Brooks v. Slaughter

232 S.W. 856, 1921 Tex. App. LEXIS 514
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided June 1, 1921·No. No. 1827.·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

BOYCE, J.

This is the second appeal of this case. Brooks v.' Slaughter, 218 S. W. 632. The same questions as to boundary are presented, and the facts are largely the same as on the former appeal. We therefore adopt the statement of facts as made in our former opinion, to which we add the following further statement:

Jasper Hayes, in the surveying of September and October, 1877, came to these lands on a line run from the north and east, arriving at the black bottle corner first. He then ran west to and put in the Cobb corner; thence south and east to the southwest corner of section 1207, at which place he put in a corner;. thence east to the southeast corner of section 1203; thence south to the southwest corner of 1223 and east to the southeast corner of said section; thence south to a point one mile south of the southeast corner of 1228; thence east and south for some 12 or 15 miles. But no other corners were put in on the run south of corner E, which is claimed to have anything to do with the lines in controversy. Field notes of the surveys, including sections 1326- and 1328, based on this line, were, as stated in our former opinion, dated September 27, 28, and October 1, 1877. It does not appear when field notes were recorded in the surveyor’s office. The field notes of some of the surveys were filed in the land office in November, 1877. Copies of the field notes of sections 1326 and 1328 were certified tp by the district surveyor on January 7, 1878, as being of record in the surveyor’s records for Garza county, and these certified copies were filed in the land office on January 17, 1878. The former statement of the January, 1878, run, made by Hayes, is sufficient except that we add that the excess distance north and south from the *857 Cobb corner to the cap rock corner at the south encl of this run is such that, if the intervening surveys be constructed so as to distribute this excess between them, there would be but little vacancy between the lines of sections 1326 and 1328 on the north and sections 403 and 10 on the south. No surveys, as we understand it, called for the cap rock corner, and there are no calls for the lines run in January, 1878, except for corner A, west of the Cobb corner. The certificates of the sections which have their corner at corner A were not issued until in December, 1877. In the May, 187S, work Hayes began at the cap rock corner and ran to and put in the grapevine corner, from which point he established the other corners of the May work referred to in our former opinion. It does not appear when applications for survey of any of the land located by either of the surveys were filed with the surveyor. If section 1326 and 1328 be constructed by course and distance from the intersection of a line run south from the Cobh corner, with a line run west from corner E or D, there would he a vacancy of about 500 .varas between the said sections and the north lines of sections 403 and 10. The trial court entered judgment for a strip of land 121 varas wide between these lines, it is unnecessary to state on what theory, except that he found that the surveys of September, 1877, January, 1878, and May, 1878, constituted one system, and gave some effect to the field notes of the latter surveys in locating the surveys of September, 1877.

If it he true that the surveys based on the -work of September, 1877, and January and May, 1878, are to be regarded as one block or system, so that the lines run and corners put in by Hayes in January and May, 1878, can affect the location of the lines of the surveys, based on the work of September, 1877, then there is no vacancy, and the judgment should have been for the defendant in error. The effort of the defendant in error on this appeal, as on the former, is to sustain this proposition. We do not think it sustainable. The field notes' of the surveys, based on the lines run in 1877, were filed and recorded before the work of January, 1878. They were returned and filed in the land office independent of the work of January, 1878. They were not contingent on any future work and appropriated definite lands, the lines of which could not be affected on changed by subsequent surveys. The fact that Hayes later returned to survey other locations which he tied on to his previous work does not make his later survey a part of the same system so as to affect the first work. As we have already noted, some of the certificates on which the survey of January was made had not even been issued at the time of the September survey, and it does not appear that there had been filed an application for the survey on any of the certificates on which the surveys of January and May were made. Suppose that in the January run there had been a deficiency of distance between the Cobb corner and corner A, and between corner A and the cap rock corner, or that the course of the southerly run had been deflected more to the east than the general course of the September survey so that there would have been either a deficiency or overlapping instead of an excess; could it be reasonably contended that the owner of the prior locations and surveys would be required to stand the pro rata of any deficiency that would thus result? Yef, if the work is to be regarded as one block or system, so that a corner in any part of the work is to be given effect as to all the work, this would be the result. Hayes evidently did intend to tie his January work to the September surveys and the May surveys to the prior surveys; and in locating these junior surveys this intention, so far as possible and consonant with other legal principles applicable thereto, should be carried into effect. The comers and lines of the senior surveys may thus determine the location of the lines of the junior surveys; but the proposition cannot be reversed. It was perfectly natural that Hayes or any other surveyor, surveying lands subsequent to the survey of 1877, should begin on the prior work for the subsequent surveying. Surveys of different locations and blocks might thus be built up indefinitely on different trips made days, months, or years apart. All of such combined surveys are not one system of surveys or one block, in the sense in which it is used in the authorities relied on by defendant in error. Standefer v. Vaughan, 219 S. W. 484, and authorities; Hammon v. San Jacinto Rice Co., 229 S. W. 1013 (3), (4); C. J. vol..9, 174. So we hold, as we did before, that the surveys of January and May, 1878, cannot affect the location of the lines of surveys 1326 and 1328.

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Brooks v. Slaughter, 232 S.W. 856, 1921 Tex. App. LEXIS 514 (Tex. Ct. App. 1921).

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