Escamilla v. Estate of Escamilla

805 S.W.2d 886, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 492, 1991 WL 24237
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 28, 1991
Docket13-90-287-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 805 S.W.2d 886 (Escamilla v. Estate of Escamilla) 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
Escamilla v. Estate of Escamilla, 805 S.W.2d 886, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 492, 1991 WL 24237 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

OPINION

BENAVIDES, Justice.

Esteban Escamilla appeals a judgment in favor of his father’s estate and his mother which, among other things, set aside a deed conveying one acre of the Escamilla family farm to him. By two points of error, appellant contends that no pleadings and no evidence support the portion of the judgment setting aside the deed. We reverse the trial court’s judgment.

The record reveals that Anselmo Escam-illa, Sr.; and Bruna Escamilla, his wife, owned twenty acres of farmland in Cameron County. Their house was located on the twenty-acre tract. Anselmo, Sr., and Bru-na gave one acre to each of their three sons, Anselmo, Jr., (Junior), Rito, and Esteban. The acres conveyed to Junior and Rito were clear of improvements, while the house was located on the acre conveyed to Esteban.

On January 1, 1985, after the one-acre conveyances, Anselmo, Sr., died. Esteban lent money to his mother and Rito to pay for Anselmo’s funeral expenses. In exchange for the money, Bruna agreed to allow Esteban to farm the property and to credit any rent he would owe her to the debt for the funeral expenses. Esteban began farming the property in 1985.

*887 Sometime in 1986 or 1987, Bruna left the house on the acre initially deeded to Esteban and moved into Rito’s family’s home. Around that time, Esteban’s family moved into the farm house which Bruna had left.

On March 12, 1987, Rito, as independent executor of Anselmo’s estate, probated Anselmo’s last will and testament. On March 18, 1987, Rito, in his representative capacity as independent executor of Anselmo’s estate, helped Bruna, in her individual capacity, file a second deed purporting to change the designation of which acre of the twenty acres Bruna and Anselmo deeded to Esteban.

In January, 1988, Bruna and the estate, represented by Rito, (hereafter “Escamil-las”), filed suit against Esteban to get him off the property and have it returned to Bruna. The property was described as a seventeen-acre tract. Esteban answered with a general denial.

Subsequently, on May 24, 1988, Esteban amended his answer with an action for injunction against the Escamillas and third party, Cameron County Irrigation District No. Two., because Rito had requested that the irrigation water service be terminated. Esteban also filed a cross-action against Rito and Bruna for the funeral expenses less the balance of any accrued rent which may be due, if Rito and Bruna are successful in ousting him from the property. He further sought damages for any losses incurred as a result of withholding the irrigation water and a permanent injunction preventing Rito and Bruna from further interfering with his use of the property or the furnishing of irrigation water to the property.

Later, the case was tried to the court and the trial court entered judgment, ordering that the deed from Anselmo Escamilla and Bruna Escamilla to Esteban Escamilla, dated April 12, 1984, and filed in the Cameron County Deed Records be set aside, voided and held for naught, and that in its place and stead be the deed from Bruna Escamil-la, a/k/a Bruna Gonzalez Escamilla, Individually and as Independent Executrix of the Estate of Anselmo Garza Escamilla, deceased, dated March 18, 1987, and filed in Cameron County. Esteban was also ordered to vacate the property. The trial court also ordered a permanent injunction preventing the parties from any contact with each other. On appeal, Esteban attacks only the portion of the judgment setting aside the 1984 deed.

By his first point of error, Esteban contends that the trial court erred in issuing the judgment which set aside the deed from Anselmo, Sr. and Bruna to him, dated April 12, 1984, because the pleadings in this cause do not support such a judgment. By his second point of error, Esteban contends that the trial court erred in issuing a judgment setting aside the deed in that no evidence supported the judgment. A judgment cannot stand unless it is supported by both pleadings and evidence. Jennings v. Texas Farm Mortgage Co., 124 Tex. 593, 80 S.W.2d 931 (1935); Lyles v. Johnson, 585 S.W.2d 778, 782 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1979, writ ref’d n.r.e.); Tex. R.Civ.P. 301; see also Villalon v. Vollmering, 676 S.W.2d 220, 222 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1984, no writ).

PLEADINGS

In this case, the Escamillas pleaded that Esteban had converted real and personal property, namely a farm and a house, located on a seventeen-acre tract belonging to Bruna, his mother, and that he had destroyed the house. The Escamillas’ pleading referred to the land which Bruna inherited from Anselmo upon his death and to the agreement she and Esteban had regarding the lease for farming, and complained of Esteban assuming control and dominion over the land in August, 1985, the date that Esteban began farming under the lease agreement. The petition referred to Anselmo, Sr.’s will as evidence of Bruna’s right to the property but had attached a copy of Bruna’s 1987 will, not Anselmo’s. Also attached to the petition was a copy of the original warranty deed for the initial twenty acres; the deed was in the names of Bruna and Anselmo, Sr. The Escamillas complained that on or about May, 1987, Esteban took over the residence of his mother by fraud and destroyed it. The *888 Escamillas further complained that Esteban did not return the property upon demand and did not give an accounting of expenditures and profits made on the land by farming. In their prayer for relief, the Escamillas asked for actual and exemplary damages, interest, and the “[rjeturn of the realty and residence to Plaintiffs.”

The pleadings make no reference to the deed from Anselmo and Bruna to Esteban. Furthermore, none of the dates listed in the petition relate to either the initial deed from Anselmo and Bruna or to the corrected deed.

At trial, Esteban’s attorney objected when the Escamillas’ attorney attempted to elicit testimony related to the correction deed and again when he attempted to have the deed admitted. Each time, Esteban’s attorney objected on the grounds that the Escamillas’ attorney was attempting to reform a deed and there were no pleadings regarding reformation of the deed.

The Escamillas’ attorney did not request a trial amendment regarding reformation of the deed but instead contended that the assertion in the pleading that Esteban took over the residence by fraud covered the deed reformation issue. The trial judge allowed the testimony and deed into evidence.

When the allegation regarding fraud is taken in context it cannot be read broadly enough to include deed reformation. The full sentence is: “Plaintiffs will further show that on or about May, 1987, Defendant took over the residence of his mother BRUNA GONZALEZ ESCAMILLA by fraud, and destroyed said residence.” The initial deed giving Esteban the one acre with the house on was executed before January 1, 1985. There is absolutely no pleading which refers to or which can be construed to refer to any allegations asserting a cause of action or grounds to set aside or reform the pre-1985 deed.

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Bluebook (online)
805 S.W.2d 886, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 492, 1991 WL 24237, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/escamilla-v-estate-of-escamilla-texapp-1991.