Gettel v. Hester

86 N.W.2d 613, 165 Neb. 573, 8 Oil & Gas Rep. 1236, 1957 Neb. LEXIS 62
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 13, 1957
Docket34230
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 86 N.W.2d 613 (Gettel v. Hester) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gettel v. Hester, 86 N.W.2d 613, 165 Neb. 573, 8 Oil & Gas Rep. 1236, 1957 Neb. LEXIS 62 (Neb. 1957).

Opinion

Chappell, J.

Plaintiff, Wilbur 'Gettel, brought this- action in equity, seeking to quiet fee simple- title in him as against defendants, Burdette Hester and Alma R. Hester, his wife;; to -the- north half .and - the - southwest- quarter -of - Section 4,- Township 13 North-, Range' 56 West rof'the 6th P. M., *574 in Kimball County, Nebraska. Plaintiff’s amended petition, filed August 18, 1956, alleged in substance that he was the owner in fee simple of all the land, but Burdette Hester, hereinafter called defendant or designated by name, claimed to have some right, title, or interest therein. It alleged that plaintiff and defendant acquired the fee title to the land, save and except an undivided one-half of the mineral rights retained by the Federal Farm Mortgage Corporation, by warranty deed dated October 26, 1940, which was filed in the deed records of Kimball County on September 2, 1941; that by warranty deed dated March 29, 1947, and filed of record May 26, 1947, defendants conveyed to plaintiff all of their rights, title, and interest therein in fee simple; and that defendants and each of them are without any rights whatsoever and have no estate, right, title, or interest whatever in or to the land and should be forever barred from asserting same.

In amended answer thereto' defendants denied generally, but admitted that Burdette Hester claimed to own some title or interest in the land. For their amended cross-petition, defendants alleged that Burdette Hester was the owner of an undivided one-third interest in the surface acres of the land and an undivided one-sixth interest in the mineral acres of the land, but, notwithstanding that fact, plaintiff claimed to have some right, title, or interest to said land or a part thereof. Defendants then offered to do what was just and equitable, sought to have plaintiff forever barred from asserting any right, title, or interest in or to defendant’s undivided interest aforesaid, and to have the title thereto quieted in defendant.

Plaintiff, for reply to defendants’ amended answer, denied that defendant owned any title or interest in the land, and renewed the prayer of his petition. For answer to defendants’ amended cross-petition, plaintiff denied that defendant was the owner in fee simple of an undivided one-third interest in the surface of the land and *575 an undivided one-sixth interest in the minerals of the land. It then alleged in substance that defendants were estopped from claiming any right, title, or interest in the land because on March 29, 1947, they executed, acknowledged, and delivered a warranty deed purporting to convey to plaintiff an undivided one-third interest in the land, at which time they owned some right, title, or interest therein, not to exceed an undivided one-third thereof; that at that time plaintiff paid defendants a good and valuable consideration in full for said conveyance, which consideration defendants retained; and that defendants have not subsequently acquired any right, title, or interest in the land and are prevented by delay, neglect, and laches from enforcing any claim which they might have or purport to have therein. Defendants’ reply thereto was a general denial.

After trial upon the merits, a judgment was rendered finding that the language of the deed from defendants to plaintiff on March 29, 1947, was uncertain in meaning and there was a mutual mistake by plaintiff and defendants with regard to the extent of the ownership of the minerals in the land at the time of their negotiations and the sale to plaintiff by defendants, both of whom believed they jointly owned all of the mineral rights instead of an undivided one-half thereof; that plaintiff, who lived in Kimball County and was in a position to investigate the records and discover their true interest while defendants were living in Germany, had the deed prepared which reserved one-third of the mineral rights in defendant, when in fact he owned only a one-sixth interest therein. Therefore, the deed should be reformed to reserve such interest in defendant, and quiet title thereto in him. Judgment was rendered accordingly in favor of defendants, with costs taxed to plaintiff.

Thereafter, plaintiff’s motion for new trial was overruled, and he appealed, assigning in substance that the trial court erred in so finding and adjudging the *576 issues, and that the judgment was' not supported by: the evidence, but was contrary thereto and contrary to law. We do- not sustain the assignments.

At the outset we are confronted with a motion filed by plaintiff to strike a supplemental transcript filed by defendants in this court, which included plaintiff’s original petition, affidavit, and application, for. service by publication; order for service; voluntary appearance by defendants; and their original answer and cross-peth tion. The ground for plaintiff’s motion to strike was that the original transcript filed by plaintiff was full and complete as required by the Revised Rules of the.Supreme Court, Rule 4a, and contained the amended pleadings upon which the case was tried which had superseded the original petition, and answer and cross-petition, neither of which had ever been offered in evidence during the trial, and could not be considered by this court.

' In that connection, rule 4a does as a minimum require, among other things unimportant here, that: “The transcript shall contain: (1) The pleadings upon which the case was tried; *'* * and (5) such other parts of the record as the party appealing may desire to include therein.” However, section 25-1912, R. R. S. 1943, provides in part: “The transcript shall contain the judgment, decree or final order sought to be reversed, va^cated or modified, and all other filings made with such clerk, unless otherwise ordered by the appellant or appellants by the filing of a praecipe at the time of filing of1 notice of appeal, designating what portions of the record should be included in the transcript.” In that respect, plaintiff, as appellant, did not file any ‘ “praecipe” as required by siich section. Thus, defendants had a right to have “all other filings made with such clerk” made a part of the transcript, because rule 4c provides in part: “After the original transcript is filed in the clerk’s office, any party may without leave' of court file a supplemental'transcript containing' any' matters '.omitted from: the original transcript.” Therefore^ .'plain *577 tiff’s motion to strike should be and hereby is overruled.

In that situation, we conclude that whether or not plaintiff’s original petition which alleged that the terms of the deed dated March 29, 1947, were ambiguous, and defendants’ original answer and cross-petition, which alleged mutual mistake, should be considered by this court, requires no discussion except to say that the cause was actually tried by the parties without appropriate objections upon those theories, and the evidence supports the findings and judgment with regard thereto.

Being an equity suit, it is the duty of this court to try the issues de novo, in conformity with rules reaffirmed in Uptegrove v. Elsasser, 161 Neb. 527, 74 N. W. 2d 61.

An examination of the record discloses the following pertinent and controlling facts.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wolff v. Gibney
386 A.2d 325 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1978)
County of Sarpy v. Iske
204 N.W.2d 146 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1973)
Bauer v. Bauer
141 N.W.2d 837 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1966)
Bulger v. McCourt
138 N.W.2d 18 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1965)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
86 N.W.2d 613, 165 Neb. 573, 8 Oil & Gas Rep. 1236, 1957 Neb. LEXIS 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gettel-v-hester-neb-1957.