Barton v. Chrestman

275 S.W. 401, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 741
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 14, 1925
DocketNo. 1757. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 275 S.W. 401 (Barton v. Chrestman) 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
Barton v. Chrestman, 275 S.W. 401, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 741 (Tex. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

HIGGINS, J.

On December 2, 1919, ap-pellee, Chrestman, executed1 an oil and gas lease to Homar Peeples, covering 23 acres of land. The lease provided that the “lessee shall have the right at any time to remove all machinery and fixtures placed on said premises, including the right to draw and remove casing.” Peeples assigned the lease to appellant, Barton.

Subsequently Chrestman sued Barton and others in the district court of Comanche county, the suit being numbered 6735, and judgment was therein rendered on May 8, 1923. The judgment from which the present appeal is prosecuted was rendered in further litigation subsequently arising.

In cause No. 6735 Chrestman’s petition was in two counts, but only the first count thereof was in evidence. This count was offered by" Chrestman, and is in the usual form of trespass to try title. Barton answered in No. 6735, by general denial and plea of not guilty and special plea,, that, if any ground of forfeiture of the léase had arisen, it had been waived by Chrestman; that by the terms of the lease it was to remain in effect so long as oil or gas was produced in paying quantities, and that the lessee was permitted at all times to pull and remove the casing and all equipment thereon; and, if it appeared oil and gas could not be produced in paying quantities, that he have judgment for such casing and equipment and permission to remove the same.

By„ way of cross-action Barton in No. 6735 also set up that he was the owner of all personal property upon the leasehold, including easing, pipe lines, sucker rods, jacks, pumps, connections, and gasoline engines, of the value of $2,000, which, it was alleged, had been converted by Chrestman, and for which amount he prayed judgment.

Upon the trial of that case an instructed verdict was returned, upon which judgment was rendered as follows: In favor of Chrest-man against Barton and his codefendants for the land upon the first count of trespass to try title; in favor of the defendant Tom Myrick against Barton and his codefendants for the sum of $1,058.00 and interest, of which amount $120 was adjudged to be secured by a laborer’s lien on “the oil wells and appurtenances thereto on said 23 acres of land,” which lien was foreclosed and order of sale directed to issue; that Barton take nothing by his cross-action; “that defendant, L. R. Barton, recover of all parties hereto the personal property situated upon said 23 acres leasehold at the time this suit was filed.herein, namely, July 19, 1922, and it is further ordered that plaintiff, J. E. Chrestman, recover of ail parties hereto all personal property placed on- said lease and said 23 acres of land since the filing of this suit on July 19, 1922.”

With reference to the judgment in favor of Myrick the judgment contained this further provision:

“Upon collection of said $120 or payment thereof of or by plaintiff, J. E. Chrestman, in order to protect the title to the property adjudged to the plaintiff herein, said plaintiff, J. E. Chrestman, shall be subrogated,for said sum or so much thereof as may be collected from or paid by said J. E. Chrestman, against all the defendants herein and hereto, except Tom Myrick.”

Chrestman paid the $120 to Myrick, and upon November 12„ 1923, caused to be issued an ordinary execution upon the judgment against Barton and his codefendants for the collection of said $120 and $84.43 costs of the suit.

By direction of Chrestman the' sheriff, *403 acting through his deputy, T. M. Marshall, levied the execution upon certain property thus described in the levy indorsed upon the writ:

“Two Novo gas engines, one (1) Fairbanks gas engine; about 400 feet of 2-ineh pipe connecting wells to tanks; one (1) 250 barrel steel bolted Parkersburg tank; one (1) 100 barrel corrugated iron tank; about 140 feet of 6% inch casing, stacked on the ground; one (1) box shack, about 12 by 20, all- of the above described personal property now situated on a certain 23 acres of land, out of J. E. Chrest-man survey, in Comanche county, Tex., abstract No. 1816, being the same property in controversy in this cause, and on which certain oil wells are now being operated; also one set of derrjek timbers, and all rig irons now on the right of way of the Katy railroad at Sipe Springs, Tex.”

The property thus seized was advertised for sale upon December 29, 1923. Upon the date of sale Chrestman undertook to direct the officer conducting the sale as to the or-' der in which the various articles should be sold, which the officer declined to follow, whereupon Chrestman directed the officer to release the levy and return the execution. This the officer declined to do, and sold the property; Barton becoming the purchaser.

On January 1, 1924, the present suit was filed by Chrestman against Barton, B. E. Marshall, the sheriff of Comanche county, and his deputy, Tom Edwards, the latter being the officer who- had made the levy and sale aforesaid.

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Related

Permian Oil Co. v. Smith
73 S.W.2d 490 (Texas Supreme Court, 1937)
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47 S.W.2d 500 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
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290 S.W. 196 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
275 S.W. 401, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 741, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barton-v-chrestman-texapp-1925.