Hipp v. Fall

213 S.W.2d 732, 1948 Tex. App. LEXIS 1451
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 15, 1948
DocketNo. 11947.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 213 S.W.2d 732 (Hipp v. Fall) 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
Hipp v. Fall, 213 S.W.2d 732, 1948 Tex. App. LEXIS 1451 (Tex. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

CODY, Justice.

This was an action in trespass to try title to a tract of land 100 feet by 125 feet located in the City of Houston, at the corner of Fannin and Bremond Streets, more particularly described in the judgment of the court below. Appellees were plaintiffs and cross-defendants below, and claimed either mediately or immediately under the will of Martha Hipp, who was the second wife of W. S. Hipp, and the sole beneficiary under his will. Appellants were defendants and cross-plaintiffs below, and were the sole surviving children of the aforesaid W. S. Hipp, as well as of his first wife, Mary Hipp, who died intestate while the children were quite young. The property in question was deeded to the said Mary Hipp by deed dated January 16, 1894, by G. B. Hen-gen and wife. However, the deed did not recite that the consideration for the conveyance, paid and to be paid, was so paid and to be paid out of the separate estate of Mary Hipp. But it is the contention of appellants that, at the time of the delivery of the deed to their mother, their father directed that the deed be made out to her with the intention that the property be a gift from him to her, so that the land became her separate property.

The case was tried to a jury, and the first five of the special issues were intended to elicit the factors determining the character of the ownership of the property as to whether same was : (1) the separate estate of Mary, Hipp’s first wife, or (2) the community property of Hipp and his first, wife, appellants’ mother, or (3) the com *734 munity property of Hipp and his second wife. The first five special issues, as answered by the jury, were to the effect:

(1) That at the time of the delivery of the deed from G. B. Hengen and wife to Mary Hipp, dated January 16, 1894, “W. S. Hipp directed that the deed he made to his then wife, Mary B. Hipp”.

(2) That at the time of such delivery of aforesaid deed, “it was intended by W. S. Hipp that the property therein described was a gift to his wife Mary B. Hipp”.

(3) That the consideration mentioned in the deed from Grant, Commissioner, to T. W. House, dated May 22, 1900 (said deed being given in execution of a judgment of the Federal District Court, foreclosing the purchase money lien, subject to which Mary' Hipp held under the deed of January 16, 1894) represented a loan by said T. W. House to W. S. Hipp with which he purchased said property.

(4) That on or before January 20, 1910, W. S. Hipp paid to the trustee (in bankruptcy) for T. W. House the amount of the principal and interest called for by the note for $2,000 dated May 7, 1903.

(5) That said note for $2,000 was a renewal of the loan by T. W. House to W. S. Hipp with which he purchased the property at the foreclosure sale.

Based upon the jury’s answers to the foregoing special issues, the court rendered judgment that the property in question was the community property of W. S. Hipp and his first wife, the mother of appellants, and rendered judgment that one of the ap-pellees, Mrs. Selita Hunt, recover title to an undivided half thereof, and that appellants recover title to an undivided half interest thereof. The court further rendered judgment for Mrs. Hunt for $1,000 (which was one half of the $2,000 paid by W. S. Hipp to T. W. House or his trustee in bankruptcy) together with accumulated interest thereon in the sum of $2,649.33, or a total of $3,649.33, the same to be realized out of a lien upon appellants’ interest in the property but not against appellants personally. The first five of the twelve points on which appellants predicate their appeal attack the court’s judgment because of the failure of the court to render judgment that appellants recover the fee simple title to the land in dispute.

Before setting out the instruments which the parties respectively contend support their claim to the property in dispute, it is appropriate to state the following facts :

Mary B. Hipp, the first wife of W. S. Hipp, Sr., died in February, 1902, following the birth of her son, appellant W. S. Hipp, Jr. Then W. S. Hipp, Sr., married Martha Hipp on September 23, 1903. The said W. S. Hipp, Sr., together with his second wife and appellants moved onto the property in question in 1908 or 1909. And W. S. Hipp, Sr., and his wife lived thereon until the date of their respective deaths. By his will, which was probated November 2, 1937, he left all his property to his second wife. She died November 14, 1937, and left all her property to her two sisters, one of whom, Mrs. Hunt, has succeeded either by the will of Martha Hipp or mesne conveyances to whatever interest in the property in question was owned by W. S. Hipp, Sr. Mrs. Hunt, together with her co-legatee, Mrs. Harmon, under the will of Martha Hipp, and FI. B. Fall constitute ap-pellees herein. The only interest in the property ever claimed by appellee H. B. Fall was for and on behalf of appellees, Mrs. Harmon and Mrs. Hunt.

If, as appellants contend, the title to the land in dispute became vested in their mother, Mary Hipp, as her separate property and constituted her separate property at the time of death, we should sustain their, first five points. The following muni-ments of title determine whether the land was (a) the separate property of Mary Hipp or (b) the community property of Mary and W. S. Hipp, Sr., or (c) the community property of Martha and W. S. Hipp, Sr.

1. A general warranty deed from G. B. Hengen and wife to Mary B. Hipp, dated January 16, 1894. So far as is important here, the deed recites a consideration of $10 paid, and the assumption of a mortgage indebtedness of the grantors to the Michigan Savings & Loan Association for the principal sum of $4,500. The deed is in regular form, including the usual haben- *735 dum and warranty clauses. The consideration recited therein is not stated to have been paid out of Mary Hipp’s separate estate, nor is it recited that the unpaid consideration is to be paid out of her separate funds or estate.

2. A judgment of the Federal District Court under date of November 15, 1899, against Mary Hipp and W. S. Hipp, and against the grantors in the deed to Mary Hipp, foreclosing the mortgage, the payment of which Mary Hipp assumed as a part of the consideration for the conveyance of January 16, 1894. In said judgment a commissioner was named to conduct the foreclosure sale. Thereafter the commissioner so named reported the sale of the property on April 3, 1900 to T. W. House for $2,-674.42, and the sale was confirmed by the court.

3. The Commissioner’s deed to T. W. House. — The undisputed evidence showed that some years after the date of said deed, T. W. House became bankrupt, and that his trustee, by a catch-all description conveyed certain property to Miss Kate Scanlan, Andrew Dow and Henry Albrect. By deed dated July 2, 1926, said grantees of said trustee in bankruptcy quitclaimed the property by specific description to appellants, M. D. Hipp, Katherine G. Hipp, W. S. Hipp, Jr., and to Martha A. Hipp, wife of W. S. Hipp, Sr. As stated above, appellees claimed under Martha Hipp.

4. Under date of May 10, 1909, the state recovered a tax judgment for the sum of $672.47.

(a) Under execution issued under said tax judgment the property was sold to N. T. Masterson for $551.92.

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213 S.W.2d 732, 1948 Tex. App. LEXIS 1451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hipp-v-fall-texapp-1948.