Bond v. Kirby Lumber Co.

2 S.W.2d 936
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 22, 1927
DocketNo. 1631.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2 S.W.2d 936 (Bond v. Kirby Lumber Co.) 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
Bond v. Kirby Lumber Co., 2 S.W.2d 936 (Tex. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

WALKER, J.

This suit was instituted in the form of trespass to try title by appellee, Kirby Lumber Company, against W. P. Bond, Miller-Vidor Lumber Company, and Buna State Bank, to recover the title and possession of T. & N. O. section 11, in Jasper county, Tex., except 111 acres off the west side of that survey, as appellee located it upon the ground. Buna State" Bank filed a disclaimer. Bond answered by plea of not guilty and pleas of estoppel. He also filed a cross-action against the plaintiff for eight separate tracts of land located in different parts of Jasper county. He also impleaded W. H. Stark on his warranty and bond for title. Miller-Vidor Lumber Company answered and impleaded Stark and Bond on their warranties. The plaintiff, Kirby Lumber Company, answered the cross-action against it by a plea of mis-joinder of causes of action and of parties, which plea being sustained, Bond dismissed his entire cross-action against Kirby Lumber Company and also against Mr. Stark on his warranty, except as to section 11. At the close of the evidence a verdict was instructed by the court in favor of Kirby Lumber Company for the land sued for and in favor of Stark on his warranty. Also, the court instructed a verdict in favor of Miller-Vidor Lumber Company against Bond on his warranty. Erom the judgment entered on this *937 verdict, Bond and Miller-Vidor Lumber Company have duly perfected their appeal.

This suit grows out of the uncertainty as to the location on the ground of the west boundary line of T. & N. O. section 11, which uncertainty relates to the entire system of fourteen T. & N. O. surveys, Nos. 1 to 14, of which the section in controversy is No. 11, surveyed and located in 1875. Afterwards, these surveys were relocated by Captain Kellie, a prominent surveyor of Jasper county, and in locating them he moved the series east and north of the location contended for by , Kirby Lumber Company. In 1905 Mr. George M. Williams, a state surveyor, went upon thé ground, resurveyed this series, and reported his work to the General Land Office, which recognized it as correct The effect of Mr. Williams’ report was to move each of the T. & N. O. surveys, Nos. 1 to 14, 351 varas west of the Kellie location. Recognizing the Williams location of T. & N. O. survey No. 11 as being correct, the T. & N. O. Railroad Company instituted suit against B. W. Johnson to recover section 11. Johnson had no record title, but was claiming certain land by limitation. As the plaintiff in that suit located section 11 on the ground, Johnson was claiming and was in possession of a part of its land. That suit was settled by an agreed judgment, dated June 7, 1909, awarding Johnson, under his limitation claim, 111 acres off the west side of section 11 as the plaintiff in that suit located that section upon the ground. This specific tract of 111 acres was thus described in the judgment:

“Beginning at the N. W. cor. of Section No. 11 and N. E. cor. of Sec. No. 12, from which pine 20 in. brs. S. 6¾ deg. E. 8.6 vrs. do. brs. S. 73 deg. W. 8.7 vrs.
“Thence with N. line of Sec. No. 11 N. 89 deg. 40' E. 351 vrs. to a point in E. line of Sec. No. 12, as erroneously located by Kellie.
“Thence with said Kellie line S. 0 deg. 20' E. 1900.8 vrs. to the S. E. corner of this tract.
“Thence W. 308 vrs. to the S. W. corner of Sec. 11.
“Thence with same N. 0 deg. 54' W. 1900.8 vrs. to the place of beginning.
“It further being a part of this judgment that the boundary lines of the T. & N. O. surveys as made and located and recognized by this judgment to be the correct boundary lines of these surveys, and it shall stand as the true boundaries as made by the location of said T. & N. O. surveys; and the portion which the said Johnson recovers hereby is not by superior title of any valid location, but is by virtue of use and occupation and claim thereto and by virtue of the statutes of limitation of the state.”

Johnson’s title to the 111 acres awarded him by the judgment passed to W. H. Stark and was conveyed by Stark to Bond, and by Bond to Miller-Vidor Lumber Company. The title of the T. & N. O. Railroad Company to the balance of section 11 passed to Kirby Lumber Company and was owned by it at the time the suit was filed.

The west line of section 11, as described in the aforesaid judgment, was the line located by Williams and reported by him to the General Land Office. The Kellie line was on the ground at the time that judgment was entered, and extended across the west side of T. & N. O. section 11, 351 varas east of the Williams line. The location on the ground of these two lines was shown upon the trial of this cause without dispute. In fact, there was no controversy whatever on the trial as to the location of the Williams west line and of the Kellie west line. These locations were known by defendant Bond, who testified to that effect. The surveyors offered by him also knew the location of these two lines. Some of the surveyors recognized the Kellie line as the true location of the west line of section 11, but other surveyors accepted the Williams line as the true line of section 11.

On these facts Bond defended the suit, on the theory that the Kellie line was the true west line of section 11, and that the 111 acres awarded Johnson in his suit against the T. & N. O. Railroad Company lies east of the Kellie line. The Kirby Lumber Company claimed all the land lying east of the Kellie line, but conceded to the defendant, under the Johnson judgment, the land between the Kellie line and the Williams line, on the theory that the T. & N. O. Railroad Company and Johnson had located on the ground the land awarded to Johnson, and the true location of the west boundary line of section 11 was not an issue in this case.

The Kirby Lumber Company was correct in its theory of the law, and on the undisputed facts judgment was properly rendered in its favor for the land claimed by it in its petition. Of course, no question could have arisen between the T. & N. O.. Railroad Company and Johnson as to the location of the land awarded him, they having agreed between themselves upon the location of the west boundary line of section 11, and having further agreed that the Kellie line was not the true line of seetioB 11, and having agreed that the Kellie line was Johnson’s east boundary line, and the Williams line was Johnson’s west boundary line. Thus locating Johnson’s land between the Kellie line on the east and the Williams line on the west, neither could afterwards relitigate the issue as to the true location of the west boundary line. In fact, it was specially decreed by the judgment that the west boundary line of the Johnson 111 acres was the west boundary line of section 11. McArthur v. Henry, 35 Tex. 802; Harrell v. Houston, 66 Tex. 278, 17 S. W. 731; Levy v. Maddox, 81 Tex. 210, 16 S. W. 877; McKeon v. Roan (Tex. Civ. App.) 106 S. W. 404. It is the law of Texas that a judgment as to. boundaries is res ad judicata. Barbee v. Stinnett, 60 Tex. 167; King v. Henderson (Tex. Civ. App.) 69 S. W 487; Tompkins v. Hooker (Tex. Civ. App.) 200 S. W. 193; Han- *938 rick v. Gurley, 93 Tex. 461, 54 S. W. 347, 55 S. W. 119, 56 S. W. 330; Oklahoma v. Texas, 256 U. S. 70, 41 S. Ct. 420, 65 L. Ed. 831.

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Bluebook (online)
2 S.W.2d 936, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bond-v-kirby-lumber-co-texapp-1927.