Cage & Crow v. Perry

142 S.W. 75, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 25
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided November 8, 1911·Published

Opinion

WILLSON, C. J.

(after stating the facts as above). [1] Appellants insist that the judgment is erroneous in so far as it cancels the deed of Prank and his wife to them, and decrees the title to the land described in it to be in Mrs. Prank, “because the proof showed,” quoting from the assignment, “that Cage & Crow purchased said land for a valuable consideration without any fraud or duress on the part of Cage & Crow, and without any knowledge or notice of any fraud or duress or undue influence practiced upon the said Kate Prank to secure the execution thereof by the said Kate Prank.” The jury found that Mrs. Prank did not willingly execute the deed, that she was coerced by her husband into executing it; but they also found that appellants at the time they concluded the transaction with her husband were ignorant of the fact that she had been coerced into executing the deed. So it did not appear that Mrs. Prank, as against appellants, was entitled to have the deed canceled because of the coercion practiced upon her. But it was shown that the consideration for the conveyance agreed upon between appellants and Prank was to be $8,250 in money, debts of said Prank due to appellants, land and a diamond ring. It was further shown that, to induce her to execute the deed, Prank represented to his wife that appellants were to pay them for the land $6,000 in cash, less certain debts he owed them, amounting, it appears from the record, to the sum of $1,767, and convey to them two tracts of land — one in Angelina and the other in Anderson county — guaranteed by appellants to be worth $2,000, and a diamond ring worth $250; and it was further shown that the deed presented to Mrs. Prank was signed by her, and on its face recited the consideration to be paid by appellants to be the sum of $8,250. The jury found that the real consideration for the conveyance was the cancellation by appellants of debts due them by Prank, aggregating the sum of $1,-767, the payment to him of $3,226.25 in cash, the delivery to him of a diamond ring, deeds conveying to Mrs. Prank a tract of land in Angelina county worth $400, a tract in Anderson county worth $400, and an undivided interest in a rock house in Stephenville, and the crediting on their books of the sum of $250 in favor of Mrs. Prank. The jury did not find the value of the interest in the rock house, nor the value of the diamond ring, but there is evidence in the record which would have supported a finding that the diamond ring was worth $150 or $250 and the interest in the rock house $400. Including the $250 passed by appellants to Mrs. Prank’s credit on their books, about which the record shows nothing further, the total consideration paid by them for the land was about $6,593.25, or $1,656.75 less than the amount of the consideration recited in the deed and $1,656.75 less than the amount thereof as represented to Mrs. Prank by her husband to induce her to execute the deed. The testimony shows, and the jury found, that the notary who took Mrs. Prank’s acknowledgment to the deed did not read same to her, nor explain to her in any way anything *79 about tbe transaction, or that the real consideration to be paid by appellants was other than the consideration recited in the deed, and, further, that she had no information as to the consideration and the nature thereof other than that furnished to her by her husband as recited above. It appearing, as it did from the findings and testimony referred to, that the land conveyed was the separate property of Mrs. Frank, and that she was induced by false representations made to her by her husband to execute the deed conveying same to appellants, if they participated in or were chargeable with notice of the fraud perpetrated, they have no right to complain of the cancellation of the deed. [2] The jury did not find that they were parties to the fraud of Frank, and it is not necessary to look to the record to determine whether testimony in it warranted such a finding, because, under repeated holdings of the courts, it must be said they were chargeable with notice of the fraud. Cole v. Bammel, 62 Tex. 112; Stallings v. Hullum, 79 Tex. 421, 15 S. W. 677; Stallings v. Hullum, 89 Tex. 481, 35 S. W. 2; Johnson v. Callaway, 87 S. W. 178. In the case last mentioned Judge Gill, referring to the others, said: “By these decisions it is settled that where a vendee accepts a deed from a husband and wife in conveyance of either her separate property or her homestead, and the recited consideration is greater than that agreed to be paid and actually paid, the ven-dee is thereby put upon inquiry, and is guilty of constructive fraud, rendering the deed a nullity, unless it be shown that the wife knew of and assented to the lesser sum as the consideration for the conveyance.” The testimony of appellant Bruce Cage was that appellants agreed to pay Frank $8,250 in money, property, and debts. The consideration recited in the deed they accepted was $8,250. As shown above, they actually paid Frank, the court had a right to say from the findings and testimony, $1,656.75 less than that sum.

[3] Appellants further insist that, if Mrs. Frank ever had a right to avoid her deed, she waived it by ratifying her execution of it after she had obtained full knowledge of the true consideration paid by them. This contention finds its answer in the unchallenged finding of the jury that Mrs. Frank first learned of the true consideration paid her husband for the land about the time she filed her intervention in the suit. There was no evidence tending to show that thereafter-wards she did any act indicating an assent to or waiver of the fraud practiced upon her. Speer’s Law of Married Women, §§ 152, 131.

[4] Finally, appellants insist that, after canceling the deed, the court erred in failing to compel Mrs. Frank to do equity by restoring to them the consideration they paid her husband for the land described in the deed. In so far as it applies to the part of the consideration which was actually received by her and the part thereof which operated to relieve her separate estate of the liens she had created thereon by the mortgages mentioned above, we think the contention should be sustained; but we do not think she should be required to restore the part of the consideration paid by appellants to her husband which she did not receive and. which did not operate in any way to benefit her separate estate. Chargeable, as they were, with notice of the fraud practiced upon her by her husband, appellants in effect became parties thereto when they accepted Mrs. Frank’s deed, and without her consent paid to her husband another and different consideration therefor than the consideration she had a right to expect and demand of them. Therefore, we think, they should not be heard to say that the relief she sought should be granted only on condition that she return to them something she had never received, nor obtained benefit from, and which, as they had a right under the circumstances to expect it would be, had been wrongfully used by Frank for his own purposes. As between themselves and Mrs. Frank, we think equity will be done when she shall have restored to them what, or its value, she actually received of the consideration they paid. From the record it seems she received of said consideration a diamond ring. $140 in money, the tract of land in Anderson county, and a release of debts secured by liens on her separate property aggregating $1,767.

[5] Appellees J. N. Groes-beeck, Sr., and Mrs.

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