Laney v. Monsanto Chemical Co.

These two cases, consolidated for trial in the court below, involve the title to a forty-acre tract of land that was formerly owned by Charles Richardson, the parties’ common source of title, who died in 1935. The land was sold for nonpayment of taxes in 1925, and two years later a tax deed was executed and delivered to the purchasers, George W. Hays and J. B. Newton.

There are three sets of claimants to at least some interest in the land. First, the heirs of the tax title purchasers, Hays and Newton, assert a claim of absolute ownership on the basis of two years actual possession under the…