Evans v. Jacobs

249 S.W.2d 98, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 2146
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 10, 1952
DocketNo. 12396
StatusPublished

This text of 249 S.W.2d 98 (Evans v. Jacobs) 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
Evans v. Jacobs, 249 S.W.2d 98, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 2146 (Tex. Ct. App. 1952).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

■This appeal is from a judgment of the District Court of Lavaca County, Hon. Lester Holt presiding without a jury, which, reduced to its essential substance, was this: “ * * * judgment for the cancellation and removal as cloud upon title a deed' executed by Dora A. Jacobs, September 24, 1943, to defendant, D. E. Evans, * * * and which deed attempted to convey to D. E. Evans in fee after the death of the grantor, Dora A. Jacobs, a 45¾5 acres undivided interest in and to a 213-acre tract of land described in plaintiff’s petition, and to convey to him in fee all of the right, title and interest she had in and to said 213 acres of land, which the will of Edward Jacobs, deceased, bequeathed to her only a life estate and which she elected to and did take during her lifetime, * *

The court filed comprehensive findings of both fact and law in support of its action, the controlling ones being these: (1) those of fact: t

“5. Edward Jacobs, the husband of said Dora A. Jacobs, died September 3, 1941, leaving his will executed August 2, 1941, which was duly probated by the County Court of Lavaca County, Texas, on September 22, 1941. * * * (which) reads as follows:
“ ‘Second: I give to my beloved wife, Dora A. Jacobs, all of'household and kitchen furniture, one-half of all cattle, one-half of all money and one-half of all other personal property, whether it be my individual and separate property or our community property, same to be her property to do with as she may see fit and proper. And I give to my beloved wife Dora A. Jacobs my home place of 213 acres of land during her lifetime; this being my separate property.
“ ‘Third: I give to each of my four children a one-fourth undivided interest in and to one-half of all cattle, one-half of all money and one-half of all of the other personal property I may own and be possessed of at the time of my death, so that McKinley E. Jacobs, Charles Jacobs, John A. Jacobs and Beatrice Inez Hoffman, my beloved children, will receive an equal share of same. I give to my beloved children McKinley E. Jacobs, Charles Jacobs, John A. Jacobs, and Beatrice Inez Hoffman all of the real estate I may own at 'the time of my death, other than the 213 acres homestead, to be their property in fee simple to do with as they may see fit and proper, so that each of them will receive one-fourth of same and at the time of the death of my beloved wife Dora A. Jacobs said homestead of 213 acres is to become the property of my said four children and they are. to receive and equal one-fourth interest in same, to be the property of each of them in fee simple.’
. “6. A total of 106%8 acres of the 213 acres of land involved was the community property of Edward Jacobs and Dora A. Jacobs at the time of his death.”

(2) those of law:

“1. The will of Edward Jacobs having disposed of all realty and personalty as a whole and having specifically included all of the community estate, Edward Jacobs thereby intended to dispose of his widow’s community interest in the entire estate as his own and intended to put her to an election as to whether,she would take under the will or under the laws of descent and distribution.
“2. The will of Edward Jacobs, deceased, required his widow, Dora A. Jacobs, to elect to take thereunder only a life estate in the 213 acres of land here involved.”

In this Court appellant seeks a reversal through six main points of error, among others, attacking as being without sufficient evidence to support them, both the finding of fact and conclusion of law of the trial court to the effect that Dora A. Jacobs [100]*100elected to take under the will of her husband, Edward Jacobs, a life estate only in the 213 acre tract of land that had been their homestead during their marriage.

In doing so, he urges that each and all of these particular findings was either without sufficient evidence, or any evidence, or was against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence touching it, to-wit:

(1) that Mrs. Dora Jacobs, after the death of her husband, Edward Jacobs, received under his will household furniture which belonged to himself and his deceased first wife, Inez Jacobs;

(2) that she (Mrs. Dora Jacobs), acting under the will of her deceased husband, took actual possession of the entire 213 acres, rented it, and received the rent from all of it;

(3) that she received valuable property from the estate of her deceased husband, under'his will, which she would not have received, had she elected to take her legal rights independently of the will ;

(4) that she, Mrs. Dora Jacobs, receipted for all rights and properties given her under the will of her husband;

(5) that she also permanently abandoned her legal rights to her rural homestead, before she made the deed to the appellant that is involved in this suit;

(6) that, as indicated, Mrs. Jacobs had elected to take property given her in the will of her husband, in lieu of her homestead rights and her legal community interest in the 213 acres of land.

Since appellant has properly invoked the exclusive authority of this Court to determine, upon appeal, whether a finding of fact of the court below is so against the overwhelming preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong, it is more accurate to say that the sole question presented here is whether there is sufficient evidence to support the determinative finding below that Mrs. Jacobs did elect to take, under the will of her deceased husband, Edward Jacobs, a life estate only in the 213 acre tract of land involved.

The very able briefs and oral arguments from both sides have shortened the task of this Court in passing upon the controversy; after reviewing the record, it cannot hold that anyone of the six attacked findings of fact was either without any evidence to support it or was so against the great weight of the evidence as to be wrong.

It is further determined that the judgment based upon the findings violated no legal right of the appellant.

As the briefs of both sides concede, the law arising upon the facts so determined is settled.

It is unequivocally declared in these holdings: Baldwin v. Baldwin, 134 Tex. 428, 135 S.W.2d 92; Dakan v. Dakan, 125 Tex. 305, 83 S.W.2d 620; Edsall v. Hutchings, Tex.Civ.App., 143 S.W.2d 700; Graser v. Graser, 147 Tex. 404, 215 S.W.2d 867; Lindsley v. Lindsley, 139 Tex. 512, 163 S. W.2d 633; Story v. Story, 142 Tex. 212, 176 S.W.2d 925.

It is true there were divergencies in the lines of the testimony — respectively presented by the opposing sides tO' the controversy — but few, if any, actual disputes between them as to the existence or not of any particular facts; wherefore, there were, on the whole, no su.ch differences as did not clearly fall within the province of the trial court to resolve. Hence its determination thereof is just as binding on this Court, as would, have been the verdict of a jury below, to the same purport.

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Story v. Story
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Lindsley v. Lindsley
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143 S.W.2d 700 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
249 S.W.2d 98, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 2146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-jacobs-texapp-1952.