Barclay v. Dismuke

202 S.W. 364, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 1248
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 23, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 202 S.W. 364 (Barclay v. Dismuke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barclay v. Dismuke, 202 S.W. 364, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 1248 (Tex. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

KING, J.

Suit by appellants against ap-pellees, in the ordinary form of trespass to try title, and with further pleading that appellees be required to open up a 20-foot alley between them, was filed in the district court of Tyler county on the 14th day of July, 1915, together with a plea of five and ten years’ limitation.

Appellees- answered, disclaiming all of the land described, except such part as was included in certain field notes pleaded by them; also general demurrer and plea of not guilty. The warsantotrs of appellees were made parties defendant, and affirmative relief was also asked against appellants for certain alleys inclosed by them.

A trial was had without the aid of a jury, and the court on February 22, 1917, rendered judgment to all that part of the land sued for, except a certain strip embraced in ap-pellees’’ field notes to appellants, and in favor of appellees for said strip, and requiring appellees to open up a 20-foot alley, and denying appellees’ prayer for opening up a street inclosed by appellants, and injunction prayed for by them. The warrantors were discharged, with costs. The case is properly before this court for revision. .

In 1881, T. D. Rock, the agreed common source, conveyed to Ellen Barclay, wife of R. B. Barclay, a part of a block of land within or near the town limits of Woodville, described as follows: '

“Beginning one hundred and ninety (190) feet S. 2° east of the southwest corner of lot No. three (3) in block six (6) in the town of Wood-ville on east side Magnolia street' (the above distance of 190 feet gives a 30-foot street S. of said lot No. 3, and 20-foot alley between said T. D. Rock’s land and the land sold to Ellen Barclay), a corner stake; thence south 2° east (80 yds.) eighty yards to a stake for corner; thence N. 88° E. eighty yards (80) a stake for corner; thence N. 2° west 80 yds., a stake for corner; thence S. 88 W. eighty yards to the beginning.”

In 1914 all of the heirs of T. D. Rock conveyed to Mrs. Betty Dismuke the following described lots:

“Beginning at the N. W. corner of a tract of land conveyed to Mrs. Ellen Barclay by T. D. Rock and wife by deed dated December, 1881; * * * hence north 60 yards alongside of the public road leading from Woodville to Beaumont to a stake for corner on Beaver street; thence east 80 yards alongside Beaver street to a stake for corner; thence south 60 yards to the northeast corner of said Mrs. Ellen Barclay’s tract of land; thence west 80 yards to the place of beginning — containing one acre of land, more or less.”

The judgment of the court .was in favor of appellants for the first-described tract, save and except any part of same that might be in conflict with the last-described tract. The court also found by the judgment:

That the real issue in the suit is the location of the boundary line between the premises of appellants and of appellees, and that the true north boundary line of appellant “is a line running from a point about 195 feet south of the S. W. corner of lot 3 in block 6 by allowing a 30-foot street between said block and appel-lees’ property, and also a 20-foot alley as hereinafter designated, which point is at a stake near the N. W. corner of plaintiffs’ yard fence; thence running east 80 yards with the plaintiffs’ fence.”

The. court further found that T. D. Rock intended an alley between the property of appellants and appellees the width of 20 feet, and that R. B. Barclay and Mrs. Ellen Barclay and. the public generally have an easement over the alley 20 feet wide, as dedicated and granted and described in the deed from T. D. Rock to Mrs. Barclay of date 1881, and that appellants shall forever have the right to keep said alley open, and to use the same for all lawful purposes as an alley, and that the boundary line, as fixed by the court as the north line of appellants’ *365 lot, should be the south and base line of said alley. The court also found that the call in the deed from Rock to Mrs. Barclay should read, “Beginning 190 feet south 2 degrees west” from the S. W. corner of lot 3 in block 6, instead of “190 feet south 2 degrees east.”

We find as a fact from the judgment of the court and from the evidence in the record that the beginning point of Mrs. Barclay’s lot is 190 feet south 2 degrees west from the southwest corner of lot 3 in block 6 in the town of Woodville. The lower court erred, however, in designating appellants’ north fence as the north boundary line of their lots.

Appellants’ northwest comer is here established 190 feet south 2 degrees west of the southwest corner of lot 3 in block 6, and their north line is fixed beginning at that point and running north 88 degrees east. The north line of appellants, as here located, is hereby constituted the south or base line of the alley; the north line being established 20 feet north of said south line.

It is conceded that T. D. Rock is the common source of title. The deed from Rock, December 20, 1881, vested title to such land as was described therein in appellants, who moved upon the land in 1882, and have resided thereon continuously since that date, as their homestead, and were living thereon when this suit was tried. They have paid all taxes every year, and have been claiming all of the land described in said deed. The heirs of T. D. Rock therefore conveyed to appellees only such land the title to which remained in their ancestor after the deed to appellants. The judgment of the lower court divested appellants of title to a strip of land which is included' in the field notes from the common source to appellants.

Appellees raise the question of estoppel by acts and declarations of appellant Barclay. Conceding that appellant R. B. Barclay did point out to numerous persons a stake which he claimed to be his corner, and that appellee understood from him that he was claiming such point as his corner, and his yard fence as his line, when we measure his' conduct and statements by the general rule as to estoppel in pais, we believe that they fall short, and that he himself would not be estopped thereunder. In order to constitute an estoppel, as a general rule, there must be a concurrence of the following circumstances: (1) There must be a representation or concealment of material facts; (2) the representation must have been met with none of the facts; (3) the party to whom it was made must have been ignorant of the truth of the matter; (4) it must have been made with intention that the other party would act upon it; (5) the other party must have been induced to act upon it.

The rule of estoppel is that, where one by his acts, declarations, or silence, where it is his duty to speak, has induced another, in reliance on such acts, declarations, or silence, to enter into a transaction, he shall not, to the hurt of the person so misled, impeach the transaction. - It will be borne in mind that appellees were not purchasing land from appellants, and it is not clearly shown in'the record that appellants knew for what purpose appellees and others were trying to locate the line. Dismuke could locate the north boundary line of appellants’ lot by his deed from the Rock heirs, because his beginning point, as recited in the deed, is the northwest corner of appellants’ lot. Therefore appel-lees could not have been ignorant of the truth of the matter represented to them by appellant.

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Bluebook (online)
202 S.W. 364, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 1248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barclay-v-dismuke-texapp-1917.