Higginbotham v. Bagley

346 S.W.2d 142, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2273
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 23, 1961·No. 6399·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

*143 ANDERSON, Chief Justice.

The suit, in form of trespass to try title, was brought by appellee to recover title to and possession of land in Liberty County, a part of Lot 1, Block 45, in the town or city of Dayton, West Liberty Town League. Appellant answered by plea of not guilty and by specially pleading the statutes of limitation of ten and twenty-five years. Trial was to the court, without a jury. Appellee was granted the relief for which he prayed.

It is questionable as to whether any of what appellant has brought forward as his four points of error is sufficient under the briefing rules to be entitled to consideration, but we shall nonetheless take note of the following contentions: 1) the contention that the evidence conclusively proved that the boundary between appellant’s land and appellee’s land had been established by agreement; 2) the contention that the evidence conclusively proved that appellant and those under whom he claims title had perfected title under the ten-year statute ■of limitations; 3) the contention that the trial court erred in admitting into evidence a certain document. We consider none of the contentions well founded.

The trial court neither filed nor was requested to file findings of fact and conclusions of law. The evidence will therefore be viewed in the light most favorable to the judgment.

Only a narrow strip of land is involved. It is adjacent to and west of the true dividing line between the east and west halves of the aforesaid Lot 1, extends from the lot’s south line to the lot’s north line, and is bounded on the west by an old fence line. The strip is 62.1 feet wide at its ■south end, 48.2 feet wide at its north end. Its length is substantial, as Lot 1 contains twelve acres of land and is in the form of a square.

Appellee holds record title to the west balf of Lot 1, therefore to the land in suit. Appellant owns at least an undivided interest in the east half of the lot and whatever title those from whom he purchased held to the land in suit.

James Hunt formerly owned Lot 1 and an adjoining lot to the west of it, Lot 4, Block 44. In 1916 he and his wife conveyed the east half of Lot 1, Block 45, to Dave Roberts. In 1921 they conveyed the west half of the lot and all of Lot 4, Block 44, to Walter Bagley, who was appellee’s father. In the meantime Hunt had built a fence across the east end of his land and had left between it and his true east line the strip of land that is in'dispute. A fence, in varying states of repair, has been maintained on or near the original fence line ever since. For more than ten consecutive years a fence in a good state of repair was maintained on the fence line continuously. During those years, and in all others after the fence was first erected, Roberts or those holding under him occupied, cultivated, used and enjoyed the land east of the fence. This land was all the while enclosed, and the fences on its north and south connected to the fence we have been describing. Appellant first acquired an interest in the land east of the fence in 1957, and it was about this time that a survey was first made for the purpose of ascertaining the true location of the dividing line between the east and west halves of Lot 1. The suit was instituted less than two years later.

Irrespective of what findings with reference thereto it might support, the evidence does not require a finding that the fence line along the west side of the land in suit is an agreed division line, nor does it require a finding that appellant holds limitation title to the land that is involved.

There is no direct evidence of an express agreement as to the location of the dividing line, and the circumstances on which appellant relies as proof of an agreement are not of compelling force. A major premise of appellant’s argument is that James Hunt and Dave Roberts together, rather than James Hunt alone, built the *144 original fence that \yas built across the east end of Hunt’s land, but this community of effort is not an established fact. Although there is evidence from which joint action might have been inferred, there is also evidence to support a finding that the fence was built by Hunt alone, and this is the evidence by which we must be governed. It was because of this that we said earlier that Hunt built the fence. However, if a community of effort between Hunt and Roberts were an established fact, it would not be available to appellant. It would have antedated the conveyance to Walter Bagley in 1921, and the parties stipulated that Walter Bagley was the common source of title; appellant would not be heard to say that the agreed common source did not hold title. Crabtree v. Whiteselle, 65 Tex. 111, 115. Appellee admitted a community of action between himself, his father,- and Dave Roberts in keeping up the fence, but he also said that they acted together under an express agreement that when located by a survey the true dividing line would be honored by all parties. He further said that as repaired and rebuilt by himself, his father, and Dave Roberts the fence at times stood east and at times stood west of its original location. This evidence not only does not compel a conclusion of agreement on the fence line as the dividing line, but negatives that concept. There remains, then, only the evidence that establishes that the owners of the west half of Block 1 acquiesced for many years in the use of the fence and of the land east of it by the owners and occupants of the east half of the lot. This is not sufficient .to require a finding that the fence line was agreed to as the dividing line. Gulf Oil Corporation v. Marathon Oil Co., 137 Tex. 59, 152 S.W.2d 711, 714, wherein it was said: “Acquiescence in a line over a period of several years is evidence from which it may be inferred that the parties had agreed to the line, but it is not conclusive evidence of that fact.”

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Higginbotham v. Bagley, 346 S.W.2d 142, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2273 (Tex. Ct. App. 1961).

346 S.W.2d 142 (Higginbotham v. Bagley) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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