Holt v. Love

63 Tex. Civ. App. 65
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 21, 1910
StatusPublished

This text of 63 Tex. Civ. App. 65 (Holt v. Love) 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
Holt v. Love, 63 Tex. Civ. App. 65 (Tex. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinion

HODGES, Associate Justice.

This suit was originally instituted by Emma Love, formerly Emma Chism, one of the appellees, joined by her husband, against the appellant Holt, to recover a tract of 80 acres of land described in her petition. Afterward Ella Taylor, a sister of the plaintiff in the suit, joined by her husband, intervened, setting up a claim to a one-half interest in the land sued for. It appears from the pleadings and subsequent proceeding's that the claim of the interveners was not contested by the plaintiffs, and that they thereafter made a common claim against Holt. Emma Love and Ella Taylor are the children of E. W. and M. J. Chism, both deceased, through whom they assert title by inheritance They allege that the property was the separate estate of their mother; and in the alternative say that if they are mistaken in this, then it was the community property of their-father and mother. The appellant Holt claims the land by virtue of a purchase at a- sale made in obedience to a partition decree rendered in a suit numbered 4001, styled Isaac Caradine and others v. R. M. Kinkle and others, rendered in 1896. The sufficiency of the defense relied upon by him to defeat the claim of Emma Love depends upon the binding force of that decree. The claim of Ella Taylor is also met by the further plea of limitation of five years. The case was submitted to the jury on special issues, and a judgment rendered in favor of Emma Love and her husband for one-third of the land and in favor of appellant Holt for the remainder. The case is brought up on appeal by Holt, but Ella Taylor and her husband have -filed several cross-assignments of error.

The evidence shows that in 1887 the suit before referred to was instituted in the District Court for the Thirty-seventh Judicial District of Texas by Isaac Caradine and others against B. M. Kinkle, B. D. Leather-man, A. M. Coble and E. W. Chism the father of Emma Love and Ella Taylor, to recover 160 acres of the Caradine survey, of which the land in controversy is a part. Hpon what the judgment in that case terms a "severance,” specific portions of the land "were awarded to Leatherman and Coble, leaving only that here involved to be disposed of in the final decree. Both Chism and his wife died during the pendency of this litigation, which seems to have been protracted through several years. Chism survived his wife a little more than a year, and married again previous to his death. Both of the appellees were minors and unmarried at the [69]*69time of their father’s death. The record shows that the death of E. W. Chism was suggested in that suit, and an order entered making the appellees parties. Upon the final trial of that case judgment was rendered in favor of Mary Sharp, one of the Caradine heirs and a plaintiff in the suit, for a portion of the land; and for the defendants, including the appellee Emma Love and appellant Ella Taylor, for the remainder; and directing a partition of the property. Emma Love and Ella Taylor each received in that judgment an interest equal to 2/39 of the land involved. Commissioners were appointed to make the division, but reported that the land was not susceptible of partition. The court thereupon ordered it sold and the proceeds divided. At that sale the appellant became the purchaser, and here asserts the title there acquired. The record shows that he paid $500 for the land. Appellee Emma Love and her sister seek to evade the force of that decree and the sale made thereunder by alleging and showing that they were never served with citation in that suit; that they were minors at the time, and knew nothing of its pendency, and were not • represented by any guardian ad litem upon the trial. They ask that the judgment there rendered be set aside as to them, and the cloud cast by it upon their title be removed. In reply to this the appellant contends that the record shows affirmatively that these parties were served with citation and were represented in the trial of that case by a special guardian. He further contends that if they were not served with citation and were not so represented, their impeachment of this judgment is collateral and not permissible. We have therefore two questions presented by this phase of the pleadings: 1. Whether the original judgment was void or merely voidable as to Emma Love and Ella Taylor; and 2, Whether their pleadings in this suit constituted a collateral, or a direct, attack upon that judgment. The judgment in cause No. 4001 contains no recital of service on the appellees, but does purport to dispose of their interest in the land in litigation. The record also shows an allowance of a fee of $25 to B. P. Ayres as compensation for his services in representing them as a special guardian. But there does not appear any order appointing him to act in that capacity. Neither the judgment itself in that case nor the record introduced in evidence discloses affirmatively that the court was without jurisdiction of the persons of Emma Love and Ella Taylor. The judgment is therefore only voidable, and not subject to a collateral attack. Crawford v. McDonald, 88 Texas, 626, 33 S. W, 325; Alston v. Emmerson, 83 Texas, 237, 29 Am. St., 639, 18 S. W., 566; 1 Black on Judg., sec. 271.

In response to interrogatories propounded by the court the jury found that Emma Love and Ella 'Ta3dor were never served with citation in suit No. 4001, that Emma Love was a minor at the time, that no guardian ad litem was ever appointed by the court to represent her, and that neither she nor her sister knew anything of the judgment’s having been rendered till a short time before the filing of this suit in 1907. That judgment, therefore, as to them, was rendered without jurisdiction having been acquired over their person, and can now be impeached in a [70]*70direct' proceeding instituted for that purpose. The nature of the original petition of appellee Emma Love and appellant Ella Taylor is sufficient, we think, to constitute such an attack, and there was no error committed bv the court in admitting evidence to show a want of service on them in that suit. The judgment there rendered, if voidable, was only so in part, and was valid as to those who were in fact parties to the suit and subject to the jurisdiction of the court. Appellant Holt acquired all of the interests held by those parties at the sale made in obedience to the decree of partition, and there was no necessity for making them parties in this, proceeding. Wichita Land & Cattle Co. v. Ward, 1 Texas Civ. App., 307, 21 S. W., 130; Hudson v. Morriss, 55 Texas, 604; Saffold v. Navarro, 15 Texas, 76; York v. Cartwright, 42 Texas, 141.

As to the appellant Ella Taylor, the evidence shows that her claim was at the time of the institution of this suit barred by the statute of five years limitation, and there is no occasion for us to further notice her assignments of error in this record.

The question remaining is, was there error in rendering judgment for Emma Love for one-third of the land ? Her minority relieved her from the bar of limitation, and clearly she was entitled to some portion of the property sued for. The jury found that the land was the separate estate of her mother, and the court evidently made the award of one-third upon that finding, she and her sister being the only surviving children of their deceased mother. Appellant Holt assails that portion of the judgment by alleging that he bought without notice of the fact that the land was the separate property of Mrs. Chism, and upon the assumption that it was the community property of E. W. Chism and his wife. The facts show, and the jury so found, that the land was paid for with the separate means of Mrs. M. J.

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Related

Crawford v. McDonald
32 S.W. 325 (Texas Supreme Court, 1895)
Alston v. Emmerson
18 S.W. 566 (Texas Supreme Court, 1892)
Saffold v. Navarro
15 Tex. 76 (Texas Supreme Court, 1855)
Grace v. Wade & Mains
45 Tex. 522 (Texas Supreme Court, 1876)
Hudson v. Morriss
55 Tex. 595 (Texas Supreme Court, 1881)

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Bluebook (online)
63 Tex. Civ. App. 65, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holt-v-love-texapp-1910.