Foster v. Atlir

181 S.W. 520, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1192
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 16, 1915
DocketNo. 495. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 181 S.W. 520 (Foster v. Atlir) 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
Foster v. Atlir, 181 S.W. 520, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1192 (Tex. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

WALTHALL, J.

On the 10th day of October, 1909, appellees and appellants entered into a written contract by the terms of which appellees agreed to convey by warranty deed to appellants lots 1, 2, and 3 in Old Ft. Bliss, in the city and county of El Paso, Tex., upon which there was an indebtedness of $3,026, and which appellants assumed to pay, for which property appellants agreed to convey by warranty deed to appellee John Atlir their ranch property, consisting of real estate and personal property situated in Dona Ana county, N. M., all fully described, and, in addition, pay to appellees $500 in cash and execute their promissory note for $500. In said contract it is agreed that, should it be decreed in a suit then pending in New Mexico that title to any part of said land is not in the appellants, they should recompénsate him in the sum of $100 per acre for each acre to which such decree should hold appellants to be not entitled. This suit was brought by appellees against appellants alleging false representations as to the acreage contained in the tract of land conveyed, and that said tract was partly in conflict with other surveys to which appellants had not title; that damages had resulted to them from an alleged shortage in acreage to the extent of 32.11 acres of land, and failure of title as to 17.38 acres. Appellees alleged that in making the exchange of said properties the parties had agreed on the respective values of said properties, appellees’ Old Ft. Bliss property being valued at $25,000, and appellants’ ranch land property was agreed to be valued at $100 per acre, and the personal property on the ranch was agreed to be valued at $5,874; that the ranch personal property was of a value much less than the value agreed upon; that by reason of said shortage in acreage of 32.11 acres and failure of title to 17.38 acres in the'land actually conveyed the difference between the value of the land received by appellants and the money and property received by appellees on the basis of said agreed values per acre was $5,100 in appellants’ favor. Appellees prayed that they recover said $5,100 as damages, and in the alternative that they recover such sum as damages as the evidence may show will compensate them for the loss sustained, or that they recover for the shortage in acreage at the rate of $100 per acre, with interest; that they have a decree for a lien upon the property conveyed; that the lien be foreclosed; and for general relief. Appellants answered by general and special exceptions; alleged title in appellees by limitation, that under the laws of New Mexico appellees could not recover for breach of warranty until there had been an eviction, and that appellees had not been evicted; denied the allegations of fraud to deceive, or that they represented that the ranch contained 151 acres, or that the value was $15,100, or their knowledge that it contained a less acreage, or that title to part had failed, or that they represented that said ranch was worth $100 an acre; denied any agreed valuation of $100 per acre, and alleged that the exchange was made on the basis of the tract of land without regard to acreage; denied that the personal property was taken at an agreed valuation, or that ap-pellees’ property was taken at a valuation of $25,000. The matters pleaded will be stated later, if necessary to do so. The pleadings are quite lengthy, and we believe that a statement of the issues made in the pleadings under the assignments to which they refer will be best understood. The jury found for the appellees' upon special issues, and the court entered judgment against appellants as damages in the sum of $3,086 and for a reformation of the deed from appellants to appellees, and decreed that appellant have an equitable lien in the nature of a vendor’s lien on the property conveyed by appellees to secure the payment of the money judgment.

[1] Appellants’ first, assignment of error, that “the court erred in rendering judgment for the plaintiff,” is not made a distinct ground in the motion for a new trial, and is too general, in that it does not distinctly specify the ground relied on, and under the rules is considered as waived unless the error in entering judgment on the findings of fact is so fundamental that this court would act upon it without an assignment. The facts specified under' the assignment as fundamental error are embraced in other assignments, and we prefer to consider them thereunder.

Appellees alleged that it was understood by the parties that in said exchange of properties, the appellants’ ranch lands should be taken at $15,100, which, together with the personal property, estimated at a value of $5,-874, and the $4,026 represented by the $500 note and $500 cash and the indebtedness of *522 83,026 on appellees’ property, assumed by appellants, made up the total consideration for appellees’ property. These facts were denied by appellants in their answer.

[2] Proof was offered by both appellants and appellees as to the reasonable value of the personal property on the ranch conveyed by appellants, and there is a conflict in the evidence as to its value. The court did not submit to the jury the issue as to the value of the personal property. Appellants’ second, seventh, and eighth assignments of error are practically the same, and directed to the overruling of appellants’ written objections to plaintiffs’ motion to enter judgment upon the special verdict; the grounds being that there should be no judgment entered upon the special issues for the reason that nowhere did the jury find the value of the personal property conveyed. The objection made is one of the grounds in appellants’ motion for new trial. >ve take the assignment as being an objection to the entry of judgment, rather than an objection to the motion to enter judgment. To make the objection available as against the entry of the judgment, where the court did not submit all of the issues to the jury made by the pleadings, it should appear that its submission of the omitted issue was requested in writing by appellant; otherwise the issue not submitted and not requested to be submitted will be deemed as found by the court in such manner as to support the judgment, if there be evidence to sustain the finding. Revised Civil Statutes 1911, art. 1985. The objections referred to as applying to this assignment are as follows:

“Because the following issues and those to which attention is hereinafter raised should only be submitted to the jury for their determination: * * * (f) the difference in value between the plaintiffs’ Old Et. Bliss property and the defendants’ Dona Ana county ranch, with $4,000.00 in cash added, and persona] property on said ranch to the value of defendants’ Dona Ana county ranch.”

And in their fourth objection to the charge the following:

“Defendants object to interrogatory or special issue No. 14 submitted to the jury, because the same is submitted on an erroneous measure of damages, in this, that the measure of damages, if any, is the difference between the actual or fair, reasonable value of said Old Et. Bliss property and the defendants’ Dona Ana county, N. M., ranch, with $4,000 added, and personal property on said ranch thereto.”

In answer to interrogatories Nos.

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Bluebook (online)
181 S.W. 520, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1192, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-atlir-texapp-1915.