Hand v. Errington

242 S.W. 722, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 1053, 1922 WL 9
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJune 14, 1922
DocketNo. 325-3671
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 242 S.W. 722 (Hand v. Errington) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hand v. Errington, 242 S.W. 722, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 1053, 1922 WL 9 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1922).

Opinion

SPENCER, P. J.

Defendant in error May Errington, joined by her husband, J. C. Er-rington, instituted this suit to recover a one-half interest in eight separate tracts of land described in the pleadings which she claimed as the sole heir of her mother, Texana Hand, a former wife of plaintiff in error, J. J. Hand. She alleged that the lands in question had been purchased by plaintiff in error with the proceeds of the community estate of J. J. Hand and Texana Hand.

Plaintiff in error answered by plea of general denial and a plea of not guilty, and further pleaded the statutes of limitation and a settlement had with defendant in error, under the terms of which she conveyed to him all of her interest in and to the lands in question and released all of her interest therein to him. In response to special issues submitted the jury found that defendant in error was entitled to V22 interest in three of the eight tracts or 3210/n acres, and further that the lease value of this interest, which had been sold to an innocent purchaser without notice of appellee’s equity, was the sum of $23,036.36. Judgment was entered in her behalf for this amount.

It is a settled principle of equity that, when the relation of trustee and cestui que trust once arises, it pervades every transaction respecting the trust until it is effectually ended.

It is an equally well established principle of equity that, if the trustee invests the trust fund in other property or converts trust property into money and with the latter purchases other property, the cestui que trust may follow the fund in the new investment so long as he can identify the purchase as one made with the trust fund or its proceeds.Kennedy v. Baker, 59 Tex. 150, 162, 163; Texas Moline Plow Co. et al. v. Kingman Texas Implement Co., 32 Tex. Civ. App. 343, SO S. W. 1042.

In the present case it is not denied that plaintiff in error, as the community survivor, was the constructive trustee of the community property. It is admitted that.he sold' the cattle in which defendant in error, as an' heir -of Texana Hand, had an interest, and with the proceeds thereof purchased the lands in which the jury found that defendant in error has a V22 interest. No attack, is made upon the jury’s finding as to the extent of her interest, but it is simply contended that she has no interest.

The legal title to the cattle was in plaintiff in error. He was the apparent owner thereof, and sold them believing that defendant in error had no interest therein.The legal title to an interest never at any time vested in defendant in error. Hers was but an equitable title. The sale passed the legal title, which was in plaintiff in error, to the purchaser, and protected ■ the latter, against the equitable interest of defendant in error unless it could be established in a suit-as between defendant in error and the buyer that the latter was not a bona fide purchaser. Hill v. Moore, 62 Tex. 610; Patty v. Middleton, 82 Tex. 586, 17 S. W. 909.

Defendant in error was not, however,’ forced to pursue this remedy to the exclusion of the other remedies which the law afforded her. She had the right of election as between the following remedies: (1) An action against the purchaser for the amount of her interest, in which event it would devolve upon her to establish that the buyer was not a boDa fide purchaser for value; (2) to treat the sale as a conversion and to sue plaintiff in error for the amount of her interest; or (3) to pursue the proceeds so long as they could be clearly identified, and have the property which the money purchased impressed with a trust to the extent of her proportionate interst. Zundell & Co. v. Gess, 73 Tex. 144, 10 S. W. 693; Perry on Trusts (5th Ed.) vol. 2, p. 168, par. 128; Oliver v. Piatt, 3 How. (44 U. S.) 333, 11 L. Ed. 622.

