Dixon v. Huggins

495 S.W.2d 621, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2178
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 17, 1973
Docket5240
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 495 S.W.2d 621 (Dixon v. Huggins) 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
Dixon v. Huggins, 495 S.W.2d 621, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2178 (Tex. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

VIC HALL, Justice.

Plaintiffs-appellants, Willie Dixon, Sr., and Willie Dixon, Jr., brought this action in trespass to try title against E. M. Huggins, III, -to recover title to approximately 22 acres of land in Fort Bend County.

Suit was filed in August, 1965. Plaintiffs alleged, in effect, that Huggins was claiming an undivided %ths interest (66 acres) in a tract of approximately 165 acres; that he in fact owned only an undivided 44 acres therein; and that, together, plaintiffs owned the balance of the tract. Huggins answered that he claimed not only the %ths interest in the 165 acres as pleaded by plaintiffs, but that he claimed additional particularized undivided interests in the tract.

The heirs of Mary Dixon Webb (hereinafter referred to as “Webb Heirs”) intervened, claiming an undivided ¾8⅛ interest in the 165 acres. The heirs of Frances Dixon Rogers and Charles Dixon (“Rogers-Dixon Heirs”) intervened, claiming altogether an undivided ⅜⅛ interest in the tract. The heirs of Anna Dixon Fleming (“Fleming Heirs”) intervened, claiming an undivided ⅜6⅛ interest therein.

Trial was to the court without a jury, in May, 1972. Huggins and the intervenors admitted by stipulation that, subject to proof by them of their respective claims, the plaintiffs “owned all of the remaining interest” in the 165 acres. After the hearing, judgment was rendered awarding the following undivided interests in the property to the parties:

Plaintiffs: 17/45ths
Huggins: 77/180ths (2/5ths +
l/36th).
Webb Heirs l/18th
Rogers-Dixon
Heirs l/9th
Fleming Heirs 1/36th

Plaintiffs do not complain about the award of the ⅜«⅛ interest to Huggins (which the record shows he purchased before trial from the Fleming Heirs), nor about the ¾8⅛ interest to the Webb Heirs. However, in three rather general points of error, they challenge the award of the %th interest, instead of 44 acres, to Huggins, and the awards to the Rogers-Dixon Heirs and the Fleming Heirs. Plaintiffs argue that there is no probative evidence in the record to support the questioned awards, and that there are no legal principles upon which the awards may be based.

Findings of fact and conclusions of law were neither requested nor filed. We must, therefore, presume that all necessary fact-findings were made by the trial court in support of the judgment. Renfro Drug Co. v. Lewis, 149 Tex. 507, 235 S.W.2d 609, 613 (1950).

As noted earlier, only the legal sufficiency of the evidence is challenged by plaintiffs. Thus, if the record contains any probative evidence that supports the judgment on any theory of law applicable *623 to the case, then the judgment should not be disturbed on appeal. Gulf Land Co. v. Atlantic Refining Co., 134 Tex. 59, 131 S. W.2d 73, 84 (1939). And, in deciding a “no evidence” question, we may consider only the evidence and the reasonable inferences therefrom that support the judgment, and we are required to disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. Brown v. Frontier Theatres, Inc., (Tex. Sup., 1963) 369 S.W.2d 299, 301.

The record shows that the common source of title for all of the parties are Louis Dixon, Sr., and wife, Kate Ann Dixon. They purchased the property in question as their community property in 1893. Nine children were horn to them. None were adopted. Their children were:

1. Louis Dixon, Jr.
2. Minnie Dixon, whose last name is now Warner. She is a widow and lives in Houston.
3. Eliza Dixon, whose last name is now Griffin. She is a widow living in Houston.
4. Ruffin Dixon.
5. Julia Dixon.
6. Charles Dixon, who married Mary Boyd. Both died intestate.
7. Anna Dixon, who married George Fleming. Both died intestate.
8. Mary Dixon, who married Tom Webb. Both died intestate.
9. Frances Dixon, who married Robert Rogers. Both died intestate.

Between 1915 and 1920, Kate Ann died intestate. Her husband and all of the children survived her. By reason thereof, each child became the owner of an undivided ¾sth interest in the property. Art. 2469, Vernon’s Ann.Rev.Civ.St., 1911.

On October 1, 1929, the property in question was conveyed to Ruffin Dixon by his father and by all of his brothers and sisters except Mary Dixon Webb. The deed recited a consideration of $3,000 cash and the assumption by Ruffin of an indebtedness in the amount of $2,000 against 25 acres of the tract. Later, on March 9, 1961 Ruffin executed, and caused to be filed in the deed records of Fort Bend County, an affidavit in which he stated:

“My name is Ruffin Dixon, and I live in Harris County, Texas, and I am the same Ruffin Dixon that took a Deed on the 1st day of October, 1929, from Anna Fleming, whose maiden name was Anna Dixon, and her husband, George Fleming, as well as others. That was in 1929, and the purpose for them making the Deed to me was for me to obtain some kind of a crop loan, as the government was making loans on crops or to make crops at that time, and they made me the Deed so that I could get the loan and make the crop. I was living on the property at that time, and they were just trying to help me out. The property was not to be mine, and I did not give them anything for it, nor was I suppose to give them anything for it, but they were just helping me to make a crop and pay up my debts. That is all there was to it, and that is right. Whatever the Fleming heirs have in the property is still there, and the several children have their interest just the same as the Webbs have there. This Deed didn’t mean anything. Now I did get the interest of some other people in that Deed, and, of course, I am claiming that interest, but I am not claiming anything against the Fleming heirs and I am making a Deed to them for their interest, and I want to get it straightened out about this Deed that I got in October, 1929, and this pretty well takes care of that.”

Plaintiffs are the adopted children of Ruffin Dixon. Ruffin died in October, 1961. Plaintiffs claim, here, as his heirs and devisees. Ruffin’s affidavit was admissible in evidence under the rule that permits the statements of a decedent af *624 fecting title to land to be received against an heir or devisee claiming the decedent’s rights to that title. See 2 McCormick And Ray, Texas Law of Evidence (2d Ed.), p. 70, Sec. 1177.

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495 S.W.2d 621, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dixon-v-huggins-texapp-1973.