Adams v. Sneed (41 Fla. 151, 1899)

Carter, J.:

On August 23, 1894, Page Sneed instituted in the Circuit Court of Duval county an action of ejectment against Louis Adams seeking to recover title to and possession of a certain parcel of land one hundred and five feet square in block 11 of Brooklyn, in the city of Jacksonville. J. C. Greeley and Samuel Gauze were subsequently made parties defendant upon their application, and the cause was by consent of parties referred to W. B. Young,' Esq., referee. Subsequently Nancy Ross Allen, Lucien Ross, Margaret Ross Bronson and Violet Ross, a minor, by her next friend, Lucien Ross, were made parties plaintiff. Greeley and Adams pleaded not guilty and a trial before the referee was had, resulting in a finding and judgment for plaintiffs, from which the defendants sued out this writ of error.

It seems that Gauze and Adams were tenants of Greeley, and claimed no rights in the property other than as such tenants. The record shows that this property formerly belonged to one Miles Price, who conveyed same to August Buesing September 2, 1867. Buesing conveyed to George W. Mitchell Mlarch 8, 1869, and Mitchell conveyed to Benjamin Jenkins January 24, 1877. There is evidence tending to show that Jenkins went into possession of the property after his purchase; that he died a bachelor and intestate about May, 1892; that his mother and the mother of Page Sneed were sisters; that Nancy Ross Allen, Luden Ross, Margaret Ross Bronson and Violet Ross were the children and heirs at law of one Henry Ross, deceased, a brother of Page Sneed. It was agreed between the parties at the trial that “the mother of Page Sneed, the mother of Ben Jenkins and also the mother of these two women were born and lived and died in slavery, and were not married other than according to the customs of slavery times in middle Florida.” Greeley claimed title to the land through conveyances from grantees of the heirs of Miles Price. The referee found that the mother of Page Sneed and Henry Ross and the