Cartwright v. La Brie

144 S.W. 725, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 968
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 27, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 144 S.W. 725 (Cartwright v. La Brie) 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
Cartwright v. La Brie, 144 S.W. 725, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 968 (Tex. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

REESE, J.

The following statement of the nature and result of the suit is taken from appellant’s brief. Appellee filed no briefs in this court. The appellant in this case is Matthew Cartwright, erroneously styled in the record M. C. Cartwright. On June 30, 1905, J. D. La Brie sued Matthew Cartwright, the appellant, and a number of others, as the heirs of Matthew and Amanda Cartwright, deceased, in trespass to try title to recover 600 acres out of the northwest corner of the north half of the Isaac Powell league, in Sabine county, Tex. The plaintiff also made the Texas Loan Agency and W. A. Polley, under whom he claims by general warranty deeds, parties defendant, and prayed judgment against them on their warranties in the event of his failure to recover the land. All of the defendants who were sued for the land disclaimed any title or interest in it, except appellant, Matthew Cartwright, who answered by a plea of not guilty. The case has been tried in the lower court twice. On the first trial, before a jury, a verdict and judgment were rendered against the plaintiff in favor of Matthew Cartwright and in favor of the plaintiff against the Texas Loan Agency and W. A. Polley on their warranties. From that judgment the plaintiff, J. D'. La Brie, and the Texas Loan Agency, appealed, and the San Antonio Court of Civil Appeals reversed the judgment and remanded the cause to the court below for another trial on account of an error in the charge of the court on a question not involved in the present appeal. The opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals, at San Antonio, will be found in 55 Tex. Civ. App. 144, 118 S. W. 785. The second trial of the case in the district court resulted in a verdict and'> judgment, on October 7, 1910, in favor of the plaintiff against the appellee. From that judgment Matthew Cartwright prosecutes this appeal.

Isaac Powell, the original grantee, conveyed to John Cartwright and his son, Matthew Cartwright (father of appellant) the north half of the Isaac Powell league by deed dated January 1, 1836, filed for record on July 14, 1838. John Cartwright also had a son named Robert G. Cartwright. The title to the north half of the league afterwards became vested in that Robert G. Cartwright, and by deed dated November 22, 1845, that Robert G. Cartwright conveyed the tract to his brother, Matthew Cartwright, the father of the appellant in this cause. That deed was first filed for record in Sabine county on May 12, 1846, and, the records of that county having been destroyed by fire in 1875, it was refiled for record on July 12, 1889. The appellant, Matthew Cartwright, and the appel-lees, claim title under Robert G. Cartwright as common source. The appellant, Matthew Cartwright, deraigns title under the deed of November 22, 1845, from Robert G. Cartwright to Matthew Cartwright, the first, and under a quitclaim deed from all the other heirs of the first Matthew Cartwright and his wife, Amanda, dated August 20, 1894; the first Matthew Cartwright having died in 1870, and his wife, Amanda, on June 27, 1894. The plaintiff, J. D. La Brie, claims title under a deed from the heirs of Robert G. Cartwright to H. G. Damon dated June 20, 1889, and filed for record on July 12, 1889; but that deed having been delivered to Damon, and Damon having paid the purchase money *727 therefor on July 8, 1889, H. G. Damon having '.conveyed the land in controversy hy a deed, under which J. D. La Brie claims, subsequent to July 12, 1889, on which date the •deed of November 22, 1845, from Robert G. Cartwright to the first Matthew Cartwright, was refiled for record, the only question in the case is: Did H. G. Damon purchase in .good faith and without notice or knowledge of the prior deed of November 22, 1845, from Robert G. Cartwright to Matthew Cartwright, the first?

It was agreed by the parties that Robert G. Cartwright, Sr. (son of John Cartwright and brother of Matthew Cartwright, Sr.), was the common source; that the appellant, Matthew Cartwright, had title to the 600 acres in suit unless H. G. Damon was an innocent purchaser under the deed to him, •dated June 20, 1889r and filed for record July 12, 1889, from the heirs of Robert G. Cartwright; and that the only issue in the case was whether or not H. G. Damon was an innocent purchaser for value and without notice under that deed.

The evidence established beyond controversy that Damon paid value for the land and did not have actual notice of this former deed, and the case turned upon the issue as to whether he had notice or knowledge of such facts and circumstances as would have been sufficient to put a prudent man on inquiry, which if prosecuted with reasonable diligence would have led to a knowledge of the execution of the prior deed by the ancestor of his vendors to the ancestor of appellant. This was the issue submitted to the jury; the court instructing them that upon this issue .the burden of proof was upon appellee to show that Damon was an innocent purchaser. We find that the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict of the jury, and hence, in deference to the verdict, we find, as a conclusion of fact, that Damon was an innocent purchaser for value without notice of the existence of the former deed, and that the facts and circumstances shown by the evidence were not sufficient to put him upon inquiry. All of the evidence offered was upon this issue, and in disposing of the assignments of error it will be necessary to set out, in substance, the material part of it.

[1, 2] By the first assignment of error appellant complains of the ruling of the court in sustaining appellee’s objection (that they were irrelevant and immaterial) to certain letters of Damon offered in evidence by appellant. These letters were both written on July 13, 1889, by Damon to S. M. Johnson, at San Augustine, Tex. This was five days after the deed from the Cartwright heirs to Damon had been delivered and the money paid. They have no reference to the land in controversy or the transactions relating to the sale thereof. They both refer to other lands in Sabine county, which Damon was desirous of purchasing, and requests Johnson to examine the assessor’s roll at Hemp-hill to find out who owned the tracts and then to write to them and ascertain the price. In one df the letters Johnson is requested to examine the “assessor’s book” for this purpose. These letters were offered for the purpose of showing “the knowledge, belief, or consciousness” on the part of Damon on July 13th, five days after the delivery of the deed from the Cartwrights and the payment of the purchase money, that he could find out from the assessor’s roll or book who .owned the land in controversy, and that inquiry of the owner thus disclosed, about the land, was the natural and proper course to be pursued by the purchaser. It was shown that the courthouse of Sabine county was destroyed by fire in 1875 and again in 1909, and that the original tax rolls up to the burning of the courthouse in 1909, kept by the county clerk, and also in the office of the tax collector, were destroyed by fire in 1909. Testimony was also introduced which tended to show that an investigation of the tax rolls and tax book, by which is meant the assessor’s abstract book required to be kept by him, would have shown that the vendors of appellee had never rendered the land for taxation, but that it had been for a number of years rendered by the ancestor of appellant, who was a resident of the adjoining county of San Augustine.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Hexter v. Pratt
283 S.W. 653 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1926)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
144 S.W. 725, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 968, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cartwright-v-la-brie-texapp-1912.