First Nat. Bank of Bowie v. Phillips

101 S.W.2d 319
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 4, 1936
DocketNo. 13387
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 101 S.W.2d 319 (First Nat. Bank of Bowie v. Phillips) 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
First Nat. Bank of Bowie v. Phillips, 101 S.W.2d 319 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

BROWN, Justice.

J. C. McNatt and his wife, Mary C. Mc-Natt, lived in Montague county for many years and reared five children, four daughters and one son, and on May 5, 1923, Mary C. McNatt died, leaving surviving her husband, J. C. McNatt, the son, C. C. McNatt, and the four daughters, Mrs. Elsie Phillips, Mrs. Lillian Campbell, Mrs. Mabel Campbell, and Mrs. Golda McDaniel.

[321]*321Certain real estate was acquired by J. C. McNatt and wife during her lifetime, and this lawsuit arises over a controversy concerning the interest the four above-named daughters inherited from their deceased mother.

Before Mrs. Mary C. McNatt died, J. C. McNatt and his son, C. C. McNatt, were operating as farmers and stock raisers, in a relationship which they both admit was a partnership. After Mrs. Mary C. Mc-Natt died, her surviving husband, J. C. Mc-Natt, made no effort to qualify as community survivor, and no administration of any kind, character, or description was had on the estate of Mary C. McNatt, deceased.

It appears that on February 11, 1928, the four surviving daughters, joined by their respective husbands, and the surviving son, C. C. McNatt, executed and delivered to their father, J. C. McNatt, a deed conveying a tract of about 309 acres of land in Montague county; the deed reciting that the grantors conveyed all their undivided interest in and to said land. The consideration recited was $500 cash in ■hand paid and the execution of a vendor’s lien note of even date with the deed in the ,sum of $6,000, payable to the grantors on or before February 11, 1929.

Shortly after the execution of this deed and the above-mentioned vendor’s lien note, J. C. McNatt executed and delivered to a named trustee his deed of trust, conveying the said 309-acre tract to such trustee for the use and benefit of the Federal Land Bank at Houston, Tex., to ¡secure the sum of $4,800. This instrument 'us dated March 9, 1928. We find indorsed ,on the above-mentioned $6,000 vendor’s lien note a credit as of March 17, 1928, in the sum of $4,560.

On February 10, 1933, the four named daughters, joined by their husbands, brought suit against J. C. McNatt, C. C. McNatt, and the First National Bank of Bowie, Tex., to recover the sum of $1,440, principal, same being the balance unpaid on the above-mentioned $6,000 vendor’s lien note, and the petition alleged that C. C. McNatt was not entitled to participate in the sum of money sued for because he had already received a sum of money far in excess of his undivided one-fifth interest in the original note. The petition further alleged that the defendant the First National Bank of Bowie was claiming some interest in the property in question because of a deed of trust which had been executed and delivered to it, but that the lien created thereby is inferior to the plaintiffs’ asserted lien. They sued for debt, interest, attorneys’ fees, and a foreclosure of their vendor’s lien.

The above-named bank being the only party to the suit that appealed from the judgment of the trial court, we will not attempt to detail the allegations in the pleadings filed by J. C. McNatt and C. C. Mc-Natt, but will merely refer to them as occasion demands.

The above-named bank filed an answer and a cross-action. The substance of the cross-action is that J. C. McNatt and C. C. McNatt were doing business as a partnership under the firm name of J. C. Mc-Natt & Son between the years 1907 and 1923, and that on or about June 20, 1931, in extension and renewal of their indebtedness incurred prior to May 5, 1923, for money advanced to them by the City National Bank of Bowie, Tex., which indebtedness for a valuable consideration and by instrument in writing was assigned to said First National Bank, the said J. C. Mc-Natt and C. C. McNatt, for a valuable consideration, executed and delivered to said First National Bank their promissory note in writing for the principal sum of $7,500, due and payable to the order of the said bank, on July 1, 1932; that no part of said principal sum has been paid, but that the interest thereon has been paid up to August 20, 1932, by the execution of two notes, one for the sum of $200, dated July 28, 1932, and one for the sum of $500, dated July 27, 1932, also payable on demand, and that concurrently with the execution of the $7,500 note J. C. McNatt and C. C. McNatt executed and delivered to said First National Bank, for the purpose of securing the aforementioned indebtedness, their said deed of trust, by the terms of which they conveyed three tracts of land situated in Montague county, Tex., the first being a 160-acre tract, the second being the 309-acre tract referred to above, and the third being a 365-acre tract.

The pleading alleges that the obligation sued upon was created and incurred during the lifetime of Mrs. Mary C. McNatt, and while she and J. C. McNatt were husband and wife, and said bank prays for judgment against J. C. McNatt and C. C. Mc-Natt on the three notes and for foreclosure of its deed of trust lien, upon all the interest of J. C. McNatt and C. C. McNatt in [322]*322and to the three tracts of land theretofore described, and further prays that in the event the proceeds derived from the foreclosure sale of the property covered by the deed of trust be insufficient to pay off the bank’s indebtedness in full, that the bank be decreed to have a statutory lien upon the undivided interest and estate of Mary C. McNatt, deceased, same being the portions of said three tracts of land claimed by the plaintiffs in this suit, and they pray,for the payment of any such balance due on the bank’s judgment, that the trial court decree that the entire three tracts of land be made subject to execution. The pleading further prays that in event plaintiffs be held to be entitled to a foreclosure of their vendor’s lien upon the 309-acre tract, said bank be decreed to have a superior lien thereto for the purpose of securing the payment of said balance.

To the bank’s cross-action, the said four daughters and their husbands pleaded the statutes of limitation against the bank’s right to subject the lands in question, inherited by them from their deceased mother, to the payment of its alleged debt. These parties specially pleaded that Mrs. Mary C. McNatt died without having made any will, and that no administration of any kind was ever had on her estate, and alleged that some five ' years after their mother’s death one Hutchison, acting as agent and president of the said City National Bank, advised the plaintiffs that there was a balance due of approximately $4,000 to said-bank, which was chargeable against the estate of J. C. and Mary C. Mc-Natt, and requested the plaintiffs to execute a deed covering their interest in the 309-acre tract to J. C. McNatt for a consideration of $6,000, and that this would enable J. C. McNatt to obtain a loan, and that if plaintiffs would do this and assist J. C. Mc-Natt in obtaining such loan, the said bank would take the money so obtained and pay off and discharge the indebtedness owing to it by said community estate.

Plaintiffs alleged that all these things were done in consideration of such promise; that the deed was'made, the loan was secured, and the said City National Bank received the sum of $4,560, which was taken in full satisfaction of the asserted community indebtedness.

The plaintiffs further alleged that the 160-acre tract was partially paid for out of the separate funds and estate belonging to their deceased mother.

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Bluebook (online)
101 S.W.2d 319, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-nat-bank-of-bowie-v-phillips-texapp-1936.