Huddle v. Cleveland

297 S.W.2d 737, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2469
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 14, 1956
Docket13036
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 297 S.W.2d 737 (Huddle v. Cleveland) 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
Huddle v. Cleveland, 297 S.W.2d 737, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2469 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

POPE, Justice.

William H. Cleveland filed suit in trespass to try title, and at the conclusion of all the evidence the court withdrew the case from the jury and rendered judgment that he recover thirty acres of land from his parents and his three sisters.

*738 In 1936, plaintiffs parents, J. F. and Dora Cleveland, executed a deed which conveyed sixty acres of land to their son, William. The deed reserved an express vendor’s lien in the amount of $722, and also stated that William assumed one-half of a, debt owing to the Federal Land Bank. The one-half amounted to $675. The acknowledgment to the deed was in proper form. The vendors, on May 12, 1937, filed the deed for record. From time to time William made payments on the purchase price, and in 1945 the vendors learned that their deed conveyed sixty acres of land when it should have conveyed only thirty acres. When this was called to William’s attention, he executed a correction deed re-conveying thirty acres to his vendors. The correction deed was delivered to vendors and they accepted and recorded it. On November 9, 1945, the parents, without the solicitation or advance knowledge of William, executed and delivered to him a complete release of the $722 vendor’s lien “and all liens” on the property described in the original 1936 deed, which the vendors referred to in their release. In 1949 and 1953, vendors and William leased their lands for oil, each receiving the bonus proportionate to their ownership. For eighteen years there was no dispute between the parties. In 1954, oil was discovered. The vendors in March of 1955 attempted to convey William’s land to their three daughters, William’s sisters. William then filed this suit. The vendors now contend that (1) their 1936 deed was invalid because the notary did not explain it to them, (2) they never intended that their act of recording the instrument should operate as a delivery, (3) the release did not release and William never paid the vendors’ implied vendor’s lien and they rescinded the executory contract, (4) they have acquired title from William by limitations.

On the basis of the parents’ testimony, the trial court correctly ruled against their defenses. The evidence shows that the parents well intended to execute a deed conveying thirty acres to their son. The fact that they conveyed sixty acres by mistake is no factor in the case, for when that fact was discovered and called to1 the attention of their son he promptly corrected the matter by his reconveyance of thirty acres, and the parents accepted and recorded the correction deed. The mother and father testified to the same facts, but in different words, and their testimony undermines their own defenses. The mother stated that prior to 1936 they asked their son to move to Dimmit County to help them, that they told him they would sell him half their land, and they intended to do that; that the son agreed to pay a total of $1,402 for thirty acres of the land, which was only one hundred dollars less than the amount the. parents were paying for all of their sixty acres. The parents agreed to sell William half of their sixty acres if he paid for it. The mother stated: “I know that it was- the intent of myself and my husband to make a deed for thirty acres of land in favor of our son. We agreed to sell him one-half of the land and to make him a deed for it, * * * we went to the lawyer’s office for that purpose. * * * We recorded the deed to our son because somebody feared the house would burn down. He did not want the house to burn and burn that deed because it was not on record. We did put the deed on record because they both wanted it on record and we put it there.” William later moved to Houston. The deed had pencil notations by the mother, which showed William made small payments at irregular intervals. The mother kept these records and they showed payments in the amount of $423.30. But she testified further: “My son helped us a little bit along. He was a good son. We did not give him credit for all he sent. I am telling you we would give him credit for what was to go on the land. That part of money he sent us that did not belong on the deed, he would not tell us to keep account of it, and we spent it on taxes and insurance and groceries.” When the parents discovered that the deed mistakenly *739 described sixty acres of land instead of thirty acres, the mother wrote her son about the mistake. The parents went to.a lawyer to draw a correction deed and told the lawyer: “We told him it had been our intention to convey only thirty acres to our son if he paid for it. * * * It is a fact that our son made a deed back to us conveying thirty acres. * * * We accepted that deed and we recorded it. We recorded the deed to our son because he asked us to in case of fire.” These events transpired in November of 1945, nine years after the original conveyance to their son. The mother testified concerning the release of the lien by herself and husband: “And on that very same day, November 9, 1945, at 9:00 o’clock a. m. I and my husband delivered that release to Mr. Terrell Kellog to be placed on record.” Kellog was the County 'Clerk. “Me and my husband acknowledged that (the release) before T. B. Kellog on the day it was signed.”

The father’s testimony precludes his recovery. He testified: “I stated that I put that deed (the deed of 1936) to my son on record in 1937 because my son wanted to show on the records that he had an interest in the land and what he was paying for. * * * I knew I was conveying to my son a half interest in my sixty acres when I went to the lawyer’s office. * * * When I made that deed to my son in 1936, signed by me and my wife, I actually intended to convey to him just one-half of that land. * * * In 1945 I was informed either by Mr. Gibson or Mr. Kellog that the deed actually included all of my land and I wanted that straightened out. At that time I did not question my son’s ownership of his thirty acres.” Concerning the 1945 correction deed he said: “That deed was for the purpose of definitely showing on the records what my son owned and what I owned.” The father and son, in 1953, made an oil and gas lease, and the son received a bonus of $5 an acre for his thirty acres. The father said about this: “I never questioned that at the time in 1953 as being a proper division.” Concerning the release executed by the father and mother in 1945, the father said: “The purpose of that release was to release the vendor’s lien that my son owed on the property because the deed said there was a vendor’s lien note. I wanted to clear that up. I wanted to release and relinquish that vendor’s lien at that time. It looks like I did do that there. I conveyed my son that 30 acres subject to the lien, and I released the vendor’s lien in 1945.”

The testimony of the vendors conclusively shows that they intended to convey thirty acres of land to William. They intended that he would pay them $722, and for that debt the parents reserved an express vendor’s lien. They intended also that William would assume one-half of the deed of trust lien held by the Federal Land Bank. The 1936 deed so stated these things, except for the mistaken description of the land, which was corrected when the son reconveyed thirty acres to his vendors. The parents intended that they should hold the superior title until the vendor’s lien was discharged. That is what the 1936 deed and the correction deed of 1945, when accepted by the parents, accomplished.

Prior to 1945, the vendors exercised no rescission. In 1945, they willingly caused the release to be prepared by an attorney of their choice.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
297 S.W.2d 737, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2469, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huddle-v-cleveland-texapp-1956.