Gill v. Pringle

224 S.W.2d 525, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2208
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 14, 1949
DocketNo. 2861
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 224 S.W.2d 525 (Gill v. Pringle) 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
Gill v. Pringle, 224 S.W.2d 525, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2208 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

LESTER, Chief Justice.

This suit was instituted by the' appellants, in which they sought an injunction against the appellee to enjoin him, from trespassing upon their property, and in which they alleged that he was using their roads or turn rows over their farm; that he had permitted his stock to enter upon their land; that he had entered upon same and cut timber from their ■ land and had molested their tenants, and prayed that he be permanently enjoined from doing any and all of such acts in the future.

The appellee pleaded that he was the owner of two certain roadways, referred to as the east and west road, by prescription; and further, that he is the owner of the west road by an unrecorded instrument of conveyance dated about 1927, now lost.

■ The jury made the following findings: (1) That the appellee, unless restrained, would trespass and would permit his livestock to trespass upon the land of the appellants. ' (2) That the appellee and his predecessors in title had continuously and adversely used the east and west roads for more'than ten years under a claim of right inconsistent with the use by appellants, of which' appellants had 'notice. The court rendered judgment enjoining appellee from all' trespasses sought by the appellants except it declined to enjoin appellee ’from using the roads in question. Appellants filed their motion for judgment, which was by the court overruled. Appellants also filed their motion for a new trial, which was in like nianner overruled. Thereupon they gave notice of appeal and the case is before us for review,

The. appellants are co-owners of a large iract'of farm land in Falls county that, was owned 'by their father and mother at the time of their' death. G. A. Bletsch also owned a large tract of- land adjoining the Gill land on the -west side and sometime after his death 'in 1928 the land was divided among his children. The appellee J. P. Pringle is a grandson of G. A. Bletsch and is the owner of approximately 222 acres of the Bletsch estate, and being the same land that appellee’s mother came into possession of in 1939 and later acquired by the appel-lee. For many years there have existed two public roads that run by the Bletsch tract, one referred to as the north road and one on the south leading to the Perry road. Brushy Creek runs through appellee’s land and about 100 acres is on one side and 122 on' the other side of said creek. The appellants and 'their predecessors in title have maintained two roads or turn rows on their farm for several years referred to as the east and west roads, for the convenience of themselves and their tenants. These roads, since their establishment, have been continuously used by them as a way of egress and ingress and in going back and forth over the farm, and the east road was further used by the appellants in dividing the crops grown upon the farm among their tenants and in turning around when cultivating said 'land adjacent thereto. There is evidence that G. A. Bletsch constructed a bridge across Brushy Creek connecting the 100 and 122 acre tracts, which was used for 20 years by Bletsch and his tenants in moving their farm equipment from one tract to the other and in hauling their crops from the 100 acre tract. There is some evidence showing that G. A. Bletsch and his tenants used the east road or turn row at times in carrying their crops out but part of the time they carried them out through the fields. There is. evidence that appel-lee’s mother, who was a daughter of G. A. Bletsch, came into possession of the 222 acre tract in 1939 and used both roads frequently, “but the record fails to show the length of time she was in possession of the- same or for what period of time she used said roads. Mrs. Laura Johnson, a sister of appellee’s mother, testified that she had control of the Bletsch estate and of the 222 acre tract in question from 1930 to 1939, and that she used both roads many times and any time that she wanted to. She also testified, over the objection of the appellants, as to some deeds having been executed by the mother of appellants in respect to the west road, but such testimony was entirely hearsay, and inadmissible. Ben Dryer, a witness for the appellee and also his uncle by. marriage, testified that, he was a tenant on the Gill farm from 1926 to 1945; that six or seven years from the date [527]*527of the trial of this case, under the instructions of the appellants, he blocked the north terminus of the east road by putting posts in the ground.

The undisputed evidence is that both of these turn rows or roads were wholly maintained by the appellants and their predecessors in title for the convenience of themselves and their tenants ■ in the cultivation of their land and as a way of egress and ingress, and said roads were continually used in common by them and others who visited them socially or on business. There is no evidence that the appellee or his predecessors in title ever did one thing in establishing or maintaining either of said roads, or anyone else except the appellants, their predecessors in title, and their tenants. There is evidence, which is undisputed, /hat they were plowed over at times by appellants’ tenants and some changes were made in them, while appellee produced some witnesses who testified that they had run substantially in the same general course of several years.

Appellants have raised several points. The view we have taken of the case we will discuss only the first three, which are as follows:

(1) The court should have instructed a verdict for plaintiffs because the evidence was insufficient to show that the defendant had acquired a right to use the roads by prescription, the evidence showing that the defendant’s use of the road was by permission.

(2) The court should have instructed a verdict for plaintiffs because the undisputed evidence shows that plaintiffs and their tenants had continuously used both roadways ; and, therefore, plaintiffs could not have acquired an easement therein by prescription.

(3) The court should have instructed a verdict for plaintiffs because the undisputed testimony shows that plaintiffs and their predecessors in title at all times exercised dominion and control over the turn rows and roads in question, there being no evidence that defendant or his predecessors in title asserted a right to use same, inconsistent with plaintiffs’ right to exercise control and dominion thereof.

In reference to a prescriptive right, Texas Jurisprudence, Vol. 15, p. 797, sec. 24, states the rule to be: “The use of a way, for example, in common with others or the general public is not sufficient to create a prescriptive right, though the way be used for the prescriptive period. Especially is this true where there is no independent assertion of a right more pronounced and peculiar in behalf of the claimant and more indicative'of an adverse claim than the open and'notorious use with others. If the way is also used by the owner of the land, the use is not adverse and will not give a prescriptive right. This is for the reason that same is not inconsistent with a 'license from the owner.”

The above rule is supported by Sassman v. Collins et al., 53 Tex.Civ.App. 71, 115 S.W. 337; Texas & N. O. R. Co. v. Harvey, Tex.Civ.App., 146 S.W.2d 227.

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Bluebook (online)
224 S.W.2d 525, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gill-v-pringle-texapp-1949.