longer, when by the survey of appellants it is only a little over half as long as it ought to be from the river to the patent corner of Burns & Myers. This is more trustworthy evidence than the marks on the line M, B, on the plat, or on the line B, C; for no other corner was found at C or D, and, if the line B, C, was prolonged but slightly, it would take in a large part, if not all, the land in controversy. It is very hard to locate these old patents satisfactorily, and we are inclined to think that the river, as laid down on the original plats, the creeks therein indicated, and the dividing ridge, are the best evidence in the record as to the location of these lines. This evidence is confirmed by the fact that Daniel Dean allowed the walnut timber cut off this land, and certainly had no very clear idea that it belonged to him.

Judgment affirmed.


     

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