Barton v. Parks

127 S.W.2d 376, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 585
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 6, 1939
DocketNo. 10700.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 127 S.W.2d 376 (Barton v. Parks) 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. Parks, 127 S.W.2d 376, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 585 (Tex. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

MONTEITH, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the SSth District Court of Harris County in a trespass to try title action brought by Mrs. Louise L. Parks, appellee, against appellant, Donald C. Barton, and Mrs. Maud H. Maddox, for the title and possession of the west 70 feet of Lots 9 and 10 in Block 50, of the McGregor-Blodgett Subdivision, Section 3, of the City of Houston. The trial was before the court without a jury and resulted in a judgment for appellee for the title and possession of the property in controversy.

Appellee instituted suit in trespass to _ try-title. Appellant, Donald C. Barton, answered by general demurrer, general denial, plea of not guilty, the three, five, and ten years statutes of limitation, and in a cross-action, which was afterwards dismissed but which he adopted as defensive, pleas, he set up claims for taxes and assessments paid in good faith and claim for purchase-money alleged to have been paid by himself and his predecessor in title. Defendant, Mrs. Maud H. Maddox, filed a disclaimer in appellee’s favor.

The record shows the following material facts: On April 24, 1924, Mrs. Maud H. Maddox acquired the property in controversy from the McGregor estate for a. consideration of $260 cash and the execution by her of ten promissory notes of $234 each. On August 5, 1925, Mrs. Maud. H. Maddox conveyed said property to Mrs.. Nemira L. Pilson, who, as part of the-consideration therefor, assumed and after-wards paid the ten notes for $234 above-referred to. The deed from Mrs. Maud H.. Maddox to Mrs. Nemira L. Pilson was not-filed for record in the Harris County deed records until April 28, 1936. Mrs. Nemira. L. Pilson transferred said property to Donald C. Barton by deed dated May 12,. 1936, and filed for record on May 20, 1936,. for a consideration of $2200, which was paid in cash. Appellant, Donald C. Bar *377 ton, and Mrs. N emir a L. Pilson paid all taxes assessed against said property, aggregating several hundred dollars.

On June 4, 1934, a judgment was rendered in the 80th District Court of Harris County in cause No. 213,647, in favor of Louise L. Parks against M. H. Maddox, a widow, John J. Burke, Carl W. Baker, and John Bredemus, wherein Mrs. Louise L. Parks recovered judgment against M. H. Maddox, John J. Burke, Carl W. Baker, and each of them for $10,340.00, with ten per cent interest and costs of court, and for a foreclosure of liens against certain property in Westmoreland Farms Subdivision in Harris County, Texas, against all of above defendants and defendant John Bredemus. No personal judgment was rendered against John Bredemus.

On July 14, 1934, execution and order of sale in said cause was levied on and sale was made of said property in West-moreland Farms Subdivision to W. O. Huggins, assignee of plaintiff. The return recited that the execution was entitled to a credit of $8500, less $118.10.

On June 13, 1936, alias execution and order of sale was issued in said cause and the property in controversy was sold by sheriff’s deed on July 7, 1936, to Louise L. Parks for the sum of $250. This sheriff’s deed was filed for record on July 27, 1936. The deed to this property from Nemira L. Pilson to Donald C. Barton was dated May 12, 1936, and was filed for record on May 20, 1936.

An abstract of judgment in said cause was duly filed for record on February 27, 1935, in the judgment records of Harris County, Texas. However, the name of John Bredemus was omitted from said abstract of judgment and his name was not entered upon the alphabetical index to such judgment record as required by law.

The record does not show that appellant, at the time of his purchase of the property in controversy, had actual knowledge or notice of any outstanding judgment against Mrs. Maud H. Maddox.

The court made the following findings of fact and conclusion of law:

“I find that defendants deraign their title from the same source as plaintiff, and that plaintiff’s conveyance was first;
“That defendants, nor their privies, were innocent purchasers without notice;
“That none of the defendants had open, notorious, adverse possession nor use for a period of time necessary to ripen same into title.
“I conclude that the plaintiff should recover the property.”

Appellant contends that the sale of the property in controversy to appellee under alias execution and order of sale, itnder which she claims title, was void and passed no title to said property, for the reason that the title thereto had been divested out of the judgment debtor, Mrs. Maud H. Maddox, prior to the issuance of said alias execution and order of sale; that the abstract of judgment under which appellee claimed title was fatally defective and void and constituted no abstract of judgment lien upon the property in controversy, in that it affirmatively appeared that the name of one of the parties defendant in said cause, John Bredemus, was not shown in said abstract of judgment, and that the name of John Bredemus was not entered upon the alphabetical index to such judgment record.

Appellant further contends that said abstract of judgment did- not correctly state the amount of said judgment, nor the balance due thereon, nor furnish within itself facts from which same could be computed, including the amount of interest due thereon. He further contends that since it was proven that there was an outstanding equitable title to the property in controversy in R. Emmett Morse, that said outstanding title was superior to that of appellee, and that the court erred in refusing to render judgment establishing liens of appellant arising out of his payment of taxes and the discharge by himself and his predecessors in title of valid and subsisting liens against said property superior to the abstract of judgment lien claimed by appellee.

The controlling issue in this appeal is whether or not by reason of the failure of said abstract of judgment to carry the name of John Bredemus, one of the parties defendant in the judgment in cause No. 213,647, and by reason of the failure to index said abstract of judgment alphabetically in the name of John Bredemus, the abstract of judgment lien ever in fact came into existence.

This question has been decided by our courts in an unbroken line of authorities.

In the case of McGlothlin v. Coody, et al., Tex.Com.App., 59 S.W.2d 819, 821, under a state of facts similar in many re *378 spects to those in the instant case, the Commission of Appeals holds that the questions involved therein, which are decisive of this appeal, are governed by Revised Statutes of 1925, Articles 5447, 5448, and art. 5449, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 5449.

“Article 5447. Each clerk of a court, when the person in whose favor a judgment was rendered, his agent, attorney or assignee, applies therefor, shall make out, certify under his hand and official seal, and deliver to such applicant upon the payment of the fee allowed by law, an abstract of such judgment showing:
“1. The names of the plaintiff and of the defendant in such judgment.
“2.

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Bluebook (online)
127 S.W.2d 376, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 585, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barton-v-parks-texapp-1939.