Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Campbell

350 S.W.2d 364, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 1989
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 15, 1961
DocketNo. 6270
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 350 S.W.2d 364 (Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Campbell) 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
Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Campbell, 350 S.W.2d 364, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 1989 (Tex. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This suit — a vacancy suit involving land in Newton County — is the culmination of proceedings begun and prosecuted under authority of Article 5421c, Vernon’s Ann. Civ.Statutes.

Representing the land in question as being vacant and unsurveyed public school land, appellee Campbell applied to the Commissioner of the General Land Office for a mineral lease on it. The Commissioner refused to grant the application, having concluded, after a hearing, that the land was not vacant- and unsurveyed. Appellee Campbell thereupon filed this suit in the district court of Newton County. Humble Oil & Refining Company, several other corporations, and numerous individuals were named as defendants. Also named by the plaintiff as parties to the suit were the Commissioner of the General Land Office and the Attorney General, the latter of whom intervened on behalf of the State and aligned himself with the plaintiff. The defendants answered but did not plead any affirmative defenses. Trial to a jury resulted in a judgment establishing a vacancy- — -bounded as claimed by the plaintiff — and fixing the respective rights of the prevailing parties therein. All defendants who claim the alleged vacant area or some interest in it, and at least one who probably does not, but who owns or claims adjacent land, appealed.

Six surveys, figure in the evidence: the William H. Stark League, the William H. Stark Labor, the Lewis Dunning Survey, what will be referred to as the Forse Survey, what will be referred to as the Crook Survey, what will be referred to as T. & N. O. No. 3, and what will be referred to as T. & N. O. No. 4, the latter two being Surveys No. 3 and No. 4, Block 6, of surveys made for Texas & New Orleans Rail Road Company. But three of these, the T. & N. O. No. 4, the Crook, and the Forse, play parts which are interwoven, since it was as the T. & N. O. No. 4 that most, if not all, of the land in both the Crook and the Forse was first surveyed.

The called courses of all pertinent north and south lines of the six surveys are either N. 88 E. or S. 88 W., and the called courses of all pertinent east and west lines of the surveys are either N. 2 W. or S. 2 E.

If in fact the land in controversy is vacant and unsurveyed public school land, it is bounded on the west by the Crook and by the Forse, on the south by the Stark League, on the east by the Stark Labor, and on the northeast and north by T. & N. O. No. 3. If it is not vacant and unsurveyed public school land, the greater part of it is in the Crook Survey, and the remainder of it is either in the Forse Survey or is divided be[366]*366tween that survey and T. & N. O. No. 3 or between T. & N. O. No. 4 and T. & N. O. No. 3.

The alleged vacancy comprises 36.24 acres and is represented by the shaded portion of the following plat:

The Stark League, which was surveyed May 1, 1838, is the senior survey among those we have mentioned. The next oldest is the Stark Labor, which was surveyed May 2, 1838. Then comes the Lewis Dunning, which was surveyed December 7, 1874. T. & N. 0. No. 3 and T. & N. O. No. 4 first came on the scene in June of 1876, at which time C. A. Nation undertook to survey a sixteen-section block, Block 6, for Texas & New Orleans Rail Road Company and thereby to take up all vacant land between quite a number of surveys which had been theretofore located in such a manner as to form a highly irregular pattern. Nation’s field notes failed, for the most part, to receive approval in the General Land Office. Corrected field notes were filed by the same surveyor in December, 1876, but these also failed to gain approval. The matter rested there for several years. Then, in January of 1886, T. G. B. Cox undertook to resurvey the entire block of surveys. Cox’ notes represented T. & N. [367]*367O. No. 3 as containing 640 acres but represented T. & N. O. No. 4 as containing only 614 acres, whereas Nation’s notes had, in each instance, represented the surveys as each containing 640 acres. Personnel of the General Land Office found Cox’ notes for T. & N. O. No. 3 incorrect and noted the errors on them March 29, 1886, but, on the same day, endorsed his field notes for T. & N. O. No. 4 as follows: “Correct for only 614.4 acres.” Cox submitted corrected field notes for T. & N. O. No. 3, wherein he represented the survey as containing only 613 acres. On December 20, 1886, the amended notes were endorsed in the General Land Office with this endorsement: “Correct on the map of Newton County.” On the same day, a new endorsement was placed on Cox’ notes for T. & N. 0. No. 4, towit: “Correct for 614 acres on map of Newton County.” Without more ado, T. & N. O. No. 3 was patented January 6, 1887. T. & N. O. No. 4 was never patented as such, but was sold or awarded as such in 1901. J. W. Link was the priginal purchaser. He deeded the land to J. M. Hughes in 1905, and Hughes deeded it to J. B. Forse in 1913. Then, in 1915, J. B. Forse conveyed to W. M. Crook and others 160 acres of the land, the same to be surveyed in the form of a square in the southeast corner of the survey. The ownership of it having become thus divided, the land was resurveyed as two separate tracts, so that each tract might be patented as a separate survey. The resurveying was done by A. A. Miller, and the Miller field notes recited that it was done on March 25, 1924. The Crook and the Forse were the surveys so created. A patent for each was issued April 10, 1924.

The north line of the Stark League — the called course of which is S. 88 W. from the survey’s northeast corner — is common to all of the surveys that have been mentioned, T. & N. O. No. 3 excepted. In other words, it is the south line of each of the following surveys: the Stark Labor, the Lewis Dunning, the T. & N. O. No. 4, the Crook, and the Forse. Not only was it called for as such in the field notes of the surveys, but all parties to the suit accept it as such. Its location is not disputed.

As previously indicated, both the Stark Labor and the Lewis Dunning are senior to the surveys that were made for Texas & New Orleans Rail Road Company. T. & N. O. No. 4 was constructed between the two, and its field notes call for it to adjoin both. The field notes (Cox’), in material part, are as follows:

“Beginning at a stk the S.W. cor. of W. H. Starks Labor on the N. line of Starks League a Dogwood brs S 21 ½ E 3 vrs. a P. brs. N 24 E 1.9 marked W.H.S.
“Thence N. 2 W. with said Labor at 1000 vrs passed the N.W. cor 1837 vrs the N.E. cor. of No. 4 and a cor of No. 3 a P.O. brs. N. 4½ E 7 vrs. R.O. brs N 47 E 12 varas
“Thence S. 88 W. at 1885 vrs the N.W. cor of No. 4 on the E. line of Lewis Dunning a R.O. brs S 10 W 2 vrs DO brs N. 55 W. 34 vrs
“Thence S. 2 E. with Dunning line at 1837 varas stk on the N. line of W.H. Starks League
“Thence N. 88 E. at 1885 varas the place of beginning.”

The following are the field notes of the Crook Survey:

“Field notes of a survey of 160 acres of land made in the name of W. M. Crook, C. A. Lord, W. I. Lawhon, and L. E. Ney, same being the S.E.14 of section 4 T. & N. O. Ry Co. cert. No. 289 situated about 10½ miles S. 30 E. from the county site on the Waters of Davis Creek, and more fully described as follows towit:
“Beginning at the S.W. corner of the W. H. Starks labor on the North boundary line of the W. H.

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Bluebook (online)
350 S.W.2d 364, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 1989, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humble-oil-refining-co-v-campbell-texapp-1961.