Bell v. Smith

6 S.W.2d 778, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 490
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 21, 1928
DocketNo. 7203.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 6 S.W.2d 778 (Bell v. Smith) 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
Bell v. Smith, 6 S.W.2d 778, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 490 (Tex. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

BLAIR, J.

Appellant, Bell, sought by this suit to enjoin appellees from traveling over and from tearing down and removing his fence and from interfering with his building a fence on and across a certain strip of land in Bell’s addition to the City of San Angelo, more particularly described by appellant as being about 43 feet, lying immediately north of the north end of what is designated Montague avenue, on the map and plat of the said addition, and being 60 feet wide. Ap-pellees answered that appellant had forever dedicated the strip of land to public use as a part of his said addition and as a part of Montague avenue, and was estopped by various acts pleaded to deny the dedication and to fence the public street.

A trial to the- court without a jury resulted in the following findings, conclusions, and judgment:

“The court finds that the facts are with the defendants as to the use of Montague avenue and as to the right to prevent the fence from being erected across Montague avenue, and that Montague avenue extends to the south boundary line of the land owned by the defendants. It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the plaintiff, T. P. Bell, is denied the right to erect a fence on the land embraced between the northwest corner of block 20 of Bell’s addition and a point 60 feet west of said point or at any other point on or across Montague avenue as it is defined above that will interfere with the free use of same by defendants.”

Appellant predicates his appeal from the above judgment upon twelve propositions of law, none of which is sustained. By the first three propositions, appellant contends the court erred in refusing to sustain ihis general demurrer to appellees’ entire answer and his several general exceptions to subdivisions of said answer, all of which were in effect that neither the answer nor any “of said subdivisions contain any allegations of fact sufficient to constitute a defense or part of a defense to plaintiff’s cause of action.”

In substance, the answer alleged: (a) That appellees were not guilty of the! wrongs and trespasses charged; (b) that the land in controversy had not been fenced by appellant for more than 20 years; (c) that it was a part of appellant’s addition, known as Bell’s addition to San Angelo, Tex., and was dedicated in 1905 by appellant by a written instrument, map, and plat duly filed and recorded, as a public street forever, and designated as Montague avenue, being 60 feet wide; (d) that thereafter appellant sold most of the lots in his said addition with reference to said map and plat, and particularly did a deed from appellant to the Sisters of Charity, conveying the northern part of block No. 20 in said addition, describe same by metes and bounds and with reference to the northeast corner of Montague avenue, which of necessity recognized the land in suit as a part of said Montague avenue; (e) that thereafter said avenue was kept graded and was used, by ap-pellees and the public as a street; (f) that, after the aforementioned dedication and acts of appellant appellees purchased certain lands just north of and abutting upon the north end *780 Of said Montague avenue, and used said avenue as a passageway to and from their lands; and (g) that appellant was therefore estopped to now deny the dedication of said land as a public street and to fence it so as to interfere with its use as a street.

The specific complaints now made by appellant against these pleadings of appellees are: (1) Because they do not plead any facts ‘upon which their claim of right to use the street was founded nor could be supported; (2) because they did not plead that they relied .upon Bell’s representation that Montague avenue extended to the south line of their property, nor any fact showing that they suffered any injury by reason of such representations; and (3) because the portions of the pleadings by which appellees sued in the interest of the public from having a public street closed in a growing city stated no defense to appellant’s cause of action.

With reference to the matters complained of in objections 1 and 2, we are of the opinion that they could have been reached only by special exceptions. The rule is now well settled that a pleader’s conclusions, drawn from facts not revealed, cannot be reached by a general demurrer or exception, but must be reached by a special exception against that defect. Garza v. Kenedy (Tex. Com. App.) 299 S. W. 231; Bagby v. Hodge (Tex. Civ. App.) 297 S. W. 882; Shaller v. Allen (Tex. Civ. App.) 278 S. W. 873.

With reference to the matters complained of in 3, the trial court did not consider them in arriving at its judgment, and for that reason we overrule the contention without further discussion.

Appellant’s nine remaining propositions raise in one way or another the insufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court’s findings of fact and the conclusions and judgment based thereon. Neither is sustained. The judgment is sufficiently supported by the following evidence: ‘ On November 23, 1905, appellant, Bell, dedicated 120 acres of land owned by him as Bell’s addition to San Angelo, Tex., which dedication reads in part as follows:

“Have subdivided said 120 acres of land into lots and blocks, streets and alleys, and have des-i ignated same as Bell’s addition to San Angelo, Tex. The foregoing and attached map is hereby declared to be a correct map and plat of Bell’s addition to San Angelo, covering said 120 acres of land, and the streets and alleys as shown on said map and hereby forever dedicate it to the public for use as public streets or alleys on, over, and across said tract of land, and the lots and blocks as shown on said map and numbered thereon are hereby declared to be a correct description of said lots and blocks of said Bell’s addition to San Angelo, Tex.” .

Appellant introduced his map and plat of his addition, and the following map represents the north side of the 120 acres and the map and :plat thereof which was duly filed and recorded in the Deed Records of Tom Green county, Tex.:

*781 Appellant’s correction map and plat, made in lieu of and correction of the one dated November 4, 1905, did not shade the area shown on the map, but we have done so for explanation purposes. The corrections made were to erase the figures “43” -written in the space which an extension of the east line of block No. 4 to the north would mark, to erase the figures “10” in the space which an extension of the west line of block No. 1 to the north would mark, and by adding the words, which were written with red ink, in the shaded area at the position shown on the above map, “Land north of blocks 1-2-3-4 not dedicated as alley.” Appellant contends that these corrections alone were sufficient to give notice that he intended to withdraw from dedication all the land between the red line on the north and land north of blocks 1, B, S, Jf, and to the west Hive of block No. BO, and above the figures “60” at the northeast of the comer of block No. Jf. Such contention might be correct if appellant had not thereafter deeded the north part of block No. 20 to the Sisters of Charity, describing it in part as follows:

“Thence with the north line of said addition south 89 degrees and 5'

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Bluebook (online)
6 S.W.2d 778, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 490, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bell-v-smith-texapp-1928.