Hill v. McIntyre Drilling Co.

59 S.W.2d 193, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 530
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 30, 1933
DocketNo. 4298
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 59 S.W.2d 193 (Hill v. McIntyre Drilling 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
Hill v. McIntyre Drilling Co., 59 S.W.2d 193, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 530 (Tex. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Chief Justice.

April 4, 1927, M.. D. Thompson and wife, Inez Thompson, executed an oil and gas lease conveying seven-eighths of the minerals in and under 198 acres of land in Rusk county, Tex., to C. M. Joiner, trustee. Mrs. Inez Thompson died January 10, 1931. M. L. Thompson qualified as community administrator on March 18, 1931. This suit was filed by appellants Mrs. Newton 1-Iill and others, being all the heirs of Mrs. Inez Thompson, deceased, except two of her living children. The suit is to cancel the Joiner lease as to 50 acres of the land described, valued at $1,000,000. This 50 acres was community property, and constituted a part of the homestead of M. L. Thompson and wife, Inez Thompson, at the time of the execution of the lease, and so continued to the date of the death of Mrs. Thompson. Appellants seek to cancel the lease on the grounds (1) that the name of the lessee (O. M. Joiner, trustee) and the term (five years) for which the lease should run, were omitted from the instrument at the time it was executed; (2) that the notary public, G. P. Birdwell, who took the acknowledgments of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, was interested in the lease, being one of the parties for whom C. M. Joiner was holding as trustee; (3) and the failure in the payment of some of the installments of rentals when due prior to October 4, 1930.

January 19, 1932, M. D. Thompson for himself and as community administrator of the community estate of himself and his deceased wife, Inez Thompson, filed his plea of intervention in the suit, and on January 28, 1932, filed his supplemental petition, in each of which he adopts the pleadings of the plaintiffs, but prays for judgment in his own right as such community administrator.

The appellees, defendants in the trial court, jointly claim title to the seven-eighths leasehold interest in the 50 acres under the lease by regular chain of assignments from O. M. Joiner, trustee. In answer to plaintiffs’ suit to cancel the lease, defendants pleaded (1) mutual mistake in omitting the name of the lessee (O. M. Joiner, trustee) and the term (five years) for which the lease should run; (2) that, after the name of the lessee, and the term for which the lease should run had been filled in according to the original intention of the parties, Mr. and Mrs. Thompson reacknowledged the execution of the instrument October 13, 1930, before R. A. Motley, a notary public not disqualified; (3) that the lease had been ratified by Mr. and Mrs. Thompson before her death, and by Mr. Thompson, individually and as community administrator, since her death; (4) estoppel by Mr. and Mrs. Thompson before her death, by Mr. Thompson individually and as community administrator since her death, because of their certain acts in regard to, and statements and affidavits of the validity of, the lease. Defendants also pleaded improvements in good faith in drilling six producing wells on the 50 acres at an expense by them of approximately $150,000.

Trial of the oause to a jury upon special issues resulted in the court’s entering judg[195]*195ment on February 24, 1932, that plaintiffs and intervener take nothing, denying their prayer to cancel the lease, from which they have perfected this appeal.

Appellants have a number of assignments of error, all of which we have carefully considered, but in this opinion will discuss only the points governing the disposition of the appeal.

The jury found that G. P. Birdwell, the notary public before whom Mr. and Mrs. Thompson acknowledged its execution on April 4, 1927, was interested in the lease. A notary public is disqualified to take the acknowledgment of a conveyance in which he is interested. The acknowledgment of the husband is unnecessary to a conveyance by him, except for the purpose of registration. Mondragon v. Mondragon, 113 Tex. 404, 257 S. W. 215. The acknowledgment of a married woman is made by statute a necessary part of her conveyance. The 50 acres were a part of the community homestead of'Mr. and Mrs. Thompson at the time of their invalid acknowledgments before G. P. Birdwell. The lease did not then convey an interest in the property, if a conveyance of the community homestead by the husband is void and of no effect without the joinder and the separate acknowledgment of the wife. Section 50 of article 16 of the Constitution of Texas, provides: “ * * * Nor shall the owner, if a married man, sell the homestead without the consent of the wife, given in such manner as may be prescribed by law.”

Article 1300, Revised Civil Statutes, provides: ‘‘Such consent shall be evidenced by the wife joining in the conveyance and signing her name thereto, and by her separate acknowledgment thereof taken and certified to before the proper officer, and in the mode pointed out in articles 6605 and 6608.”

It appears to the writer that the restraint above provided is thereby placed upon the husband; that he is prohibited from selling the homestead with one exception, that is, with the consent of the wife evidenced in the manner provided. However, the construction to be placed thereon is settled that the husband, if it be community or his separate property, may convey the homestead without the joinder of the wife evidenced in the manner provided by statute, when done in good faith and without fraud on the wife. The conveyance is inoperative and may be set aside so long as it remains the homestead. When the homestead character of the property ceases, either by abandonment and acquisition of a new homestead, or by death of the wife, the conveyance then becomes operative; the reasoning being that the husband . has the authority to convey the community property, subject to the impediment of its being a homestead. The purpose of the law is to protect the wife’s homestead rights in the land. When the homestead character of the property ceases, the reason for the law’s protection of it as such ceased. The deed of the husband, theretofore not effective, but having been executed in good faith and without fraud upon the wife, then becomes operative. Brewer v. Wall, 23 Tex. 585, 76 Am. Dec. 76; Bell v. Crabb (Tex. Com. App.) 244 S. W. 371: Ley v. Hahn, 36 Tex. Civ. App. 208, 81 S. W. 354; Kirby v. Blake, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 173, 115 S. W. 674; Marler v. Handy, 88 Tex. 421, 31 S. W. 636; Goff v. Jones, 70 Tex. 572, 8 S. W. 525, 8 Am. St. Rep. 619; Allison v. Shilling, 27 Tex. 450, 86 Am. Dec. 622; Pitts v. Kennedy (Tex. Civ. App.) 177 S. W. 1016; Eberling v. Deutscher Verein, 72 Tex. 339, 12 S. W. 205; Fisher v. Gulf Production Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 231 S. W. 450; Southwestern Lbr. Co. v. Evans (Tex. Civ. App.) 275 S. W. 1078; Anderson v. Carter, 29 Tex. Civ. App. 240, 69 S. W. 78. In the case of Hudgins v. Thompson, 109 Tex. 433, 211 S. W. 586, a parol sale by the husband alone was upheld by the Supreme Court, it having been taken out of the statute of frauds by possession and improvements by the vendee.

The name of the lessee (C. M. Joiner, trustee) and the term (five years) for which the lease should run were not filled in the blank places provided therefor at the time of its execution. Mr. M. L. Thompson, though, testified that they were left out of the lease by mutual mistake, and.the jury so found. Judgment of the court was not error in denying appellants a cancellation of the lease because of these omissions by mutual mistake at the time it was signed by Mr. and Mrs. Thompson. De Flores v. Smith (Tex. Civ. App.) 236 S. W. 505; Henderson v. Odessa B. & F. Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 15 S.W.(2d) 1095; Long Bell Lbr. Co. v. Lowry (Tex. Civ. App.) 31 S.W.(2d) 345; Durham v. Luce (Tex. Civ. App.) 140 S. W. 850.

On October 13, 1930, after the name of the lessee (C. M.

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59 S.W.2d 193, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 530, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-v-mcintyre-drilling-co-texapp-1933.