Hill v. Thomas

140 S.W.2d 875, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 399
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 23, 1940
DocketNo. 3681
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 140 S.W.2d 875 (Hill v. Thomas) 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. Thomas, 140 S.W.2d 875, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 399 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This was an action by appellee, Mrs. E. E. Thomas, a feme sole, against appellant, Ross B. Hill, to cancel a deed dated May 11, 1938, whereby she conveyed to appellant 160 acres of land in Henderson county, and to recover the title and possession of the land.

For cause of action, appellee alleged that about November 1, 1937, she met appellant at the home of her friend, Mrs. Iverson, in .Corsicana; that soon after meeting her appellant began making love to her; that about December 25, 1937, he proposed marriage to her and she accepted; that she insisted he set a date for their mar•riage, which at first he refused to do, but about May 10, 1938, he promised that he would marry . her on her birthday, on the 18th of June, 1938, “if she would make him a deed to her property at that time”; and she accepted his offer and on May 11, 1938, conveyed him the property in controversy “for the sole consideration” of his promise to marry her. We quote from the petition:

“That after the making, execution and delivery of said deed, they went along together as sweethearts and often discussed their approaching .marriage; that prior to June ■ 18th, she had made- her wedding trousseau and all preparations for the coming wedding on June the 18th, and that on June the 18th, the defendant claimed that he was sick and they could not make the trip, as they had intended, -to Dallas, Texas, where they were to be married, but that on June 20th that she and the said Ross B. Hill did go to Dallas in a car for the sole and only purpose of getting married; that when they reached Dallas, they drove to and by the court house, but that he never did stop to secure the license or to make any effort to secure the same; that when they returned from their trip to Dallas the plaintiff inquired of the defendant why he had not secured the license to marry her and why he had not married her; and he then told her he did not intend to marry her at all.

“The plaintiff says that the said Ross B. Hill, in order to secure the execution and delivery of said deed to himself, fraudulently represented to the plaintiff that he was in love with her, and fraudulently represented to her that he intended to marry her, and fraudulently agreed with her that he would marry her in consideration of the making, execution, and delivery of said deed to him; that this plaintiff believed said fraudulent representations so made to her, and relied thereon in the making, execution, and delivery of said deed to said defendant, and she would not have made said deed but for such promise on the part of the defendant, which was fraudulently made to her for the sole and only purpose of the making, execution and delivery of said (deed) to him.

“The pláintiff further says that after the defendant had told her that he did not intend to marry her, that she then demanded of him that he return to her said deed that she had given to him; but he refused to do so, and that after she had employed an attorney to bring suit for said property, that he then placed said deed of record in Henderson County, Texas, where the same is now of record in the deed records in Vol. 222, page 442, and it was placed of record on the-day of-A. D. 1938, and that said deed so of record cast a cloud upon this plaintiff’s title to said land.”

The prayer was for title and possession of the 160 acres of land, for writ of possession, rents, damages, and costs of suit, and that the deed made by her to appellant, which had been recorded in Vol. 222, page 442 of the deed records of Henderson county, be set asidé and held for naught and removed as a cloud upon her title.

Appellant answered by general demurrer, special exception that appellee had plead [877]*877“inconsistent remedies,” general denial, and not guilty.

On the verdict of the jury, answering special issues, judgment was rendered in favor of appellee, cancelling the deed she had executed to appellant, and awarding her title to her property, with writ of possession, from which appellant prosecuted his appeal to the Dallas Court of Civil Appeals. The case is on our docket by order of transfer by the Supreme Court.

We overrule appellant’s proposition that the petition was subject to the general demurrer, on the ground that apr pellee failed to allege that, at the very time he made his promise to marry her on consideration that she convey him the land in controversy, he did not intend to keep his promise. Appellant announces a. correct legal proposition that, where the cause of action is predicated upon the use of a promise to accomplish a fraudulent purpose, the complaining party must allege and prove that, at the time the party gave the promise, there was no intention on his part to perform it. Rapid Transit Railway Co. v. Smith, 98 Tex. 553, 86 S.W. 322; Chicago, T. & M. C. Railway Co. v. Titterington, 84 Tex. 218, 19 S.W. 472, 31 Am.St. Rep. 39; Touchstone v. Staggs, Tex.Civ. App., 39 S.W. 189; McFarland v. McGill, 16 Tex.Civ.App. 298, 41 S.W. 402; Chambers v. Wyatt, Tex.Civ.App., 151 S.W. 864; Beaumont Carriage Co. v. Price & Johnson, Tex.Civ.App., 104 S.W. 499. There was no affirmative allegation in appellee’s petition that at the very -time appellant promised to marry her, on condition that she' convey to him her property, he did not intend to perform it. But as against the general demurrer — the point was not raised by special exception — the petition was entitled to all the intendments deducible from the facts alleged. She alleged that appellant made his promise fraudulently “for the sole and only purpose of the making, executing and delivery” of the. deed by her to him. If his “sole purpose” —a fraudulent purpose — in making the' promise was simply to secure the deed, then he had no intention, or purpose, at the time it was made to perform it. Also she alleged that the promise was made on May 10, 1938, to marry her on June 18, 1938, and that she executed and delivered the deed to him on May 11, 1938. In-this connection, she alleged the trip to Dallas, which was to be her wedding trip, and that appellant refused to marry her on the trip. She alleged facts showing that there was no impediment to the execution by appellee of his promise from the day he made it until the day it was broken, with many opportunities for its due execution. Indulging the reasonable intendments in support of the allegations of the petition, it was not subject to the general demurrer.

Having alleged that appellant made his promise to appellee in fraud and, at the time it was made, that he did not intend to keep it, appellee rested under the burden of sustaining her allegations by' proof. Appellant’s second point is that there was no proof in support of the issue that, at the time he made his promise to marry appellee, he did not intend to keep it. We give the substance of appellee’s testimony on this issue. At the time appellant gave appellee his promise to ma.rry her, on condition that she convey to him the property in controversy, she was a feeble old woman, 81 years old, confined to her bed a-part of the time as the result of a stroke of paralysis; appellant was a vigorous man, in good health, about 59 years old. Appellee owned, at the time appellant made her the promise, the 160 acres of land in controversy and about $300 in money; appellant owned nothing except an old automobile, under mortgage — he got from ap-pellee her land and all her money, had her pay off the mortgage on his automobile and, at the time he' refused’to marry her, had secured from her all her money except one cent.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Curtis v. Anderson
106 S.W.3d 251 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Michael Curtis v. Michele Anderson
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003
Risk v. Risk
601 S.W.2d 743 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Motors Ins. Corporation v. Freeman
304 S.W.2d 580 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1957)
Manziel v. Williams
262 S.W.2d 437 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
140 S.W.2d 875, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-v-thomas-texapp-1940.