Ivey v. Neyland

25 S.W.2d 313
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedMarch 12, 1930
DocketNo. 1281-5335
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 25 S.W.2d 313 (Ivey v. Neyland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ivey v. Neyland, 25 S.W.2d 313 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1930).

Opinion

ORITZ, J.

This suit was instituted in the district court of Dallas county, Tex., by Mrs. T. O.' Ivey, formerly Mrs. J. W. Benson, and her husband, against Mayo W. Neyland, Jr., Robert R. Neyland, and Mayo W. Neyland, Sr., for cancellation and rescission of a contract of sale of a one-fourth interest in 231 shares (par value $100 each) of stock in the First National Bank of Montgomery, Ala. The suit is 'based, on fraud. No damages were sought. The case was transferred to the district court of Hunt county, Tex., where a trial was had before the court without the intervention of a jury, resulting in a judgment for Neyland et al. The case was duly appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals for the Sixth District at Texarkana, which court affirmed the judgment of the trial court. ' 11 S.W.(2d) 608. The case is now before the Supreme Court on writ of error granted on application of Mrs. Ivey and her husband.

The Court of Civil Appeals makes a very comprehensive statement of the facts and issues of the case, and, for the sake of brevity, we refer to the opinion of that court for a full Statement. However, in order that this opinion may be complete witbin itself, we make the following brief reference to the facts:

It seems that one C. A. M. Pitts, at the time of his death in 1919, owned 231 shares of stock of the First National Bank of Montgomery, Ala. Pitts left a will dated August 13,' 1916, which was' duly probated in this state, where he lived at the time of his death, which will contained the following bequest to Mrs. Mary Grace Benson:

“First: I give and bequeath to my sister, Mary Grace Benson (231) two hundred and thirty one shares of First National Bank stock, of Montgomery, Alabama.
“Face value ($100.00) one hundred dollars per share or (23100.00) twenty three thousand one hundred dollars.
“My valuation this stock ($200.00) two hundred dollar per share. The aforesaid bank stock of the First National Bank of Montgomery, Alabama, is to remain intact can neither be sold or traded, and only the interest amounting to ($1848.00) one thousand eight hundred and forty eight dollars annually, or (.08) eight per cent, face value pays (.02) two per cent quarterly as follows:
“January first, April first, July first and October first. Each quarterly payment amounting to ($462.00) Eour hundred and sixty two dollars.
“At the death of Mary Grace Benson, this aforesaid bank stock of Rirst National Bank, of Montgomery, Alabama, shall become the property of her four sons, namely: John William' Benson; James Coleman Benson; Joseph Eugene Benson; and Walter Dee Benson ; but this stock shall still remain intact, and can neither be sold or traded by any of the four, said sons of Mary Grace Benson, individually or collectively, but only the interest of ($1848.00) One thousand eight hundred and forty eight dollars annually or ($462.00) four hundred and sixty two dollars quarterly, to be equally divided among the aforesaid four sons of Mary Grace Benson.”

John William Benson, one of the four sons, of Mrs. Mary Grace Benson, mentioned in the above will, married the plaintiff Mrs. Ivey in April, 1920, and died intestate, and without children, in January, 1924. Mrs. Ivey, then the widow of John William Benson, on June 12, 1925, by written instrument' sold her undivided one-fourth interest in the bank stock which she heired from her deceased husband, John William Benson, to the defendant R. R. Neyland, Mayo W. Neyland, Jr., acted as R. R. Neyland’s agent, in making the purchase. Mrs. Ivey later married T. C. Ivey, and joined by him prosecuted this suit against the de[315]*315fendants seeking to cancel tifie transfer above mentioned, and to recover back her interest in the stock on the ground of fraud. The trial court finds that the stock, at the time of the transfer, was of the par value of $100 per share; that it had no market value at that time; and that its intrinsic value was $15-1.-98 per share. It is further shown that Mrs. Mary Grace Benson was living at the time of the sale, and at the time of the trial. Her life expectancy at the time of the transfer was eleven years. Neyland paid $500 for Mrs. Ivey’s interest in the stock.

It will thus he seen that at the time of the transfer in question Mrs. Ivey owned an undivided one-fourth interest in the 231 shares of stock burdened with the right of Mrs. Grace Benson to enjoy the same, and collect the dividends thereon during her natural life. Her life expectancy, as- above shown, was eleven years; but of course no one knows how long she will live.

Plaintiff’s first assignment of error is as follows: “The Court erred in its holding to the effect 'that the value of appellant’s interest in the bank stock on June 12th, 1925, the date of the sale transaction, was not the value to be used in determining whether appellant sustained any damage by reason of the transaction, but ihat the value of the stock: as of the time when Mrs. Mary Grace Benson might die should he looked to to so determine.”

We are of the opinion that this assignment should be sustained.

In an ordinary suit for damages- based on fraud, the measure is the difference between the price paid and the value of the thing sold at the time of the sale. Moore v. Beakley, 215 S. W. 957 (Tex. Com. App. Opinion approved); Butler v. Anderson, 107 S. W. 656 (Tex. Civ. App. Writ. Ref.); Reed v. Holloway, 127 S. W. 1189 (Tex. Civ. App.); p. 27 C. J. 91.

This is not a suit for damages, but in order for plaintiff to recover in rescission it must appear that she suffered legal injury by the transaction. In order to show injury in'this case, she must prove that .her interest in the stock, at the time of the transfer, was worth more than the $500 paid. We think the evidence conclusively, and as a matter of law, shows that the price paid was substantially less than the legal value of Mrs. Ivey’s interest in the stock. Of course, Mrs. Ivey’s interest was not worth what it would have been had it not been burdened with the right of Mrs. Grace Benson to collect the dividends during her natural life; but since the trial court on substantial evidence has found the intrinsic value of the stock at the time of the sale was $151.98, we- think injury should be tested by discounting the whole intrinsic value of Mrs. Ivey’s one-fourth interest in the stock at the time of sale to its present worth. If this is done at 6 per cent., the legal rate, or 8 per cent., the amount the stock had been earning at the time, compounded annually for eleven years, which was the life expectancy of Mrs. Mary Grace Benson, the results will both show injury, and also a grossly inadequate consideration. We do not decide which method should be pursued, as this is not a suit for damages, and injury is shown by either method. It is sufficient to say that the evidence shows a legal injury to Mrs. Ivey in case she is shown to have a right to recover in rescission for fraud otherwise, and the fact that the real or intrinsic value of the stock at the end of eleven years, or at the time Mrs. Mary Grace Benson may die, cannot now be known, will not avail as a defense when we consider the case from the standpoint of injury.

We now come to consider the question as to whether the judgment of the trial court, and the 'Court of Civil Appeals, should be disturbed -even though we find that Mrs. Ivey received less than the intrinsic legal value of her interest in the stock.

As we understand the plaintiff’s petition, it is based on fraud.

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455 S.W.2d 401 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1970)
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228 S.W.2d 272 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1950)
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103 F.2d 967 (Fifth Circuit, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
25 S.W.2d 313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ivey-v-neyland-texcommnapp-1930.