Clark v. Scott

212 S.W. 728, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 734
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 10, 1919
DocketNo. 8161.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 212 S.W. 728 (Clark v. Scott) 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
Clark v. Scott, 212 S.W. 728, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 734 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

TALBOT, J.

Appellee sued the appellant to recover lands situated in the city of Dallas, Tex., which are particularly described in the petition. Samuel Peay is the common source of title. The petition is in the general form of trespass to try title, and in addition thereto contains allegations purporting to set forth appellee’s chain of title and the title of the appellant hack to the common source. The appellee specially alleged that from the 6th day of June, 1912, to the death of Samuel Peay, which occurred about March 16, 1914, the said Samuel Peay was a married man living with his wife, Maude Peay, upon the land in controversy as his homestead; that after the death of the said Samuel Peay his wife, Maude Peay, continued to occupy, use, and enjoy said property until the same “was sold by her and against her” and until her possession was delivered to appellee and those under whom he claims; that during the time the land was the homestead of Samuel Peay and his said wife they executed a “deed of trust lien thereon” to W. H. Hall, trustee, dated December 30, 1913, to secure Will Waltz in the payment of a note which was, prior to December 7, 1915, transferred by Waltz to appellant, and that appellant induced a substitute trustee, on the 7th of December, 1915, to sell under said deed of trust, at which sale the appellant became the purchaser, and is claiming the property under said trustee’s deed; that at the time said trustee’s sale was made an administration was pending upon the estate of Samuel Peay, deceased,, and that O. D. King was administrator; that the defendant had not presented his claim to the probate court for approval or allowance, and therefore his power of sale given in said deed of trust was suspended and said sale ineffective and void; that subsequent to the death of Samuel Peay the said Maude Peay brought suit against the brothers and sister of Samuel Peay, who were his only heirs, and his administrator and recovered judgment on the 15th day of May, 1915, vesting the title to the land involved in her, the said Maude Peay; that she thereafter sold the land to R. P. Wofford, who conveyed to plaintiff Scott; that on the 27th of March, 1915, Maude Peay executed a deed of trust to David Murry, trustee, to secure appellant in the payment of a note, and that on the 3d of August, 1915, David Murry, trustee, sold the land under said deed of trust, at which sale the appellant was present, and induced the appellee, Scott, to buy the land and agreed that he should buy it; that ap-pellee bought the lanid and at his instance and for him the deed was made to R. P. Wofford; that said sale was made prior to the sale under the deed of trust to Hall, trustee, without notice that appellant would rely upon and foreclose the Hall deed of trust, and that the latter sale was fraudulent as to the appellee and that appellant was estopped to claim title under last sale; that Samuel Peay and his wife claimed and owned said land under a deed dated May 20, 1913. The appellant, as defendant below, *730 filed and presented a plea of nonjoinder of necessary parties, on the ground that the administrator of the estate of Samuel Peay was not made a party plaintiff, general and special demurrers, and motions to strike out parts of. the petition, and the appellant also pleaded a general denial and a plea of not guilty. These pleas, demurrers, and motions were all overruled, and appellant reserved his exception. The case was tried before a jury, and was submitted upon special issues. Upon the findings of the jury both the plaintiff and the defendant filed motions for judgment. The court overruled defendant’s motion and rendered judgment for the plaintiff as prayed for in his petition, to which the defendant reserved his bill of exception. The defendant’s motion for new trial was overruled, and he perfected an appeal to this court.

[1] The first contention is that the court erred in overruling appellant’s plea of non-joinder of parties; the proposition being that in an action of trespass to try title for land alleged to have belonged to a deceased person at the time of his death, and when there is an administration pending on the estate of the deceased prior owner, the heirs of the deceased, or persons claiming under them, cannot maintain a suit for the land unless the administrator is made a party to the suit.

It is sufficient to say in answer to this contention that it was alleged, and the jury found from the evidence, that the land in controversy constituted the homestead of the deceased, Samuel Peay, and his wife, Maude Peay, at the date of the former’s death, and that his creditors and administrator had no interest in it. It was not liable for the payment of the debts of Samuel Peay, and formed no part of his estate subject to administration. Again, Maude Peay, as, the surviving wife of Samuel Peay, deceased, sued and recovered, in a court of competent jurisdiction before the present suit was filed, the land in controversy from the administrator of the estate of Samuel Peay, deceased, and from the brothers and sister of the said Samuel Peay as his only heirs at law. This being true, it was not essential to ap-pellee’s right of recovery, he claiming under the said Maude Peay, that the administrator of the estate of Samuel Peay, deceased, be made a party to this suit, and the right of said administrator to administer said property be again determined under the facts. He was neither a necessary nor a proper party to the suit.

[2-4] Nor do we think the court erred in overruling appellant’s general and special demurrers to appellee’s petition. The allegations were not as full and complete as they might have been, but they are not so imperfect and incomplete as to fail to show a cause of action and authorize the introduction of the evidence necessary to establish the facts upon which appellee’s right of recovery de-‘ pended. It is not directly alleged that Samuel Peay died intestate, or that Maude Peay was his only surviving heir, or that the- land involved in the suit was the separate property of either Samuel Peay or Maude Peay, or that it was their community property. It does, however, appear that Samuel Peay was dead and that an ordinary administration of the estate was pending; that before the death of the said Samuel Peay he and Maude Peay were husband and wife, and that during their marriage they acquired said property by purchase, the deed being taken in the name of the husband; that they established their homestead upon the property and continued to reside upon it as such until the death of the said Samuel Peay; and that Maude Peay continued to occupy, use, and enjoy it after the death of her husband. There are also allegations to the effect that Samuel Peay died without issue and that Maude Peay as his surviving wife brought suit and recovered the property in controversy from his brothers and sister, who were his only heirs, and from the administrator of his estate. If Samuel Peay and Maude Peay were husband and wife, and the property in controversy their community property, and Samuel Peay died without issue, then his surviving wife, Maude Peay, under the law of descent and distribution of this state, was entitled to all of said property, and if at the death of Samuel Peay the property constituted the homestead of himself and wife it was not subject to administration in the probate court as asset of the said Samuel Peay’s estate, his creditors had no interest in it, and his administrator owed them no duty in relation to it and had no power or authority to subject it to the payment of their debts.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
212 S.W. 728, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 734, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-v-scott-texapp-1919.