Hodge v. Ellis

277 S.W.2d 900, 154 Tex. 341, 1955 Tex. LEXIS 515
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedApril 13, 1955
DocketA-4768
StatusPublished
Cited by88 cases

This text of 277 S.W.2d 900 (Hodge v. Ellis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hodge v. Ellis, 277 S.W.2d 900, 154 Tex. 341, 1955 Tex. LEXIS 515 (Tex. 1955).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Garwood

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This dispute at its present stage is largely one over real estate in Jacksboro, Jack County, between the plaintiff (our respondent) A. A. Ellis, as community survivor of, and beneficiary under the will of his late wife (hereinafter referred to as the testatrix) and the defendants (our petitioners), who are her executor (Wallace C. Hodge) and the remaining beneficiaries of the will, that is, her sister (Mrs. Hodge) niece (Mrs. Motley) and a grandnephew (Avon Motley). From the judgment, rendered upon a non jury trial and with largely general findings, the respondent-plaintiff seeks no relief, despite some adverse rulings, including adjudication to the petitioners-[344]*344defendants of certain properties in Wise County. The petitioners-defendants, however, appealed from the rulings as to the Jacksboro property, the judgment being affirmed by the Fort Worth Court of Civil Appeals. 268 S.W. 2d 275-290.

The items of property in question are: (a) a group of tourist courts hereinafter referred to as the Stewart property; (b) an apartment house called the Walker property; (c) another apartment property called the Wilson property; and (d) the community homestead. All of them except (d) stood in the name of the testatrix as her separate property at her death in 1950, and her will, executed in 1948 and duly probated, purports to make specific disposition of them all in favor of the petitioners-defendants, except that it recognizes the respondent-plaintiff’s community half-interest in the homestead (devising “my community interest” to the petitioners-defendants), and except that the respondent-plaintiff is devised a life estate in item (a) above. The respondent-plaintiff, asserting that the properties were acquired with community funds, has been awarded a community half interest in them all, along with a life estate in the testatrix’ half of item (a) under the will, as against the contentions of the petitioners-defendants that all, except the homestead, were truly the separate property of the testatrix, and that in any event the respondent-plaintiff was required to elect between his community interest and his benefits under the will. The petitioners-defendants have also fruitlessly argued the “no contest” provisions of the will to be violated by this suit. As between the petitioners-defendants themselves there is no dispute.

The principal question is, of course, that of community versus separate estate, and, as the court below justly observed, it is rendered difficult by reason of the scarcity of detailed or positive evidence on various important points. Indeed, aside from the exhibits of the probate proceedings and the deeds and notes reflecting the purchase of the properties in dispute, practically all of the evidence is the testimony of the respondent-plaintiff.

The testatrix and the respondent-plaintiff were married in 1937 and came to live permanently in Jacksboro at some date between 1938 and 1942, residing there together until her death. Properties (a), (b), and (c) above mentioned were acquired respectively in 1945, 1946 and 1947 from the Stewarts, Walkers and Wilsons as the respective grantors. The deeds were respectively recorded at Jacksboro promptly upon execution. Each [345]*345one stated the corresponding premises to be conveyed to the testatrix as her separate property, using these four latter words or similar ones, although making no express reference to the source of any of the consideration (cash or deferred) as separate or community, except in the case of the Wilson deed (actually two deeds) in which there was the brief reference, “the sum of Ten and More Dollars * * from her separate estate.” In the Stewart and Walker purchases the consideration was both cash and an installment note, the corresponding figures in the former being $3,000 and $6,000, and in the latter $5,000 and $3,000, as duly recited in the deeds. In the Wilson, which was the latest, the total consideration of $8,000 was paid with a cashier’s check of the First National Bank at Jacksboro and a small cash sum, both being the proceeds of a loan from that bank, evidenced by a note for $8,000 secured by deed of trust upon all this property and the other two. The notes in the Stewart and Walker transactions were signed by the testatrix alone, but that in the Wilson, as well as the corresponding deed of trust, was signed by both spouses. None of the notes themselves (nor, apparently, the Wilson deed of trust) made any clear reference to the separate estate of the testatrix, although the note for the Wilson money did recite that it was “borrowed by Willie Lesea Ellis from said First National Bank.”

The testimony of the respondent-plaintiff is susceptible of the construction that at the time of the marriage (1937) the testatrix owned nothing but real estate in Wise County, except for an inheritance of $600 received earlier in the same year; and it appears from such testimony and the inventory of the estate of the testatrix, that this same real property was still on hand at her death, it having been adjudged, as first before stated, to the petitioners-defendants. The inventory and appraisement reflects no assets, whether real or personal, separate or community, except the Wise County and Jacksboro properties. Unless it be the bare fact of the substantial cash payments made by her in the Jacksboro purchases, there was no evidence to suggest any gifts or inheritances of money to the testatrix from third parties during the marriage, although it seems to be admitted that she owned as separate proptrty a house in Decatur (Wise County) purchased by her at some date before she purchased the Walker property in late February, 1946, and sold by her for $5,625 “about” the latter time. There was nothing in the way of specific proof as to the disposition of either the sum last mentioned or the $600 inheritance.

The respondent-plaintiff further testified that the testatrix [346]*346received during the marriage a rather substantial income (several hundred dollars a month) from the Jacksboro properties other than the homestead following their respective acquisitions in early 1945 and thereafter, about $60 per month from her Wise County properties from 1937 onward, as well as some $3,000 from her services as a nurse and about $3,000 as the profit from raising chickens. While some of this testimony is not overly convincing, it does amount to saying that the testatrix received during the marriage approximately enough community funds to have made, at the very least, the cash payments on the Stewart and Walker properties, the Wilson having been bought, as before stated, last, and entirely with the proceeds of a bank loan. Indeed, the respondent-plaintiff testified in so many words that the testatrix used the chicken money to pay for the Walker place.

It appears that sometime or other after the spouses had moved to Jacksboro, apparently around 1941, they opened two bank accounts, each in his or her own name (presumably without any words like “separate property” in the title of either account) and that the testatrix kept in her account the funds coming into her possession as above mentioned, while the respondent-plaintiff kept in his account whatever funds came into his possession, including his earnings as a carpenter. This was all evidently without any formal agreement, but at the same time without objection by either party.

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

Related

Ferguson v. Ferguson
111 S.W.3d 589 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2003)
Miller v. Wilson
888 S.W.2d 158 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)
Commonwealth Land Title Insurance Co. v. Nelson
889 S.W.2d 312 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1994)
Kyles v. Kyles
832 S.W.2d 194 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1992)
Pemelton v. Pemelton
809 S.W.2d 642 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
K.B. v. N.B.
811 S.W.2d 634 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1991)
Veltmann v. Damon
696 S.W.2d 241 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Gregory v. Rice
678 S.W.2d 603 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Smith v. Smith
657 S.W.2d 457 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1983)
Little v. Linder
651 S.W.2d 895 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1983)
Marriage of Grant, Matter Of
638 S.W.2d 254 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1982)
Southwest Industries Investment Co. v. Greene Home Owners Ass'n
608 S.W.2d 758 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Goodridge v. Goodridge
591 S.W.2d 571 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Contreras v. Contreras
590 S.W.2d 218 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Holcemback v. Holcemback
580 S.W.2d 877 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1979)
Harris v. Ventura
582 S.W.2d 853 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1979)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
277 S.W.2d 900, 154 Tex. 341, 1955 Tex. LEXIS 515, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hodge-v-ellis-tex-1955.