Cline v. Cline

323 S.W.2d 276, 1959 Tex. App. LEXIS 2338
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 2, 1959
Docket13291
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 323 S.W.2d 276 (Cline v. Cline) 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
Cline v. Cline, 323 S.W.2d 276, 1959 Tex. App. LEXIS 2338 (Tex. Ct. App. 1959).

Opinion

WERLEIN, Justice.

Appellee, Carriebelle F. Cline, also known as Mrs. C. F. Cline, in her second amended original petition filed in District Court Cause No. 434,169, complained of Gladys M. Cline, as independent executrix of the will and estate of Allyn R. Cline, deceased, and Seaport Trust Company, appellants, and of Cline Mortgage & Trust Company, individually and as trustee. The suit had originally included Allyn R. Cline, who died before trial. Appellee’s trial petition contains three counts: Count I, in trespass-to-try title, suing for an undivided one-half interest in all five Tracts Nos. A, B, C, D and III as shown, merely for convenient reference and illustrative purposes, on the accompanying map which is substantially a copy of appellee’s Exhibit 8, with some changes or additions; Count II, an action to set aside a deed of trust executed by Allyn R. Cline to J. Frank Duncan, trustee, the trustee’s deed to Cline Mortgage & Trust Company, sometimes called herein Cline Mortgage, and deed from Cline Mortgage to Seaport Trust Company, sometimes called herein Seaport, covering two tracts designated A and B comprising origially respectively 46.04 acres and 6.87 acres, and for partition of such tracts; and, Count III, which adopts Count II and also sets out appellee’s claim to an ttndivided one-half interest in all the tracts described in Count I. A cross-action in behalf of Cline Mortgage and Seaport was included in the second amended original answer of appellants.

*278 [[Image here]]

*279 Appellants and appellee filed motions for summary judgment, and on pretrial hearing the Court overruled appellee’s motion but granted the motion of appellant Gladys M. Cline, sometimes called Miss Cline, as to Tract III together with an easement over Tract D, the closed portion of the old Cemetery Road, as hereinafter more particularly described. The Court left undetermined the questions respecting other easements and other pleas in abatement until further hearing.

In determining the issues involved herein, consideration must be given to related District Court Cause No. 360,935, styled Allyn R. Cline v. C. F. Cline, originally a divorce suit in which judgment was entered December 29, 1950, granting Allyn R. Cline a divorce from appellee herein, and denying any recovery by appellee against Gladys M. Cline and Cline Mortgage. Such judgment was affirmed by this Court. See Cline v. Cline, Tex.Civ.App., 243 S.W.2d 244, writ dismissed.

After mandate in Cause No. 360,935 was issued, the motions of Gladys M. Cline, independent executrix of the estate of Allyn R. Cline, deceased, and Carriebelle F. Cline, to enforce judgment rendered therein were heard, and the Court on August 8, 1956, entered judgment reciting that previously the Court had entered an interlocutory order and a decree consolidating said cause with the present cause for purposes of trial so that they could be tried together on a single record but as separate causes. The Court in said cause decreed that all right, title and interest of Qine Mortgage, which had been dissolved, had passed to Gladys M. Cline, and that Carriebelle F. Cline take nothing against Cline Mortgage. The Court then proceeded in the enforcement of the decree of December 29, 1950, to adjudicate the rights of the parties with respect to certain personal property, but decreed that all matters affecting the rights and titles of the parties respecting the Wide-water Farm property, being the property in the Ritson Morris Survey in Harris County, Texas, and liens against the same, had been severed from said cause and were being adjudicated in the present cause. No appeal has been taken from the decree of August 8, 1956, in Cause No. 360,935.

The present cause was tried to the Court without a jury. The judgment entered on August 8, 1956, recited that all interest of Cline Mortgage passed into Miss Cline, although legal title to portions thereof was in Seaport for her use and benefit. Tract III, as described in the Court’s judgment, was decreed to Miss Cline.

It was also decreed that perpetual easements exist and are established as private roads and ways of ingress and egress to such Tract and as appurtenant to Tract III as the dominant estate over and across the North 30 feet of Tract D and over a portion of Tract A as indicated on map by designation “shell road.”

The Court then decreed that subject to liens and said easements, appellee have judgment against appellants for a full one-half undivided interest in Tracts A, B, C and D, describing them by metes and bounds, and as to the remaining one-half interest in said tracts appellee take nothing of and from appellants. It was also decreed that as to the undivided one-half interest of appellee in Tracts A, B, C and D the foreclosure deed from J. Frank Duncan, trustee, to Cline Mortgage be and the same was set aside, but that Tracts A, B and D were subject to a valid lien as described in the deed of trust executed by Allyn R. Cline to J. Frank Duncan, as trustee, to secure the $7,000 note that was given by Allyn R. Cline to Cline Mortgage, and that such indebtedness and the lien securing it were established and vested in Miss Cline, one-half of the indebtedness being secured by a lien upon the undivided one-half interest in Tracts A, B and D adjudged to appellee.

The Court further decreed that appellee recover from Seaport and Miss Cline, as independent executrix, the sum of $500, being one-half of the value of the house removed by - appellants from property in *280 controversy. The Court then ordered that Tracts A, B, C and D be partitioned between appellee and Seaport (Seaport holding for the use and benefit of Miss Cline) and the share of appellee in Tracts A, B and D being subject to one-half of the indebtedness secured by said deed of trust, and that such one-half of such indebtedness be paid before confirmation of title in ap-pellee. Commissioners were appointed to partition the property. Only Seaport and Miss Cline, independent executrix, have perfected an appeal to this Court. On request of appellants, the Court made its findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Appellants’ Points 1 to 5, inclusive, assert in effect that the District Court erred in holding void the trustee’s sale from Duncan, trustee, to Cline Mortgage; in holding the property sold was in custodia legis; in concluding that no valid .request was made to the trustée to sell the property; in finding and holding said conveyance was for an inadequate consideration, and made under circumstances that rendered it void or voidable; in holding Allyn R. Cline had the means to pay the $7,000 note, and that he could have obtained an extension thereof; and that Mrs. Cline would' have paid the indebtedness had she known of the proposed foreclosure; there being no competent evidence in support of such findings, and the same being immaterial and not supporting the judgment rendering invalid the trustee’s sale and conveyance.

In order to determine whether Tracts A and B were in custodia legis at the time of the trustee’s sale of said tracts to Cline Mortgage; it is necessary to examine the pertinent provisions of the Court’s decree entered in Cause No. 360,935 on December 29, 1950. Said cause was filed November 11, 1948. The deed of trust in question was not executed until January 13, 1949.

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Bluebook (online)
323 S.W.2d 276, 1959 Tex. App. LEXIS 2338, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cline-v-cline-texapp-1959.