Brown v. Hart

43 S.W.2d 274
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided October 21, 1931·No. No. 3618·Published·Cited by 13 cases

Opinion

JACKSON, J.

This is a suit in trespass to try title, instituted in the district court of Bailey county, Tex., by the plaintiff R. L. Brown, to recover approximately five acres of land out of the S. E-⅛ of section 40, in Bailey county, and lot No. 17 in block No. 12 of the original town of Muleshoe, both tracts fully described in his petition, from the individual defendants E. R. Hart, H. A. Douglass, and D. P. Brown, and the corporate defendants Whaley Lumber Company, Continental Gin Company, Fairbanks, Morse & Company, and the Farmers’ & Merchants’ National Bank of Farmers-ville, Tex.

Plaintiff’s petition, with the exhibits attached thereto, covers 52 pages of the transcript, but we deem it sufficient to state that in addition to trespass to try title, the plaintiff by his allegations attacks as void certain judgments obtained against him in causes Nos. 61, 186, 248, 456, and 490, and the sales had thereunder, and sets out the alleged facts which he claims renders said judgments and such sales void.

He also alleges that each of said judgments were for the same indebtedness, and if for any reason the judgment in cause No. 490 was not void for a lack of necessary parties as he alleges, then he says that such judgments should not be enforced against him and a sale of the land had by virtue thereof, because the indebtedness on which judgment No. 490 is purported to have been based had been paid and that, if it had not been fully paid, he states that he is ready, willing, and anxious to make payment of any balance due thereon, which he tenders in his petition and asks for an injunction enjoining any further sale under said judgment in cause No. 490.

No complaint is made of the action of the court in refusing to allow plaintiff damages, either actual or exemplary, against E. R. Hart for the alleged malicious suits and causing to be issued illegal sequestrations by which possession of the property was alleged to have been illegally taken.

Katherine Brown, by R, L. Brown as next friend, with leave of the court intervened and, in addition to an action of trespass to try title, alleged that she is a minor, about eighteen years old, the daughter of R. L. Brown and Kate Aston Brown, deceased; that she has never been married, has no guardian of her estate; that her mother, Kate Aston Brown, died about April 4, 1922, intestate; that no administration was ever had on her mother’s estate; and that intervener is the sole surviving heir of the deceased Kate Aston Brown. That her mother left community funds which her father, R. L. Brown, used in the pur[275] chase of the property involved in this suit, and that intervener is entitled to a one-half undivided interest in said property. She charges E. R. Hart with notice of her interest and seeks a judgment decreeing her a one-half interest in said property, clear of all in-cumbrances and claims asserted by any and all of the defendants. '

The defendant E. R. Hart answered, asserting the validity of the various judgments attacked by plaintiff, pleading the statutes of two and four years’ limitation, and alleged that the judgment in cause No. 490 is res judicata of the issue of payment and damages claimed by the plaintiff. To the intervention he pleaded general denial.

The defendant D. P. Brown answered, but no complaint is made of the judgment against him and no further notice will be taken of his pleading.

The defendant Douglass answered by a plea of not guilty, general denial, a plea of two years’ statute of limitation, and pleaded that the judgment in cause No. 456 is res judicata. That he purchased the property he held from R. L. Brown for $1,000 and the plaintiff was estopped to assert any right, title, or interest thereto. That he purchased the property without any notice of record or fact of the claims of intervener.

The Farmers’ & Merchants’ National Bank of Earmersville defaulted, and the other corporate defendants disclaimed.

In compliance with the verdict returned by the jury in obedience to the peremptory instruction given by the court, judgment was entered that plaintiff and intervener take nothing and the defendants be discharged with their costs. From the judgment in favor of E. R. Hart and H. A. Douglass, the plaintiff and the intervener have prosecuted separate appeals.

In the plaintiff’s assignments he challenges as error the action of the court in directing a verdict against him because the evidence shows that each of the money judgments obtained against him were recovered on the same indebtedness, and the pleading and testimony tended to show that such indebtedness had been paid, at least in part, and that he was ready, able, and willing to pay any balance owing by him and the issue of such payment should have been submitted to the jury.

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Brown v. Hart, 43 S.W.2d 274 (Tex. Ct. App. 1931).

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