Beazley v. Beazley

273 S.W.2d 938, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2296
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 16, 1954
Docket5003
StatusPublished

This text of 273 S.W.2d 938 (Beazley v. Beazley) 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
Beazley v. Beazley, 273 S.W.2d 938, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2296 (Tex. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

R. L. MURRAY, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from an adverse judgment in a trespass to try title case in San Jacinto County. The appellants are A. H. Beazley et al. and Eugenia S. Beazley is the appellee.

The land involved is 187½ acres in San Jacinto County. This was acquired by Dr. W. H. Beazley in 1882 from Monroe C. Wiley. The tract involved was known as the West one-half of the Wiley farm. Dr. Beazley acquired the property while married to his first wife, Mary Beazley. Mrs. Mary Beazley, Dr. Beazley’s first wife, was the mother and grandmother of the appellants. She died intestate in 1893. Dr. Beazley and the appellee, Eugenia S. Beaz-ley, were married in 1895. During the lifetime of Mrs. Mary Beazley, Dr. Beaz-ley and Mary Beazley conveyed an undivided one-half interest in the Wiley farm to his brother, Jack Beazley. In 1895 Dr. Beazley conveyed the land involved to Eugenia S. Beazley as her separate property. This deed described and purported to convey the East one-half of the Wiley farm and recited that the other one-half was owned by his brother Jack Beazley. In 1917 Dr. Beazley made a second deed whereby he conveyed the West one-half of the Wiley farm to Mrs. Eugenia S. Beaz-ley, although at that time the heirs of Jack Beazley still owned an undivided interest. On March 14, 1919 the heirs of Jack Beaz-ley conveyed the West one-half of the Wiley farm to the appellee, Eugenia Beaz-ley, as her separate property. This deed of conveyance was filed for record July 28, 1919. The second deed from' Dr. Beazley to Eugenia S. Beazley was filed for record February 19, 1917. Dr. Beazley died in 1919.

Mrs. Eugenia S. Beazley has been in continuous possession of the property by ten-' ants from 1919 to the date of the trial in 1954 and had paid taxes on it for more than 50 years, payments being made each year before delinquency except in one year, 1931. The 1931 taxes were paid but after they became delinquent. She had her own-livestock on the land continuously, made improvements on the land, had it completely enclosed by fences capable of turning livestock. She executed various timber deeds and oil and gas leases and easements on the property in 1905, 1924, 1927, 1932, 1942, 1947, 1948, 1951 and 1953. None of the appellants, children and grandchildren of Dr. Beazley, deceased, ever paid or offered to pay any taxes on the land. They knew that the appellee was using the property and paying the taxes.

*940 Mrs. Eugenia S. Beazley brought the suit in trespass to try title in May, 1953 against the appellants, who were the children and grandchildren ' of ’ Dr. Beazley, deceased. They answered by pleas of not guilty and also brought a cross action for an undivided one-half interest in the property. The case was tried to a jury, which returned a verdict favorable to the appellee. Judgment was rendered and entered for the appellee, on the ■ verdict. The jury in its verdict found in,favor of.the appellee under the 5, 10, and 25 year statutes of limitations. The verdict also found that Dr. Beazley conveyed certain tracts of 'land to the appellants and each of them for the purpose of effecting an equitable partition of the property of W. H. Beazley and his first wife, Mary Beazley. The verdict further found that the appellants accepted the conveyances as such equitable partition.

After the entry, of. such judgment the appellants brought their.appeal to this court for review of the judgment.

The appellants contend on appeal that the appellee and the appellants, after the deeds to Eugenia Beazley, were cotenants even though by the 1917 deed Dr. Beazley purported ‘to convey to. Eugenia Beazley the entire 187 acre tract. They say that upon the death of their mother, Mrs. Mary Beaz-ley, title to an undivided one-half interest vested in them and'that when Dr. Beazley made his conveyance to Eugenia Beazley and such deed was filed for record the relationship between the parties as cotenants was not disturbed.

