Henry v. Land

168 S.W. 994, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1056
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 21, 1914·No. No. 1261.·Published

Opinion

LEVY, J.

This is a suit by Mrs. Henry, joined by her husband pro forma, for injunction to restrain the sale under writ of execution of 16 acres of land. The petition alleged that the property was purchased with the separate funds'of Mrs. Henry. The defendants answered by denial, and specially averred that the property was the community property of the plaintiffs, and subject to execution. The case was tried by the court without a jury, and judgment was entered dissolving the temporary injunction and for the defendants.

The court made the following findings of fact and conclusions of law:

“I find that plaintiffs Walter Connaily & Co., a private corporation, created under the laws of the state of Texas, did on the 7th day of October, 1912, recover a judgment in the county court of Smith county, Tex., against the plaintiff L. A. Henry for the sum of $231.05, together with interest and costs of court; that thereafter, on March 12, 1913, said Connaily & Co. caused an execution to be issued on said judgment and placed same in the hands of the defendant Joe Land, Sheriff, and that said sher *995 iff levied said execution on the 16 acres of land in controversy, and advertised the same to satisfy said judgment in favor of the said Gon-nally & Go. 1 find that the 16 acres of land in controversy were purchased on or about the 16th day of November, 1912; that at the time it was purchased title was taken in the name of the plaintiff Mrs. George Ella Henry. I find that the plaintiffs Mrs. George Ella Henry and L. A. Henry were husband and wife, having been married and living together as such husband and wife for nearly SO years; that at the time said land was purchased the plaintiff L. A. Henry handled the transaction and paid in cash on said land the sum of $58, and assumed the payment of certain vendor’s lien notes outstanding against the property, the total purchase price being about the sum of $1,000; that subsequently, about seven months prior to the time this case was tried, the plaintiff paid one of the notes and interest amounting to about $250, and that about three or four months before this case was tried the plaintiff paid another one of the notes amounting to about $250, including interest; that part of the money with which the plaintiff L. A. Henry purchased, the land and paid the notes was money that his wife, George Ella Henry, made keeping boarders; that as much as $250 or $300 of the amount so paid was from funds so made by her keeping boarders. The exact amount was unknown to either Mr. or Mrs. Henry. I find that some 10 or 12 years prior to the date said land was purchased that the plaintiff had an agreement by which his wife, George Ella Henry, should keep boarders, and that the proceeds from same be her separate property. I further find that at the time the land in question was purchased, and for some years prior thereto, the plaintiff L. A. Henry was insolvent; that he had no property subject to execution, and owed money to the extent of $6,000; and that there were unsatisfied judgments against him in Smith and other counties in the state of Texas. I also find that some 2 or 3 years prior to the date the land in question was purchased the plaintiff Mrs. George Ella Henry sold an interest in a piece of land which she owned for which she received $137.50, which money was turned over by her to her husband, the plaintiff L. A. Henry. X find the 16 acres of land to be worth about $1,200.
.“Conclusions of Law.
“The land in question, having been acquired during marriage, is presumed in law to be community property, and the burden is on the spouse claiming such land as separate property to show that the separate fund of such spouse went into the purchase of the same. The husband, while in an insolvent condition, cannot give to the wife proceeds of the community and thereby defeat the right of a creditor of the community. Property partly purchased with the separate property of either husband or wife is subject to the debt of a creditor of the community to the extent that the community fund went into the purchase of the property. I therefore find: First, that all the land in controversy was subject to the debt of the execution creditor; and, second, that if all the land was not subject to the execution of Connally & Go., the community interest of Henry and wife in the land was sufficient to more than satisfy the amount of Connally & Go.’s judgment.”

The evidence supports the findings made by the court, and they are sustained.

Opinion.

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Henry v. Land, 168 S.W. 994, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1056 (Tex. Ct. App. 1914).

168 S.W. 994 (Henry v. Land) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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