Fullerton v. Scurry County

143 S.W. 971, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 52
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 27, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 143 S.W. 971 (Fullerton v. Scurry County) 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
Fullerton v. Scurry County, 143 S.W. 971, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 52 (Tex. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

GRAHAM, C. J.

Plaintiffs in error sued defendant in error, in the district court of Lubbock county, for title and possession of the lands involved in this appeal (being the lands patented to Scurry county by the state of Texas for free school purposes), alleging a sale of the lands to their remote grantor on July 5, 1886, entirely on a credit, the deed and notes providing for payment of the principal on July 5, 1916, and payment of interest at 6 per cent, annually on July 5th, alleged a chain of transfers to themselves and registration thereof, and then alleged a judgment, recovered in the district court of Lubbock county on March 26, 1894, in favor of Scurry county, against its original grantee, being the remote grantor of plaintiffs in error for the lands in controversy, without service of notice to plaintiffs in error or their immediate grantors, who, at the time of filing the suit and rendering the judgment, held all such title as had ever been in the defendants in that suit, as at that time shown by the proper deed records, alleged an ouster by defendant of plaintiffs from the land on November 1, 1908, and pleaded section 1, art. 14, of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as against thebinding force of said judgment. Allegation is then made of the payment of interest on the purchase-money notes to and including the year 1891, and a tender, in November, 1908, of the remaining interest and accrued interest thereon, as well as a refusal by defendant to accept same, a proffer to pay all such sums as were necessary to entitle plaintiffs to a right of redemption, and prayer is then made for judgment, for title and possession of the lands upon their complying with the decree of the court as to the unpaid purchase money, for writ of possession, for removal of cloud cast on their title as a result of the judgment of date March 26, 1894, and for general and special relief, legal and equitable.

Defendant answered by general demurrer, special exceptions, a general denial, a plea of not guilty, and special defenses to the effect that no rights passed out of the county as a result of the attempted sale of July 5, 1886, because the writings evidencing said sale were not on the terms authorized by the commissioners’ court, a rescission in 1892 of the purported sale, because of a breach of the contract sale on the part of plaintiffs, arising from a failure to pay the purchase price as per contract, a judgment, of date March 26, 1894, canceling said purported sale and revesting title in defendant, and peaceable and adverse possession since that date, and also pleading the statute of limitations of three, five, and ten years. Defendant then pleaded notice on the part of plaintiffs of its repudiation of the sale, its election to cancel the same and repossess itself of the land, and an acquiescence by plaintiffs therein for more than ten years, resulting in an es-toppel to now assert any right to or claim in the land. Allegation is then made of the expense of recovering the apparent title and possession of the land in the proceeding resulting in the judgment of March 26, 1894; allegation in effect being made that the land at that time was worth less than the debt, including the interest, then due against the land, but that at the time of filing this suit, as well as at the time of the alleged tender, the lands had vastly increased in value. Allegation is then made of acquiescence by plaintiffs in defendant’s election to rescind the sale, and an abandonment by plaintiffs of the land and all such rights, if any, as they had ever had therein, long before the increase in value of said lands occurred, and prayer is made for cancellation of plaintiffs’ title and quieting defendant’s title, as well as for general and special relief.

By supplemental petition, plaintiffs pleaded minority of William B. Fullerton, one of the plaintiffs, until shortly before the filing of this suit, as avoiding the effect of limitation, laches, election, acquiescence, or stale demand, and also pleaded that if there were any irregularities about the original contract of sale by the county to their remote gran *973 tor the county had ratified said sale hy accepting partial performance thereof, and were estopped from now questioning its validity. Prayer is then made that, in case they cannot recover the land or their rights under the original contract of sale in the nature of specific performance, they recover the interest paid on the contract of sale, as well as the accrued interest on said payments from their date.

By supplemental answer, defendant pleaded that limitation, laches, election, acquiescence, defaults, and abandonment applied as against said William B. Fullerton; and further, in effect, that it would be inequitable for William B. Fullerton to be allowed to have specific performance of a portion of a contract made as an entirety, or to award him a portion of the lands under the facts pleaded. Ratification by defendant of the original contract of sale is denied, and allegation is made of a prompt repudiation thereof in toto, upon default being made by plaintiffs in payment of the purchase money.

Many exceptions were urged by the parties, respectively, in their pleadings; but the record fails to show that any action was had by the court on any of them.

. The trial court, within proper time, prepared and filed his findings of fact and conclusions of law, which are properly before us, and, as the findings of fact are not assailed, except in one particular, and that we think not well founded, we will dispose of this appeal on the facts found therein without regard to the statement of facts, which is also before us; and for a better understanding of the issues on which we dispose of the appeal, we copy the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, as follows:

“Findings of Fact.

“I find that, first, the state of Texas, on August 18, 1885, patented to Scurry county, Texas, as the school land to which the county was entitled, leagues 50, 51, 52, and parts of leagues 49 and 53. in Hockley county, and in the patents were described as described in plaintiffs’ first amended petition.

“Second. The Commissioners’ court of Scurry county, at the July term, 1886, accepted the bid of the Texas & Ohio Land Syndicate, Chillicothe, Ohio, for the purchase of said land, being $23,025.60, payable 30 years after date, and bearing interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum from date, interest payable annually in advance, and a vendor’s lien on the land according to the respective patents thereof, for the proportionate amounts of the bid, in the ratio that the land described in patent bears to the whole number of acres conveyed by the patents— that is, the sum should be apportioned to the quantity of land as embraced in the five patents, or as near as may be to make a ratable proportion of the same; that there should be five deeds to the company, to be executed by the county, in the name of R. J.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
143 S.W. 971, 1912 Tex. App. LEXIS 52, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fullerton-v-scurry-county-texapp-1912.