Granting, however, that the relation of trustee and cestui que trust did not exist, still no different principle applies and no other result could be reached under the facts found. The property of defendant in error was converted by plaintiff in error into another form. This gave rise to a constructive trust. This principle is clearly stated in Pomeroy’s Equity Jurisprudence, vol. 3⅛ p. 2397, par. 1051, as follows:

“A constructive trust arises whenever another’s property has been wrongfully appropriated and converted into a different form. If one person having money or any kind of property belonging to another in his hands wrongfully uses it for the purchase of lands, taking [724]*724the title in his own name, or if a' trustee or other fiduciary person wrongfully converts the trust fund inta a different species of property, taking to himself the title, or if an agent or bailee wrongfully disposes of his principal’s securities, and with the proceeds purchases other securities in his own name — in these and all similar cases equity impresses a constructive trust upon the new form or species of property, not only while it is in the hands of the original wrongdoer, but as long as it can be followed and identified in whosesoever hands it <may come, except into those of a bona fide purchaser for value and without notice; and the court will enforce the constructive trust for the benefit of the beneficial owner or original cestui que trust who has thus been defrauded. As a necessary consequence of this doctrine,whenever property subject to a trust is wrongfully sold and transferred to a bona fide purchaser, so that it is freed from the trust, the trust immediately attaches to the price or proceeds in the hands of the vendor, whether such price be a debt yet unpaid due from the purchaser, or a different kind of property taken in exchange, or even a sum of money paid to the vendor, as long as the money can be identified and reached in his hands or under his control. It is not essential for the application of this dootrme that an actual trust or fiduciary relation should exist between the original wrongdoer and the beneficial owner. Whenever one person has wrongfully taken the property of another, and cowoerted it into a new form, or transferred it, the trust arises and follows the property or its proceeds.” (Italics ours.)

The facts necessary, to be noticed in connection with the plea of limitation are that defendant in error was born January 13, 18S6,' and was married to J. O. Erring- ' ton June 21, 1903. All of the cattle in which defendant in error had an interest were disposed of not later than 1898 — the date of the last purchase of lands by plaintiff in error with community funds.- This suit was filed on October 6, 1919. In 1917 there was a settlement between plaintiff in error and defendant in error which resulted in the execution .of the release of the latter’s interest in the lands in controversy. The Court of Ciyil Appeals found that it was Hand’s avowed purpose in securing this release to have each of his children share alike in his property, and that it was not known to defendant in error when she executed the release that she had an interest in the property by virtue of the investment of community funds therein. That court’s findings of fact pertinent to the question of limitation are as follows:

“Appellee had no knowledge of any other interest she had or ever would have in the lands in controversy; appellant giving her no information on the subject.

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

Related

Alvin Andrews v. State
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003
Marvin Wade v. Brent Button
Court of Appeals of Texas, 1999
Morgan v. Morgan
795 S.W.2d 835 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1990)
Matter of Estate of Crawford
795 S.W.2d 835 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1990)
Ames v. Ames
757 S.W.2d 468 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Estate of Bailey v. Commissioner
79 T.C. No. 28 (U.S. Tax Court, 1982)
Austin Lake Estates, Inc. v. Meyer
557 S.W.2d 380 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1977)
Dorbandt v. Bailey
453 S.W.2d 205 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1970)
Landry v. Williamson
335 S.W.2d 400 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1960)
Cartwright v. Minton
318 S.W.2d 449 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1958)
Tijerina v. Tijerina
290 S.W.2d 277 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1956)
Murphy v. Cartwright
202 F.2d 71 (Fifth Circuit, 1953)
Born v. Bluestein
220 S.W.2d 345 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1949)
Simmons v. Wilson
216 S.W.2d 847 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1949)
Paddock v. Siemoneit
214 S.W.2d 651 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1948)
Hardin v. Volunteer State Life Ins. Co.
193 S.W.2d 554 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1946)
Pounds v. Jenkins
157 S.W.2d 173 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
First Nat. Bank of El Campo v. Gann
150 S.W.2d 290 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
Lang v. Shell Petroleum Corp.
141 S.W.2d 667 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1939)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
242 S.W. 722, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 1053, 1922 WL 9, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hand-v-errington-texcommnapp-1922.