Farmers Royalty Holding Co. v. Cherry

142 S.W.2d 255, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 533
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 6, 1940
DocketNo. 11016
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 142 S.W.2d 255 (Farmers Royalty Holding Co. v. Cherry) 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
Farmers Royalty Holding Co. v. Cherry, 142 S.W.2d 255, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 533 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinions

CODY, Justice.

The primary question for determination in this case is whether, under the facts here presented, the rule — that a title subsequently acquired to land-by a grantor, who had previously conveyed an interest therein under warranty of title, passes eo irstante to the grantee — is here applicable.

The facts here presented are these: Dan Webel and wife owned the land involved in this suit, subject to the outstanding superior title and vendor’s lien securing notes given by said owners as the purchase price for said land (which notes and security were owned by one. William Kemper, at the time that the owners gave certain mineral deeds to the minerals in the land involved in this suit); one deed being a mineral deed, which was forthwith recorded; to Farmers Royalty Holding Company, which contained a general warranty of title; and another mineral deed, which was also forthwith recorded, to G. T. Blankenship, which contained a general warranty of title; and a portion of the interest conveyed to Blankenship was thereafter conveyed to W. R. Jarrett. A short while after the date of the mineral deeds just referred to, Dan Webel and wife filed suit in the District Court of Jackson County against the grantees in the aforesaid mineral deeds and their successors, in interest, to have said deeds cancelled. The defendants in the suit brought by Dan Webel and wife for cancellation of said mineral .deeds had said cause removed to the Federal District Court. At this stage, William Kemper brought suit in the District Court of Jackson County, as the owner of the superior title and purchase money notes, to rescind the conveyance and recover the land involved in this suit, and made Dan Webel and wife, and each grantee in each mineral deed, and their successors in interest, parties .defendant to such rescission suit. In this suit for rescission, William Kemper recovered “all the rights, titles and [256]*256interests” of each, of the defendants in the land involved in this suit, and by judgment in said suit the same were divested out of said defendants and vested in • William Kemper. Thereafter, on September 27, 1934, William Kemper and wife conveyed the land involved in this suit to the said Dan Webel in consideration of notes aggregating $1,550. Thereafter, on October 30, 1934, W. O. Cherry (appellee here) paid to Webel, as consideration for a deed to this land, $3,600 in cash, and gave his note —since paid — for $400, which consideration has been applied, according to agreement, in paying off the outstanding vendor’s lien notes given by Webel to Kemper on September 27, 1934. Cherry had no actual knowledge of any claim against the land other than the vendor’s lien of September 27, 1934, and did not actually know appellants, or those under whom appellants claim, claimed any interest in the land. The vendor’s liens retained by Kemper, and by Webel, had been paid off and released; and appellee Cherry gave a mineral lease on the land here involved on April 5, 1938, and has collected all delay rentals thereon. W. O. Cherry brought this suit in trespass to try title against appellants, who are the grantees in the mineral deeds, aforesaid, or the successors in interest to said grantees in the mineral deeds. The appellants all filed formal answers, and pled “not guilty”, and pled the mineral deeds under which they claim, and pled the general warranty of title from Dan Webel and wife, and pled that appellee was estopped from asserting a title from Dan Webel which was “an after-acquired title” that had passed to appellants, etc.

The case was tried without a jury, and the court rendered' judgment for plaintiff, who is appellee here. At the request of appellants, the court filed his findings of fact, and conclusions of law. The substance of these findings of fact we have set forth above.

“It is established in this state that ‘when one conveys land by warranty of title, or in such manner as to be estopped to dispute the title of his grantee, a title subsequently acquired to that land by the grantor will pass eo instante to his war-rantee, binding both the warrantor and his heirs and subsequent purchasers from either.’ Baldwin v. Root, 90 Tex. [546], 553, 40 S.W. 3, 6. It is also settled that the registration of such instrument of conveyance affects subsequent purchasers under the grantor with constructive notice of the instrument (Robinson v. Douthit, 64 Tex. 101; Leonard v. Benford Lumber Co., 110 Tex. 83, 216 S.W. 382); provided the title, which is acquired by the grantor after the instrument is executed, originated prior to the execution of said instrument (Breen v. Morehead 104 Tex. 254, 136 S.W. 1047, Ann.Cas.19, 4A, 1285; Williams v. Cook (Tex.Com.App.) 282 S.W. 574).” Caswell v. Llano Oil Co., 120 Tex. 139, 36 S.W.2d 208, 211.

The foregoing quotation is part of the answer made to certain certified questions, which was adopted by the Supreme Court. In the Caswell case just quoted from the facts were that the owner of land, after he had placed a deed of trust thereon, gave to H. H. Patterson an oil and gas lease for a valuable consideration, who transferred it to the Llano Oil Company with general warranty of title. Thereafter, and after default in payment of the deed of trust notes, the deed of trust lien was foreclosed, the foreclosure sale being held by the substitute trustee, and sale of the land was made to Otto Stolley; and the oil and gas lease theretofore given by the original owner to H. H. Patterson, and by him transferred to Llano Oil Company, was cancelled and terminated. Thereafter, Otto Stolley, the purchaser at the foreclosure sale, conveyed the land to the original owner (who had given the deed of trust thereon, and then given the mineral lease which was transferred to the Llano Oil Company) and then such original owner gave a mineral lease to the plaintiff in the case, for a valuable consideration, and such plaintiff was without actual knowledge of the adverse claim of the Llano Oil Company. The Supreme Court, through its Commission of Appeals, held: “It appears from the certificate that the title to the two sections of land in controversy, which was acquired by Lockhart [original] owner from Stolley, originated some time prior to the execution by Lockhart of the mineral lease to Patterson. This lease containing as it does a covenant of warranty of title, was duly of record when Caswell [plaintiff] purchased from Lockhart, and Caswell was thereby affected with constructive notice of the rights of the Llano Oil Company in the land, as assignee of Patterson.”

And the court further held that it was immaterial whether the sale by the substitute trustee was valid or not so far as [257]*257concerned the right of the Llano Oil Company to take by “after-acquired title’’ of its warrantor of title. The Llano Oil Company was obviously entitled to prevail if the trustee’s sale was void, if it was entitled to prevail even if the trustee’s sale was valid.

It is undisputed that Webel and wife had given the mineral deeds under which appellants claim at a time which the superior title was outstanding to secure the payment of the unpaid purchase price notes and that said mineral deeds contained a covenant warranty of title; i. e., to say Webel and wife gave a warranty to the effect that the superior title was not outstanding and that they had a right to convey the title to the minerals which was.conveyed in the mineral deeds. The title which Webel and wife warranted to appellants failed when Kemper recovered judgment in the case of Kemper v. Webel et al., against Webel and wife and against appellants.

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Related

Frels v. Schuette
222 S.W.2d 1006 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1949)
Farmers Royalty Holding Co. v. Kulow
186 S.W.2d 318 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1945)
Farmers Royalty Holding Co. v. Hahn
187 S.W.2d 930 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1945)
Cherry v. Farmers Royalty Holding Co.
160 S.W.2d 908 (Texas Supreme Court, 1942)

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Bluebook (online)
142 S.W.2d 255, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 533, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farmers-royalty-holding-co-v-cherry-texapp-1940.