Houston Oil Co. of Texas v. Skeeler

178 S.W.2d 740, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 618
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 14, 1944
DocketNo. 5589.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 178 S.W.2d 740 (Houston Oil Co. of Texas v. Skeeler) 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
Houston Oil Co. of Texas v. Skeeler, 178 S.W.2d 740, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 618 (Tex. Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

PITTS, Chief Justice.

Appellant, Houston Oil Company of Texas, a corporation, sued appellees, W. J. Skeeler and wife, Lucy Skeeler, for title to and possession of 18 acres of land, the same being a part of the Stephen Jett Survey, Orange County, Texas. Appellant claimed said land under record title and ap-pellees claimed it under both record title and the ten-year statute of limitation as provided in Article 5510, Vernon’s Revised Civil Statutes of Texas.

The case was tried before a jury who found that appellees had been in peaceable, adverse and continuous possession of said land, cultivating, using or enjoying the same for a period of ten years or more pri- or to the filing of the suit on March 21, 1942, and judgment was rendered for ap- *741 pellees by the trial court, from which judgment appellant perfected its appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals of the Ninth Supreme Judicial District at Beaumont and the same was transferred to this court by the Supreme Court of Texas.

Appellant contends in its first point that the evidence is insufficient to support the finding of the jury for appellees on the ten-year statute of limitation.

The record discloses that appellees purchased on September 16, 1919, from Albert Skeeler, administrator of the estate of Tony Havelott, deceased, a tract of land described as follows, to-wit: “A certain tract of land situated in the County of Orange, State of Texas, being 80 acres of land known as the home place of Tony Havelott, deceased, and being the place upon which the said Tony Havelott resided for a number of years before his death;” that appellees moved onto the said tract of land on November 30, 1922, and have lived there as a family continuously since said date; that when appellees bought the said property it was enclosed with a fence separating it from adjacent property owned by other parties on the south, west and north sides and with the Adams Bayou on the east side, serving as a barrier to keep stock from going within or without the enclosure and that the said tract of land had been thus completely enclosed for at least twenty-five years. The record does not disclose who built the fences thus helping to enclose the tract of land nor for what particular purpose the said fences were built but the record does show that appellees for twenty years or more had looked after said fences and had kept them in good repair with the possible help of adjacent property owners, but the record does not disclose that anybody other than ap-pellees claimed any right or use of the said fences. The record further discloses that appellee, W. J. Skeeler, was a nephew of Tony Havelott, deceased, and had known the property in question since he was a child and had helped to farm the Tony Havelott home place when he was a boy and knew the boundaries of the said home place; that appellees rebuilt their home and placed other improvements, such as barns, dairy sheds, small pastures fenced off within the enclosure and a garden on the land purchased and fenced off and cultivated some of the said tract of land; that the 18 acre tract involved in this suit is located within the enclosure above described in the southeast corner of same ahd has been within said enclosure continuously since appellees purchased the Tony Havelott home place on September 16, 1919, and prior thereto; that there are no fences separating the said 18 acres from the rest of the land within the enclosure and used by appellees; that there are no houses, barns, sheds or cultivated crops on the said 18 acres of land; that appellees used the said 18 acres along with other parts of the land within the enclosure for pasture land for cattle, horses, mules, goats, sheep and hogs; that the said 18 acres along with other parts of the land within the enclosure is timbered land and that appellees since their occupancy had gotten fence posts from said land and had gotten their firewood from said land and often kept the surplus of firewood stacked and ricked on the said 18 acres of land and used said wood as it was needed. The above facts are supported by the undisputed testimony of appellees and several disinterested witnesses.

Although the east side of the entire tract of land was enclosed by Adams Bayou, the testimony clearly showed that said bayou served as a complete barrier and kept livestock within or without the entire enclosure at all times, and that the bayou was of such a character as to form, together with the fences on the other three sides of the tract of land, a complete enclosure.

The Adams Bayou seems to have served as a barrier such as has been approved in the case of Houston Oil Company of Texas v. Howard, Tex.Civ.App., 256 S.W. 340, affirmed by the Commission of Appeals in 294 S.W. 848, and 2 Tex.Jur. 94, sec. 49, and authorities thereunder cited.

We do not understand it to be the rule that appellees must have had the 18 acres in question under a separate enclosure from their adjacent lands before they could acquire title thereto by peaceable, adverse and continuous possession under the ten-year statute of limitation. It seems to be the rule that a general enclosure including the 18 acres of land in question with other lands owned, used and occupied by appellees is sufficient if appellees had peaceable, adverse and continuous possession of same. Port City Co. v. Peck et ux., Tex.Civ.App., 42 S.W.2d 275; Moran v. Moseley et al., Tex.Civ.App., 164 S.W. 1093; Johnson v. Sullivan, Tex.Civ.App., 163 S.W. 1015; Randolph v. Lewis, Tex.Civ.App., 163 S.W. 647, affirmed by Com *742 mission of Appeals, 210 S.W. 795, and 2 Tex.Jur. 88, sec. 46.

It appears from this record that ap-pellees had for more than ten years peaceably used, enjoyed and occupied as a home all of the land within the enclosure, a part of it having been used for farming purposes, part of it for pastura ge of their stock and for obtaining firewood and fence posts, each part being used for the purpose for which it was best adapted. We therefore believe the testimony fully supports the finding of the jury and we overrule appellant’s first point.

Appellant complains in points 2 and 3 that the trial court erred in his failure to give to the jury appellant’s specially requested instructions Nos. 1 and 2. Apr pellant’s specially requested instruction No. 1 is as follows :

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Bluebook (online)
178 S.W.2d 740, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 618, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/houston-oil-co-of-texas-v-skeeler-texapp-1944.