They say that Mrs. Eugenia Beazley, being the wife of their father'Dr. Beazley, was not a stranger to the title and since they were not holding as heirs of Dr. Beaz-ley but became the' owners of an undivided on'e-half interest by inheritance from their mother/Mary Beazley, the recording of the deed from Dr. Beazley to Eugenia Beazley did • not operate as constructive notice to them so as to begin the running of statutes of limitation in favor of Eugenia Beazley’ against them. They rely upon the cases of Lynch v. Lynch, Tex.Civ.App., 130 S.W. 461; Brooks v. Shaw, Tex.Civ.App., 159 S.W.2d 206; Bruni v. Vidaurri, 140 Tex. 138, 166 S.W.2d 81.

The appellee on the other hand contends that under the rule announced in Jones v. Siler, 129 Tex. 18, 100 S.W.2d 352 she was a stranger to the title and that the deed purported to pass title to the entire tract of land to her and not merely Dr. Beazley’s. interest in the property, and thus the statutes of limitation began to run in her favor from the time the deeds to her were filed. The court in the special issues submitted to the jury, inquired only as to the period of. time after the death of Dr. Beazley as to the various limitation periods.

Appellants’, first four points, which present their contentions in this matter are overruled. When Dr. Beazley executed the deed to Mrs. Eugenia Beazley, purporting to convey the entire premises to her, and she placed it of record, and she also filed for record the deed from the heirs of Jack Beazley, deceased, whatever semblance of cotenancy existed between her and the appellants was repudiated. Her long and continuous acts of complete dominion over the premises, before and after the death of Dr. Beazley in 1919, was so long continued, open, notorious, exclusive and inconsistent with the existence of title in others except her that the jury could rightfully find from these facts both actual and constructive notice of her adverse holding and disseizin. See: Welch v. Armstrong, Tex.Civ.App., 62 S.W.2d 335; Moore v. Knight, 127 Tex. 610, 94 S.W.2d 1137; Jones v. Siler, 129 Tex. 18, 100 S.W.2d 352; Republics Production Co. v. Lee, 132 Tex. 254, 121 S.W. 2d 973; Mauritz v. Thatcher, Tex.Civ.App., 140 S.W.2d 303; Allison v. Texas Company, Tex.Civ.App., 161 S.W.2d 167.

The basic rule is well established that when a cotenant or a tenant in common executes a deed purporting to convey the entire premises to a third person who enters in possession thereof, claiming title to the whole, this will constitute a disseizin of the cotenants. Naylor & Jones v. Foster, 44 *941 Tex. 599, 99 S.W. 114; McBurney v. Knox, Tex.Com.App., 273 S.W. 819.

We think that the exception to the general rule announced in Lynch v. Lynch, supra, has no application here since there is a variance in the fact situation here from that in the Lynch v. Lynch case. As pointed out in the case of Liddell v. Gordon, Tex.Civ.App., 241 S.W.

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Related

Naylor & Jones v. Foster
99 S.W. 114 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1907)
Moore v. Knight
94 S.W.2d 1137 (Texas Supreme Court, 1936)
Liddell v. Gordon
241 S.W. 750 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1922)
Brooks v. Shaw
159 S.W.2d 206 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1942)
Magee v. Paul
221 S.W. 254 (Texas Supreme Court, 1920)
Republic Production Co. v. Lee
121 S.W.2d 973 (Texas Supreme Court, 1938)
Allison v. Texas Co.
161 S.W.2d 167 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1942)
Jones v. Siler
100 S.W.2d 352 (Texas Supreme Court, 1937)
Ramirez v. Acker
138 S.W.2d 1054 (Texas Supreme Court, 1940)
Bruni v. Vidaurri
166 S.W.2d 81 (Texas Supreme Court, 1942)
McBurney v. Knox
273 S.W. 819 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1925)
Welch v. Armstrong
62 S.W.2d 335 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1933)
Mauritz v. Thatcher
140 S.W.2d 303 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
273 S.W.2d 938, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2296, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beazley-v-beazley-texapp-1954.