Heiner v. Homeland Realty Co.

100 S.W.2d 793
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 24, 1936
DocketNo. 1816
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 100 S.W.2d 793 (Heiner v. Homeland Realty Co.) 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
Heiner v. Homeland Realty Co., 100 S.W.2d 793 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

GALLAGHER, Chief Justice.

Appellee, Homeland Realty Company, a corporation, sued appellants, C. C. Heiner and wife, Jessie Belle Heiner, in trespass to try title to recover a tract of land situ-r ated in the city of Waco. Appellants pleaded not guilty.

Ervin Jones and wife, on August 8, 1927, executed and delivered to Edward T. Moore, as trustee, a certain deed of trust on said tract of land to secure a loan made to them by the Federal Mortgage Company of Dallas, Tex., and evidenced by their promissory note for the principal sum of $2,300, with interest thereon as stipulated. Said deed of trust contained the usual power of sale and empowered the holder of said note to appoint a substitute trustee in event of a failure or refusal to act on the part of the original trustee. Ervin Jones and wife, on October 22, 1927, conveyed said tract of land to appellants, who shortly thereafter took actual possession thereof and continued to occupy the same until the time of the trial. Said note and the deed of trust given by Jones and wife to Moore, trustee, to secure the same passed by successive assignments to the Guilford Mortgage Company. Moore resigned as trustee and said mortgage company duly appointed John F. Murphy as substitute trustee. He caused said property to be advertised for sale and sold the same at public auction to the Homeland Realty Company, the highest bidder therefor, and executed and delivered to it a deed thereto.

A jury was impaneled to try the cause. At the close of the testimony the jury, under a peremptory charge from the court, returned a verdict for appellee and the court rendered judgment in its favor thereon for the recovery of said tract of land.

Opinion.

Appellants present a group of propositions in which they complain of the action of the court in giving a peremptory charge in favor- of appellee, and assail the sufficiency of the evidence to show the validity, as a matter of law, of the sale made by the substitute trustee to appellee as hereinbefore recited. Appellants’ first contention in this connection is that the undisputed evidence showed that the sale was not made by the substitute trustee at the courthouse door of the county. Sales under deeds of trust are required by the terms of our statutes to be made in the county in which the land, or a part thereof, is situated, after the due posting of written notices of the proposed sale at three public places in the county, one of which must be the courthouse door. “Courthouse door” of a county is defined as the principal entrance to the house provided for the .holding of the district court. R.S. arts. 3809 and 3810.

The testimony shows that there are two entrance doors to the courthouse on the front or south side thereof. One of these entrances is upon the second floor and is reached from the sidewalk by ascending a long flight of granite steps to a landing formed by a recess in the main [795]*795wall of the building, from which double doors afford access to said second floor. All the district courts are held on the third floor of the building, which can be reached only by elevators or by stairways on the inside thereof. The county court and various county offices, including the office of the sheriff, are located on said second floor. Sales of real estate under execution or order of sale have heretofore been habitually made on said recess landing at the head of said flight of granite steps. There is no billboard at that place for the posting of notices and no witness testified to having ever seen a single official notice posted there. The other entrance on the south side of the courthouse is on the first or ground floor thereof. Two cement walks, one on either side of said granite steps, lead to an arch under the same, located immediately in front of the wall of the building and extending the entire width of said granite steps. This archway is about eight feet wide. Double doors therefrom afford entrance to the first or ground floor of the courthouse, from which floor elevators run to the other floors in the building. About 90 per cent, of the people entering the courthouse from time to time enter through these double doors on the first floor. Against the south wall of said archway is a large billboard. Upon this board practically all legal notices required to be posted at the courthouse door are posted. The testimony shows that one written notice of the sale so made by said substitute trustee was posted on said billboard more than three consecutive weeks before the day of sale, and that two other such notices were so posted at two several public places within said county and outside the city of Waco.

The undisputed testimony shows that the sale by said substitute trustee was made on the cement walk at the west end of said arch and within a few feet of the west end of the billboard above described, on the first Tuesday in the month and within-the hours prescribed by law. There was testimony that sales under deeds of trust were frequently made in the recess at the head of the granite steps above described, and in a few instances at least; at said archway at the entrance to the first floor. The testimony above recited shows that the requirements of law as to the place of sales made by trustees under deeds of trust were substantially complied with by the substitute trustee in this case, and the sale made by him is not subject to attack on that ground. Howard v. Fulton, 79 Tex. 231, 236, 14 S.W. 1061.

Appellants present a group of propositions in which they complain of the action of the court in giving a peremptory charge in favor of appellee on the ground that the only testimony with reference to the time, place, and circumstances of such sale was that of Murphy, 'the substitute trustee, and that he being an interested witness, his testimony, though affirmative and uncontradicted, could do no more than raise an issue of fact for determination by the jury. That said Murphy was an interested 'witness is conceded. Appellee, however, relies upon the provisions of the deed of trust creating the power of sale and the recitals of the deed made by said substitute trustee to it as purchaser to constitute prima facie proof of a valid sale and to effectively corroborate the testimony of its said witness. The paragraph of the deed of trust creating such power of sale provided, in substance, that any deed given by any trustee thereunder and any and all statements of fact therein made as to the time, place, and terms of sale, should be taken by any and all courts as prima facie evidence that such statements were true. The deed of the substitute trustee conveying the property in controversy to appellee contained recitals, in substance, that he had sold said property at public auction to appellee Homeland Realty Company at the courthouse door of McLennan county, Tex., between the hours of 10 o’clock a. m. and 4 o’clock p. m. on Tuesday, the 6th day of December, A. D. 1932, after having given public notice of the time, place, and terms of sale as prescribed by the terms of the deed of trust, and after having first posted written notices thereof for three consecutive weeks prior to the day of sale in three public places in said county, one of which was at the courthouse door thereof, and that ap-pellee was the best and highest bidder therefor. Said deed was introduced in evidence and constituted' prima facie proof of the truth of the facts so recited. Adams v. Zellner, 107 Tex. 653, 654, 183 S.W. 1143; Roe v. Davis, 106 Tex. 537, 538 et seq., 172 S.W. 708; Southland Lumber Co. v. Boyd (Tex.Com.App.) 244 S.W. 119, 121, par. 2; Allen v. Courtney, 24 Tex.Civ.App. 86, 58 S.W. 200, par. 1 (writ refused). The testimony of the witness Murphy was wholly uncontradicted.

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100 S.W.2d 793, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heiner-v-homeland-realty-co-texapp-1936.