Cleveland State Bank v. Gardner

274 S.W. 220, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 584
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 4, 1925
DocketNo. 1189.
StatusPublished

This text of 274 S.W. 220 (Cleveland State Bank v. Gardner) 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
Cleveland State Bank v. Gardner, 274 S.W. 220, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 584 (Tex. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

O’QTTINN, J.

This is a suit in trespass to try title to 160 acres of land, a portion of the Joaquin Fernandez de Rumayor grant in San Jacinto county, Tex., by Ralph Gardner and Elmer Gardner against the Cleveland State Bank and E. L. Bramlette, active vice president of said bank.

The plaintiffs’ original petition, filed July 28, 1922, was in the regular form, and contained the usual allegations of a simple trespass to try title suit, with prayer for judgment for title and possession.

The defendants Cleveland State Bank and Bramlette, each filed answer September SO, 1922, of general demurrer, general denial, and plea of not guilty.

On March 6, 1923, the defendant Cleveland State Bank filed its amended answer and eross-action, pleading as before a general demurrer, general denial, and plea of not guilty, and by way of cross-action over against J. C. Falvey, T. S. Falvey, and C. B. Granbury on their warranties in prior conveyances to the land in controversy. Said defendant, in said amended answer, by way of cross-action, also sued the plaintiffs, the Gardners, in trespass to.try title for the title and possession of the 160 acres of land in controversy, and for damages and rental value of the land in the sum of $5,000 per year.

The Falveys, defendants in cross-action, answered May 19, 1924, by general demurrer, special exceptions, general denial, and specially:

“(6) Further specially answering herein, these defendants come and say: That on or about the --day of-, 19' — , they purchased certain lands from the R. C. Miller Lumber Company by deed of that date. The field notes set out in said conveyance and describing the first tract embraced about 1,957 acres. That there was excepted and excluded in and by the terms of said .conveyance the 160 acres of land sued for by the defendant herein and described in his petition, leaving in said tract and conveyed' by said deed about 1,-797 acres as therein recited. That thereafter these defendants sold the land purchased by them under said deed from the R. C. Miller Lumber Company to the defendant C. B. Gran-bury, using the same field notes as were used in the conveyance to them but by mutual mistake of the parties to said last-mentioned deed, said 160 acres was not excepted or excluded therefrom. That the said Granbury only purchased from these defendants, and these de-fefidants only intended to convey to the said Granbury, the lands that they had acquired under the deed from said Miller Lumber Company, and these defendants received no consideration whatever for said 160 acres, of land herein sued for. That they nor the said Gran-bury have ever laid any claim or have ever had any title to the said 160 acres of land. That these defendants have neve» received any consideration whatever for the contract of warranty upon said 160 acres of land and the contract of warranty so far as the same is sought to be applied to said 160 acres herein sued for is wholly without consideration, and said 160 acres was included therein as above shown, by mutual mistake; and therefore there has been no braeh of any covenant, of warranty thereto on the part of these defendants.
“(7) And these defendants further say that their codefendant, the Cleveland State Bank, had and has at the time it acquired whatever rights it may have in the premises actual and constructive knowledge and notice of said mistake hereinabove set out, and of the want of consideration to support said contract of warranty as above mentioned, and had actual and constructive knowledge and notice of such facts as would put an ordinarily prudent person upon inquiry, which inquiry duly prosecuted would have disclosed said facts.
“(8) And for further special answer herein these defendants say that said land so sold and conveyed by these defendants to the defendant C. B. Granbury was thereafter by him sold and conveyed by the same description under which he purchased from these defendants to one Ed Cochran, and by the same error and mistake said 160 acres was not excepted from the terms of said deed; that the grantee Cochran had theretofore acquired the title to said 160 acres from and under the Miller Lumber Company, and all titles and claims to all of the land were merged in him; that the defendant the Cleveland State Bank purchased after maturity the vendor’s lien notes growing out of the sale of the said land by the said Gran-bury to Ed Cochran, and thereafter foreclosed the same and became the purchaser at the foreclosure sale; that at the time said notes were given, said Ed Cochran was the owner of the fee-simple title to the 160 acres of land herein sued for; that, after the purchase of said land by Cochran from the defendant Granbury, and after the issuance by the said Cochran of the *222 vendor’s lien notes under arid by virtue of and through which the Cleveland State Rank claims title to the land sued for by the plaintiff, and while the said Ed Cochran was the owner of the fee-simple title to the land, he (the said Ed Cochran) sold and conveyed the 160 acres in question and involved in this suit to the plaintiff Gardner, and under which conveyance he now holds.
“(9) And these defendants ’further specially answering herein come and say that the defendant’s Cleveland State Bank’s cause of action upon said warranty asserted in its cross-bill against these defendants, if any, it has, which is not admitted, but denied, is barred by the statute of limitation of four years, for that said cause of action, if any it has, accrued more than four years next before the filing of said cross-action herein, and these defendants here now plead said statute of four years’ limitation in bar of any recovery against these defendants herein.”

Cross-defendant C. B. Granbury, May 19, 1924, answered by general demurrer, general denial, and specially:

“Eirst. That on or about the 21st day of November, 1918, by deed of that date recorded in book 1⅞, p. Í59, of the Deed Records of San Jacinto county, Tex., he conveyed to Ed Cochran, of San Jacinto county, Tex., two certain tracts or parcels of land, situated partly in Liberty county and partly in San Jacinto county, in the state of Texas, and of which lands that certain tract of 160 acres described in the cross-action of defendant Cleveland State Bank is a part and parcel. The said lands were conveyed by this defendant to said Ed Cochran at the sum and price of $13.75 per acre, which the said Ed Cochran agreed and contracted to pay this defendant but this defendant here specially denies that said Ed Cochran, or any one for him, ever paid to this defendant any sum of money whatever for the 160 acres of land described in the pleading of the defendant Cleveland State Bank, and that therefore there has been no breach of any covenant of warranty on the part of this defendant. This defendant expressly denies that the lands conveyed by said deed to Ed Cochran were sold in bulk, but he says that the same were conveyed for the price of $13.75 per acre, which the said Ed Cochran promised and agreed to pay, but in truth and in fact no part of said agreed consideration was ever actually paid to this defendant for the 160 acres described in the cross-action of said Cleveland State Bank.
“Second.

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

Related

Paris Grocer Co. v. W.H. Burks
105 S.W. 174 (Texas Supreme Court, 1907)
Ramirez v. Smith
59 S.W. 258 (Texas Supreme Court, 1900)
Laufer v. Moppins
99 S.W. 109 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1906)
McPike v. Smith
209 S.W. 815 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1919)
Watkins v. Edwards
23 Tex. 443 (Texas Supreme Court, 1859)
Mullins v. Wimberly
50 Tex. 457 (Texas Supreme Court, 1878)
Walker v. Wilson
14 S.W. 798 (Texas Supreme Court, 1890)
Wiggins v. Stephens
246 S.W. 84 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1922)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
274 S.W. 220, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 584, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-state-bank-v-gardner-texapp-1925.