Houston Oil Co. of Texas v. W. R. Pickering Lumber Co.

212 S.W. 802, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 751
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 15, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 212 S.W. 802 (Houston Oil Co. of Texas v. W. R. Pickering Lumber Co.) 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. W. R. Pickering Lumber Co., 212 S.W. 802, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 751 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

BROOKE, J.

TMs was a suit in trespass to try title by the W. R. Pickering Lumber Company against the Southern Pine Lumber Company, the Houston Oil Company of Texas, the Kirby Lumber Company, D. C. Ken-ley, and C. C. Goodwin and wife, Ida Goodwin, J. W. Williams and wife, Florence Williams, William McDonald, and Sallie' McDonald.

Plaintiff sued the Houston Oil Company of Texas, Kirby Lumber Company, Southern Pine Lumber Company, and D. C. Kenley for the title to, and possession of, the C. C. Goodwin survey; as to the defendants G. C. Goodwin and wife, Ida Goodwin, J. W. Williams and wife, Florence Williams, and William McDonald and wife, Sallie McDonald, plaintiff pleaded that said parties would be liable on their warranty in the event it failed to recover judgment for the title against the other defendants sued, and asked judgment over on said warranty in that event.

The Houston Oil Company of Texas, Southern Pine Lumber Company, and the Kirby Lumber Company filed general demurrers, general denials, pleas of not guilty, which the defendant Kenley also filed, together with a plea that such actions as may have been taken by him in connection with the subject of litigation were as the agent of the Southern Pine Lumber Company, wherefore he asked to be dismissed, with costs. The defendants, sued on their warranties, filed usual answer in trespass to try title.

The case was tried before the court without a jury, and judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiffs against all the defendants for the title to, and possession of, the lands in controversy, and against the defendant Southern Pine Lumber Company for the sum of $2,181.21, damages for timber cut, and that plaintiff take nothing as against the defendants sued on their warranty. The judgment shows that the defendants, at the time of the announcement of said judgment, in open court excepted, and gave notice of appeal.

There was no dispute as to the fact that the plaintiff W. R. Pickering Lumber Company held a regular chain of title under the patent by the state, in 1911, to the C. C. Goodwin survey. The defendant Houston *803 Oil Company of Texas freíd a regular chain of title to G., C. & S. F. section No. 1, and the defendant Southern Pine Lumber Company and the Kirby Lumber Company held contract rights under it.

[1] The question presented was whether the Goodwin survey admittedly to section 1 was in conflict with same. The effect of the judgment entered was that it was not.

We will consider only two matters raised by the appellant on this appeal, as both parties have stated that the only issue to be tried was the issue of whether or not there was a conflict betwen the C. C. Goodwin survey and G., C. & S. F. section No. 1; and, in addition, there was a question raised as to whether or not the plaintiff, who was alleged to be a foreign corporation, and upon which said question there was no proof, should be permitted to bring this suit in Texas. With the exception of the fifteenth assignment of error only, all of the seventeen assignments discussed in appellants’ brief are directed to the question of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the finding of the trial judge to the effect that there is no conflict between the two surveys.

The counter propositions to the first seventeen assignments of error, excepting the fifteenth assignment, are as follows:

“The true rule in the settlement of a boundary question is to follow the footsteps of the surveyor; and the findings of the trial court to the effect that the northeast corner of G., O. & S. F. section No. 1 is located 136 vrs. west of Francis Hill’s N. W. corner, and that east line of the Green Lane survey as originally surveyed by Roberts in 1855 is 136 varas west of the Francis Hill west boundary line, and the south boundary line of said Green Lane survey as made by Roberts in 1855 is. 310 vrs. north of the north line of the A. D. Bateman survey, and the judgment for appellee thereon being supported by abundant, competent, and credible testimony, there is no error in said findings and judgment.”
(b) “The evidence, if accepted as true, showing that the surveyor, Whitton, though calling for the northwest corner of the Francis Hill as his beginning corner, was in fact 136 varas west from the point, when he ran south calling for Hill’s west line, but in fact running on an old line 136 varas west of Hill’s line, and the evidence on this point being sufficient to show that the surveyor acted under a mistaken idea as to the location of said Francis Hill northwest corner and west line, and there being a discrepancy of 136 varas (excess) in the call for dis-' tance from the second corner west as called for in the field notes of section 1, to the point actually marked and actually described as marked in his field notes, and a like discrepancy of 136 varas (excess) in the call for distance from the known northwest comer of section 1 east to the place of beginning, there is a conflict in said calls, in resolving which it was clearly the duty of the court to adopt the call for course and distance from the known and undisputed northwest corner of section 1, instead of the disputed call for the place of beginning.”
(c) “There being no jury, and the trial judge having found from the evidence adduced that the northwest comer of G., C. & S. F. section No. 1 is located according to the original survey made by Whitton 136 varas west of the Francis Hill N. W. corner, said surveyor supposing that he was beginning at said corner, and calling for the same by mistake, and that the cast line of said survey and of the Green Lane survey, as made by Roberts in 1855, are each 136 varas west of the Francis Hill west boundary line, and that the south boundary line of the said Green Lane survey as made by Roberts in 1855 is 310 varas north of the north line of the A. D. Bateman survey, and said findings being supported by abundant and competent and credible testimony, such finding of fact and the judgment of the court based thereon will not be distm-bed on appeal.”

[2] It is not necessary to discuss every one of appellants’ assignments 1 to 17, inclusive, with the exception of the fifteenth assignment; neither do we deem it best to set out the testimony of the various witnesses in detail. Really, the way we view the assignments above mentioned there is no conflict in the testimony, and no dispute as to the true location of the northwest corner of G., 0. & S. F. section No. 1, being at a stake in Kellogg’s S. B. line, a large pine marked X bears east 5 varas, do. same mark bears 40 west 3 varas. The evidence of the surveyor Whitton, the original surveyor who made the original field notes of the said C., 0. & S. F. section 1, if true, showed that in fact said surveyor, in locating such survey, was under the belief that the northwest corner and, west line of the, Francis I-lill were 136 varas west from where they in fact are located on the ground, and located G., O. & S. F. section 1 under this mistaken belief. The evidence on this point is sufficient to support the court’s conclusion that the surveyor, acting under this mistaken idea as to the location of the line and corner of the Francis Hill, ran out G., O. & S. F. section No. 1.

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212 S.W. 802, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 751, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/houston-oil-co-of-texas-v-w-r-pickering-lumber-co-texapp-1919.