Broom v. Pearson

180 S.W. 895, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1090
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 8, 1915
DocketNo. 1499.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 180 S.W. 895 (Broom v. Pearson) 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
Broom v. Pearson, 180 S.W. 895, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1090 (Tex. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

HODGES, J.

This is an action of trespass to try title, instituted by the appellants against the appellees to recover 200 acres of land described as a part of the west half of the Francis Hamilton survey, situated in Rusk county. The appellees answered by a ploa of not guilty, general denial, and the three, five, and ten year statutes of limitation. The suit was originally instituted in 1902. The first trial resulted in a judgment-in favor of the defendants in the suit on their plea of limitation. An appeal was prosecuted from that judgment, which finally reached the Supreme Court, where the judgment was affirmed as to one of the original plaintiffs, who is not now a party to this appeal, and reversed and remanded as to the other plaintiffs. The grounds upon which that reversal was predicated are fully set forth in Broom v. Pearson, 98 Tex. 469, 85 S. W. 790, 86 S. W. 733. The Supreme Court remanded the case for a trial upon its merits. The second trial, from which this appeal is taken, was upon special issues, and also resulted in a judgment in favor of the defendants below.

The facts found by the jury, and other facts about which there is little or no, controversy, are substantially as follows: The land involved is a part of a tract of 600 acres originally granted by the state to Francis Hamilton, who died in 1838, leaving a widow, Caroline Hamilton, and two children, Mary L. and J. D. Hamilton. Some time after the death of Hamilton his widow married W. C. Davis, by whom she had four children, James, who died unmarried in. 1863, Permelia, now Mrs. Broom, Elizabeth, who died in 1898, leaving children, Thomas, who is still living, but whose interest was disposed of in the other appeal. Caroline Hamilton-Davis died in 1852. In 1853 her son by tbe former marriage, J. D. Hamilton, died without having been married. The Hamilton survey seems to be treated as having been the separate property of Francis Hamilton, which, upon the death of both parents, vested exclusively in the two Hamilton children. It is conceded that after the death of J. D. Hamilton his interest passed by inheritance, one-third to his sister Mary L., and one-sixth to each of his half-sisters and half-brothers. The plaintiffs in this suit are Permelia Broom, formerly Permelia Davis, and the children of Elizabeth Compton, formerly Elizabeth 'Davis. During the minority of Mary D. Hamilton W. C. Davis, her; stepfather, was appointed her guardian, and he in 1855, under an order of the probate court, sold the west half of the Hamilton tract, which includes the land sued for. In that proceeding the land was treated as belonging exclusively to Maíy D. Hamil.ton, and she received and appropriated the entire proceeds of the sale. J. H. Cameron, under whom the appellee Pearson claims, became the purchaser, and paid a consideration of $600. The jury found that Cameron bought without actual notice of any rights of ownership in the appellants; that he and those who claim under him purchased in good faith, and from time to time have made valuable improvements upon the property, and have been using and claiming it adversely for more than 40 years. In 1858, and after her marriage with one Hudson, Mary D. sold the remainder of the 600-acre tract for $1,000. About the same time she also sold 680 acres *897 located by virtue of a certificate granted to her father. During her lifetime Caroline Hamilton-Davis owned a tract of 300 acres of the Smith survey, which she and her second husband, W. C. Davis, occupied as a homestead till the time of her death. In addition to this she owned in her separate right a half interest in 1,280 acres of land situated in Cooke county. She died leaving a will which bequeathed the 300 acres of land above referred to, and some personal property, to her “husband, W. C. Davis, and the heirs of her body.” This will, however, was never probated, but was recorded as a deed in the office of the county clerk of Rusk county, and seems to have been recognized by the parties as a valid disposition of the property. W. C. Davis survived his wife, married a second time, and became the father of another set of children. He died in 1900. In 1870 the three surviving Davis children conveyed the 300-acre homestead to their father, W. C. Davis, in consideration of a cash payment of $400, and with the understanding that at his death he would will the property back to them. Davis occupied the premises and appropriated the rents and benefits during his lifetime, and at his death left a will devising the property to the children of his first marriage. At the time of the transfer made by the Davis children to their father they did not know that they were entitled to any interest in the 600-acre tract which, had been sold by their half-sister, Mary B. Hamilton; and Mary B. Hamilton, who was then Mary B. Hudson, had never claimed any interest in the 300-acre homestead. Mary B., after a second marriage to one Hunter, died in 1899, leaving several children. Some time after her death those children instituted a suit against the appellants, or, rather, the Davis children, for an interest in the 300-acre tract. That suit was settled by an agreed judgment in favor of the defendants, the Davis children. The evidence further shows that in 1869 the Davis children conveyed whatever interest they inherited from their mother in the Cooke county lands; that Mary B. Hamilton received of property belonging to appellants out of the estate of J. D. Hamilton 90 acres of land, a portion of the 600-acre tract, which is valued at $240.

Upon these facts the court filed the following conclusions as the basis of a judgment for the appellees:

“(1) That Mary B. Hamilton received the benefit and disposed of the entire interest owned by her full brother, J. D. Hamilton, in the 600 acres known as the Francis Hamilton survey, and that plaintiffs herein, Mrs. Permelia Broom and the heirs of Mrs. Compton, as half-sisters of said J. D. Hamilton, own an undivided interest in said land by inheritance.
“(2) That the plaintiffs in this suit have therefore received, appropriated, and converted to their own use the entire undivided interest of Mary B. Hamilton owned by her in the 300-acre tract of land known as the Caroline Hamilton-Davis tract.
“(3) That the interest received by plaintiffs in the Caroline Davis 300-acre tract, in which Mlary B. Hamilton had an undivided interest and which interest was appropriated by plaintiffs, offset and is equal to the undivided interest which the plaintiffs have in the 600-acre Francis Hamilton survey, which said plaintiffs inherited from their half-brother, J. D. Hamilton, and which was disposed of and appropriated by their half-sister, Mary B. Hamilton.
“It is therefore ordered that judgment be rendered for the defendants herein.”

[1] When the appellants connected themselves with Francis Hamilton, the agreed common source, they thereby established a prima facie right to recover in this suit to the extent of the interest shown. The burden then rested upon the' appellees to show that this title had been parted with, or in some manner lost, before they wore entitled to a judgment. The legal conclusion of the trial court is that by their sale of the 300-acre homestead tract, in which Mary B. Hamilton as a joint owner had an interest equal in value to the interest of the appellants in the Hamilton tract, the appellants were now estopped from- claiming any interest in the Hamilton tract which had theretofore been conveyed by Mary B. Hamilton. When J. H.

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Bluebook (online)
180 S.W. 895, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1090, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/broom-v-pearson-texapp-1915.