Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Webb

177 S.W.2d 218
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 25, 1943
DocketNo. 6078.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 177 S.W.2d 218 (Humble Oil & Refining Co. v. Webb) 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. Webb, 177 S.W.2d 218 (Tex. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Justice.

In this trespass to try title action appel-lees, "the plaintiffs below, being J, V. .Fleming and the children of L. F. (Louis) Webb, recovered an 83-acre tract of land situated in the Hawkins, oil field, Wood County. Appellants, the defendants below, hold under warranty deeds from L. F. Webb and his assigns, and legal record title rests in the appellants, unless the next herein described deed is a forgery.

An instrument dated January 2, 1913, filed for record January 4, 1922, and recorded in Vol. 75, p. 12, Wood County Deed Records, which purports to be a deed of conveyance of above tract unto L. F. Webb, and which purports to have been executed and duly acknowledged by B. F. (Ben) Webb and wife, Mattie, the parents of L. F. Webb, appears to be regular in form and contains the following clauses pertinent to the inquiry here, namely:

“Know All Men By These Presents:

“That we, B. F. Webb and Mattie Webb, wife of the said B. F. Webb, for and in consideration of the sum of $900 to us in cash in hand paid L. F. Webb the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, have this day bargain,' granted, sold and conveyed unto the said L. F. Webb, his heirs and assigns forever the following described lands: (Here follows description by -metes and bounds of the land here in controversy).

“To have and to hold unto him the said L. F. Webb together with all and singular the rights, members, hereditaments, and improvements to the same belonging or in *220 any wise incident orappertaining thereto, to have and to hold all and singular the premises above mentioned unto the said L. F. Webb, his heirs and assigns forever and I do hereby bind myself my heirs and legal representatives to forever warrant to defend all and singular the title to the above mentioned premises unto the said L. F. Webb, heirs and assigns against every person or persons whomsoever lawfully claiming or tó claim the same or any part thereof.”

The ground relied upon by appellees for recovery of above land was their contention that B. F. Webb and wife conveyed only a life estate to L. F. Webb, with remainder to appellees by virtue of the terms of two allegedly unrecorded lost deeds, allegedly executed by B. F. Webb and wife to L. F. Webb. Appellees further pleaded the recordation of the deed above set out and alleged that instrument to be “either forged or altered.” Appellees pleaded specially their title.. With respect to the content of the two alleged unrecorded lost instruments appellees pleaded:

“That said writing referred to in this paragraph was an unrecorded deed to said land, claimed in plaintiffs’ petition and duly executed by B. F. Webb and wife, Mattie E. Webb, dated about 1896 to L. F. Webb and Fannie Webb, his wife, whereby an estate for life only was vested in L. F. and Fannie Webb and the fee title or remainder was to vest in all of the bodily heirs of said L. F. Webb upon his death, which deed for a valuable consideration was delivered into the possession of L. F. Webb, the father or husband of the plaintiffs herein, and which deed has been lost or destroyed. * *

“That sometime subsequent to the year 1905, notwithstanding the foregoing conveyance and in/ lieu of such lost or destroyed deed, the said L. F. Webb, after he had married plaintiff Maudie Webb, at a date plaintiffs are not able to allege, induced his father and mother to execute another deed in writing to the property described in plaintiffs’ petition and by which deed a Ufe estate in said land was conveyed to L. F. Webb, upon his death the remainder over to all of'the bodily heirs of the said L. F. Webb. That said deed, after being duly executed, was delivered to said L. F. Webb, and that said deed was lost or destroyed or mutulated or altered sometime subsequent to the death of Mattie E. Webb in 1921. That plaintiffs who are the heirs of the said-L. F. Webb had no knowledge of the execution of said deed at said' time, and that they remained in possession of said land, together with their father, who-only held a life estate therein, claiming said land and they now claim said land under said B. F. Webb and Mattie E. Webb, and their title by limitation.” (All italics-ours).

In addition to the usual defensive pleadings in trespass to try title, defendants-pleaded the 5, 10 and 25-year statutes of limitation. They further alleged that ap-pellees were estopped by the judgment entered in Holley v. Mucher, Tex.Civ.App., 165 S.W.2d 1015, to dispute defendants’ title ; and that appellees were estopped to assume a position inconsistent with the one-success fully maintained by them in the-Holley case.

In response.to special issues (Nos. I to' 2-A, inc.) the jury found that: “On. or about the year 1897, B. F. Webb and wife, Mattie, 'executed and delivered to L. F. Webb a deed conveying the tract involved1 to L. F. Webb for his lifetime and after his death to his children who should survive him”; that “on or about January 2, 1913, B. F. Webb and wife executed and delivered a deed (either as a replacement or as an original deed) conveying the land involved to L. F. Webb for his lifetime and. after his death to his children who should survive him.” The jury further found that “the instrument offered in evidence by defendants dated January 2, 1913, and recorded in Vol. 75, p. 12 is a forgery”; that B. F. Webb and wife did not execute the original of the instrument “in the form and wording shown in said records.” In response to special issues 4 and 5 the jury sustained appellants’ claim under the 5 and 10-year statutes of limitation.

Judgment was entered for appellees non obstante veredicto as to issues 4 and 5 on-the theory as expressed in the judgment that the jury having found in respect to-the other issues that only a life estate had. vested in L. F. Webb, limitation could not begin to run against appellees until the death of L. F. Webb which occurred November 17, 1940.

Under appellants’ second and third: points they assert that the court erred in-permitting appellees to recover by assuming 'a . position entirely inconsistent with, the position appellees maintained successfully in Holley v. Mucher-, supra;, and in failing to sustain appellants’ plea of es-toppel by judgment rendered in said cause.

*221 All the plaintiffs in the instant suit were parties to the Holley v. Mucher suit. Many of the defendants in the instant suit were defendants in that suit. The pleading's and evidence in that suit, tendered in evidence here under appellants’ pleas in estoppel, developed that B. F. Webb and wife, during their coverture, acquired as community property, three tracts of land in Wood County, namely, a 105-acre tract known as the homeplace; an 83-acre tract known as the Anderson farm; and another 83-acre tract known as the Crow farm, here in controversy. B. F. Webb died testate in February 1934. Mattie, his wife, died intestate in September, 1921. They left two children, L. F. Webb and Mollie Holley. L. F. Webb died intestate in 1940, prior to the institution of the Holley suit. The heirs of Mollie Holley, plaintiffs in the Holley suit, named as defendants various holders of mineral interests under the homeplace and all the children of L. F. Webb, except the widow and a minor son. The latter two intervened in that suit.

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177 S.W.2d 218, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/humble-oil-refining-co-v-webb-texapp-1943.