Hankins v. Dilley

206 S.W. 549, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 874
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 23, 1918
DocketNo. 1392.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 206 S.W. 549 (Hankins v. Dilley) 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
Hankins v. Dilley, 206 S.W. 549, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 874 (Tex. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

BOYCE, J.

This suit was brought by E. A. Dilley agaihst J. R. Hankins and others to determine the boundaries of survey 17, block M-11, A. B. & M., in Swisher county; plaintiff being the owner of said section 17, and the defendants being the owners of the adjoining surveys, whose lines might be affected by the location of the boundary lines of survey 17. Appellant Hankins owned section 24 in said block, situated directly south of 17, and the judgment of the court below established the boundary line between said surveys 17 and 24, according to a survey of said lines made by Surveyor Hutchinson; the corners being evidenced by iron pipes, and said survey being referred to in the record as the “Hutchinson Iron Pipe Survey.” Han-kins has alone appealed from the judgment of the court, and it will not be necessary to refer to the other defendants or questions raised by them, except as to the defendant Shook, who will be mentioned hereafter.

[1] The plaintiff’s petition sufficiently shows, we think, that he was claiming that the boundary line between him and the defendant Hankins should be located according to the Hutchinson iron pipe survey and supports the judgment in this respect. While plaintiff’s survey is referred to in the petition as being 1,900 varas square, yet the petition refers distinctly to the lines evidenced by the iron pipe corners put in by Hutchinson, and claims such line as the boundary between sections 17 and 24. The slight excess over 1,900 varas shown to exist between these corners is not, we think, a fatal variance. We therefore overrule the first assignment.

[2-4] The Hutchinson iron pipe survey was based on certain earth mounds taken by the surveyor Hutchinson to be the corners of certain surveys along the east boundary line of M-8, and the west line of M-9, and W-1, and the court instructed the jury that if it should be found that the several lines in said blocks were located by the original surveyor with reference to said mounds, then their verdict should be for the plaintiff; otherwise, the finding should be for the defendant. It thus appears that the only issue submitted to the jury, upon which a finding in plaintiff’s favor was authorized, was as to whether these mounds at the southwest corner of block W-1, and those north along the line of the old J. A. fence were original corners intended to be called for in the field notes of the several surveys in block M-8, M-9, and W-1. The charge called for a general verdict and was in effect a ruling against the plaintiff on his plea of estoppel or claim based on any other theory than that submitted, so that there could be no presumption that the issues not submitted were resolved by the court in plaintiff’s favor in support of the judgment, as might be done in eases submitted on special issues where proper exception is not taken to the failure of the court to submit an issue made by the pleading and evidence. The only question, therefore, to be considered in deciding whether the second assignment is well taken, is whether the evidence is sufficient to justify the conclusion that the corners northward from the southwest corner of W-l were original corners intended to be called for in the field notes of the several surveys in block M-8, *551 M-9, and W-1; ánd, if this inquiry should be determined in appellant’s favor, then, whether the record conclusively establishes that the judgment was rightly entered for plaintiff on any other theory.

If the testimony of Summerfield is to be believed, these corners could not have been put in on the original survey except on the theory that McClelland and the German surveyor, after leaving Summerfield at the monument called for at the northwest corner of survey 346, block M-6, ran east some 23 miles and north some 19 miles, and then back past this north run, and met Summerfield’s party in about three days after the separation putting in these corners on this run. Sum-merfield states that it was thought that some mistake had been made by this party during this separation, and their work was -not used except for about 10 miles east from the northwest corner of said section 346, which would not be anywhere near the corners relied on by Hutchinson and referred to in the court’s charge. The corners found by Hutchinson in 1890, from which he located his iron pipe corners, consisted of a line of earth mounds set at each mile, from the southwest corner of block W-l northward for some 15 miles or more. These were the same mounds evidently referred to in the field notes of McClelland’s run made in 1884. In the field notes of McClelland’s run, the mounds are described as having rocks or stakes set in them and the mound at the southwest corner of block W-l is described as a “large earth mound with cedar stake and buffalo bones on top, eighty varas west of lake.” Now the field notes of surveys in blocks W-l, M-8, and M-9, of which these earth mounds were taken by Hutchinson to be the corners, simply call for mounds at such corners, with no other particular description. The record shows that the field notes of the several hundreds of surveys located in blocks M-6, M-8, M-9, M-ll, and W-l, practically all call for a mound at every corner; if the call for a mound really meant a corner established on the ground, Swisher, Castro, and Randall counties would be full of original corners, and it is significant that the record does not disclose any original corners claimed to have been found on such descriptions, except along the line run by McClelland.

There is evidence in the record which is undisputed that surveyors in making and reading field notes in this country use the word “mound” simply to denote a point, indicating no established corner or actual survey, and the only reasonable conclusion to be drawn from the record is that “mound,” without further particular description, was used by the surveyors and signers' of the field notes of the surveys in block M-6, M-8, M-9, M-ll, and W-l, in this sense. If the earth mounds with rocks, stakes, and buffalo bones, described by McClelland, were original corners intended to be called for in field notes of the. surveys in block M-8, M-9, and W-l, it is reasonable to conclude that the surveyor would have given some particular description thereof to denote that the call was for something actually on the ground, and thus distinguish it from the hundreds of calls made for mounds in the field notes of other surveys in these blocks where only a point was meant. McClelland does not describe the corners as original corners; he, or some one else locating the line for the building of the J. A. fence, may have put in these corners. But even if the testimony were sufficient to justify the conclusion that this line of mounds was put in by the surveying party which separated from Summerfield, or by some one else within the knowledge of the writers of the field notes of said surveys in blocks M-8, M-9, and W-l, we doubt whether they could be given any effect, for under the circumstances the call for a “mound” could hardly be said to denote a call for these corners, and it is well settled that objects denoting the footsteps of a surveyor cannot be given effect in the absence of calls therefor in the field notes. Hamilton v. Blackburn, 43 Tex. Civ. App. 153, 95 S. W. 1094, and authorities; Goldman v. Hadley, 122 S. W. 282; Holdsworth v. Gates, 50 Tex. Civ. App. 347, 110 S. W. 537.

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206 S.W. 549, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hankins-v-dilley-texapp-1918.