Baker v. Compton

52 Tex. 252, 1879 Tex. LEXIS 136
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 4, 1879
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 52 Tex. 252 (Baker v. Compton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baker v. Compton, 52 Tex. 252, 1879 Tex. LEXIS 136 (Tex. 1879).

Opinion

Gould, Associate Justice.

Appellants, Baker and wife, brought this action of trespass to try title to a lot in the city of Bren ham, claiming it as the separate property of Mrs. Baker. Mrs. Baker’s title was evidenced by a deed from W. W. Simmons of date ^November 2, 1862, Simmons having bought of A. Testard, from whom defendants also deraign their title, on September 3, 1860, executing his notes for an unpaid balance of the purchase-money, and receiving a deed which recited the notes. The title of defendants was under an execution sale had on January 5,1869, by virtue of a judgment in the District Court of Washington county, in favor of John Brown against A. Testard and others, of date April 6, 1860, at which sale they claimed that C. Ennis became the purchaser, and subsequently conveyed to them. They further sought to protect themselves in the possession of the lots, asserting that Ennis became the holder of the unpaid purchase-money notes of Simmons, and by reason of that fact acquired and transmitted to them the vendor’s lien of A. Testard, and other rights of Testard in and to the land. They also defended under the five years’ limitation. The case was submitted to the court, and judgment rendered in favor of defendants.

Appellants assign as error several rulings of the court in the admission of evidence; but the statements in the brief of counsel are insufficient to enable us to see that the court erred, or, if it erred, that the error was material.

Mrs. Baker’s title is superior to that of defendants, unless the latter and the judgment of the court can be supported on one of the three grounds set up by defendants, as stated above.

1st. Appellees insist that the John Brown judgment was a lien on the .lot at the date of its rendition, although not recorded as required by the “Act to prevent judgments from becoming dormant, and to create and preserve judgment liens,” passed February 14,1860. This act, it is said, took effect, not, [259]*259as stated in Paschal’s Annotated Digest in the margin, and as heretofore assumed by this court, from its passage, but sixty days after the adjournment of the Legislature. (Paschal’s Dig., art. 3962; Boggess v. Howard, 40 Tex., 156.) If this be not so, appellees’ claim to a judgment lien must fail. The act of February, 1860, provides that “ no judgment hereafter rendered shall operate as a lien until tiled in the office of the clerk of the County Court of the county where it is rendered, for registration.” Its third .section reads: “ From and after the passage of this act no sheriff, or other officer, shall sell real estate under and by virtue of an execution, without having previously obtained from the clerk of the County Court where the sale is made a certificate stating the number and amount of judgments against the defendant in execution of record in his office,”—proceeding to regulate the sale and the distribution of the proceeds on the basis of recorded judgment liens provided for in other sections of the same act. In our opinion, the legislative intent appears on the face of the act, that it shall take effect from its passage. That intention in regard to the third section is expressed so clearly and explicitly as to admit of no other construction. That section is so connected with and dependent upon the others, as to make it impracticable for it to go into operation by itself. Hence, we repeat, it clearly appears on the face of the act that it was intended to take effect from its passage. In our opinion, the legislative intention is to be carried out, notwithstanding the former statute prescribing that “Every law hereafter made shall commence and he in force with the commencement of the sixtieth day after the day of the adjournment of the session of the Legislature at which such law may be passed, unless in the law itself another time for the commencement thereof is particularly mentioned.” (Paschal’s Dig., art. 4576.) It is true that after this enactment it was usual to insert in statutes intended to take effect at once a clause providing “that this act shall take effect from and after its passage.” 'Examples may, however, be found where it is enacted that “from and after the [260]*260passage of this act” certain things shall be lawful, without any other or particular designation of the time when the act shall take effect. (Gen. Laws 12th Leg., 1st sess., p. 63.) In such cases, the legislative intent is clearly expressed, and is not to be defeated by reason of the failure to make the particular designation required by a former Legislature. The later act, being complete in its own provisions, must control. In a case where a statute is silent, or where its construction is obscure and doubtful, the rule prescribed would apply. We have seen that the statute under consideration is neither silent nor obscure. We know of no way of reconciling the provisions of the two statutes. The third section of the later act speaks in unambiguous language, “from the date of its passage,” and therefore cannot be controlled by the former law.

The cases cited by counsel originated when there was a constitutional provision regulating the subject. In such cases the question is, not as to the legislative intent, but whether the act conforms to the constitutional requirement. The Constitution of Illinois directed that no public act take effect until sixty days from the end of the session, “unless, in case of emergency, the General Assembly shall otherwise direct.” A statute prescribed that “ from and after the 1st of March next it shall not he lawful,” &c. It -was held that it “ did not direct that the act shall become an operative law’ before the time fixed by the constitutional provision quoted.” (Wheeler v. Chubbuck, 16 Ill., 363.) The legislative intent, however clear, v7as inoperative unless expressed in the form prescribed by the Constitution.

2d. Appellees’ second counter-proposition in support of the judgment is, that “by the sale made under the judgment in favor of Brown v. Testard and others, and by the transfer by the Testárds to Ennis of the unpaid purchase-money notes, and the subsequent conveyances from Ennis to the defendants, the title to the property in controversy passed to the defendants in this suit.”

Under this, three minor propositions are submitted, which, [261]*261with the authorities cited by counsel in support of each, are as follows:

“First minor proposition: When land is conveyed and the deed shows that the vendor’s lien is retained,-the vendor holds the better title. (Roosevelt v. Davis, 49 Tex., 463; Peters v. Clements, 46 Tex., 119; Dunlap’s Administrator v. Wright, 11 Tex., 597; Baker v. Ramey, 27 Tex., 52; Monroe v. Buchanan, 27 Tex., 241; Caldwell v. Fraim, 32 Tex., 327.)

“ Second minor proposition: The title of Testard, the original vendor, passed by the transfer of the two purchase-money notes, and by the sheriff’s sale, to Ennis, the vendor of the defendants in possession. (Baker v. Clepper, 26 Tex., 629.)

“Third minor proposition : A plaintiff in an .action of trespass to try title not having paid the purchase-money, cannot recover against his vendor, or those claiming under him, who are in possession. (Burgess v. Millican, 50 Tex., 397; Dunlap’s Administrator v. Wright,-11 Tex., 597; Browning v. Estes, 3 Tex., 462; Baker v. Clepper, 26 Tex., 629.)”

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52 Tex. 252, 1879 Tex. LEXIS 136, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baker-v-compton-tex-1879.