Jones v. First Nat. Bank of McAllen

259 S.W. 157
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedMarch 12, 1924
DocketNo. 501-3916
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 259 S.W. 157 (Jones v. First Nat. Bank of McAllen) 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
Jones v. First Nat. Bank of McAllen, 259 S.W. 157 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1924).

Opinion

BISHOP, J.

The First National Bank of McAllen, defendant in error, filed suit in the district court against plaintiffs in error on a promissory note and to foreclose an attachment lien on lot 11 and the east 4½ acres of lot 12 in the northeast quarter of section 8 of Hidalgo Canal Company’s subdivision of its lands in porciones 64, 65, and 66 in Hidalgo county, Tex. Plaintiffs in error alleged that said land was their homestead, and not subject to foreclosure under attachment sued out by defendant in error. The case was tried by the court without a jury, and resulted in' a judgment in favor of defendant in error on the note, but denying foreclosure of attachment lien, the court 'holding that the land was the homestead of plaintiff in error and his wife, Effie Jones, and not subject to attachment, and that no lien was obtained by the levy thereof.

We quote findings and conclusions of the trial court as follows:

“On August 21, 1916, Charles bbnes and wife purchased all of lots 11 and 12 of the N. E. quarter of section 8 of the Hidalgo Canal Company’s subdivision in porciones 64, 65, 66, and moved onto the property on September 4, 1916. The price of 21 acres was $4,500, and the fair market value outside of improvements was $3,500. The. store was bought by defendant Jones in 1915, and he carried on the business until a few months ago> and was in business when the attachment in this case was levied. The store was in the business part of McAllen next to the First National Bank, but it seems that defendant Jones did not own the building. His children attended the public school, and he voted in city elections, and was a candidate for city commissioner. According to the map of the city all of lot 11 and a pprtion of lot 12 is east of and outside of the city limits; and both are north of' what is known as Palm Heights. There are 11 acres in each of lots 11 and 12, and something less than two-thirds of lot 12 is outside of the city limits, as is all of [158]*158lot 11, which lies east of lot 12, and the west line of lot 11 and the east of lot 12 are coincident. The family residence is on the 'west part of lot 12, and north of it on lot 12 is a small house which a daughter of the family was permitted to build and live in while her husband was in the army during the late war, and on the west part of lot 12 fronting oh Tenth street a son of the family has been permitted to erect a small building which he uses as a shop in which to do automobile work. To the northeast on the west part of lot 12 is a tehaek’ which was on the land when it was bought. In front of the residence, coincident with the ■west line of lot 12, is Tenth street which was paved by the city, and across that street west is property which is later described herein. At the time the property was purchased what is now described on the map as Palm Heights had not been laid out for residence purposes; but was in a nursery. North of the property in question and east of it at the time it was bought were farms. In front of the property (west) only one person lived when the property was bought, "a Mrs. Bingham. At the time the two tracts immediately west of this proper- . ty was in brush, the same being what is shown on the map as blocks Nos. 1, 6, 17, 32, 33, 48, 49, 50, 47, 34, 31, 18, 15, and 2, the first 7 lying next to lot 12 (the street or road between) and west of it, and the other 7 still west of the first 7. On the blocks named above there are now houses built respectively as follows: On block 50, 3 houses; on 49, three houses; on 47, 4 houses; on 48, 3 houses, and a church being built; on 33, 2 houses; on 34, none; on 32, 2 houses; on 31, 6 houses. Block 18 is all occupied by houses. On block 16 there are no houses; on block 15 one house, and on the block behind that there are two ‘shacks.’ On block 2 there are 3 houses. On the north side of Palm Heights is not built up. On the north side of the block No. Lot 2 is a little garage. There are three houses on block No. 3, Palm Heights, and there are other houses in Palm Heights, which as has already been said was a nursery when defendant Jones bought the property in question. The Hart subdivision north of the Jones property was an old nursery when defendant Jones bought, but has been subdivided, and there are now several houses there. On blocks 1, 2, 3, and 4 the city took in 300 feet, but there are no houses to the north on the Jones property. There are two farm houses on lot 6, and all east of the Jones property is farms. Other settled property on various lots near the Jones property is as follows: On lots 7, 8, 9, and 10, block 48, two houses, and on lots 1 and 2 on the east side of block 48, one house. The residence of Mr. McDaniel and one other house are on lots 1. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, block 33. On lot 32 is a residence, and on lots 7, 8, and 9 of block 32 is another residence, and on the east side of 17 is Mr. Barley’s residence, and on the north of that is another small residence, and Mi. • Osborn has a residence on west side of 16 or 17, and on the west side of 17 Mr. Sheldon has a house on lot 12 and a larger house about lot 10, and there is a garage on lot 8. There are no houses on 16, and on block 18 there is a house on lot 6, 5 or 4, and 3 or 4 houses on the east side of 13. Further buildings are as follows: North of the Jones property are 3 houses on block 5, Hart subdivision, south of the Jones property on Tenth street are the residences of Bentley and Daniels, and Charles Rich has a residence on lot 9, block 3, Palm Heights. There is nothing on lots 6 or 7, block 4, Palm Heights. One Trotti lives on lot 1, block 5, Palm Heights, and Kerwin lives on lot 2, block 5, Palm Heights. Palm Heights was laid off in 1917. Defendant Jones at one time surveyed and platted his land into lots, ahd drove stakes, and had streets and alleys made, and drove stakes, and had the plat recorded, but the city has never opened any streets through it, and the most of it is still in farms. The Jones have farmed lots 11 and 12 since they purchased the property, and was so using it when the attachment was run. They had one team of mules, 85 hogs, 4 cows, and some chickens. At the same time defendant Jones was carrying-on his mercantile business, which he bought in 1915. He did not do the manual labor on the farm himself, but had it done by Mexican labor, which he supervised. A strip 300 feet wide across lot 12 on west side is in the city limits, and electric lights reach out that far. McAllen is a town of about 5,-300 population. Defendant Jones quit the feed business on May 11, 1921, four days after the attachment was run upon the property in question. When the property was bought its value, even with improvements, was less than the constitutional limit as applied to urban homestead, and there is no. limit of value as applied to rural homestead. If the homestead cannot be part rural and part urban; then it must be assigned to that class in which its -size, its location, the uses to which it is put, and the whole environment places it. I attach no importance to the defendant Jones having surveyed part of it into lots and streets. Whatever purpose or expectation he may have had of its becoming some time a part of the city, such expectation has never been realized. The city paved the street in front of it, but beyond that no part of the property has ever been subjected to city uses. It was when purchased essentially a farm; and has been and is yet so used. Even if every part of it was in the city, its value at the time it was set apart as a homestead is within that limit which accords to it the constitutional exemption from forced sale. This being true, it was not subject *to the levy, and therefore judgment is rendered for the defendants.”

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Bluebook (online)
259 S.W. 157, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-first-nat-bank-of-mcallen-texcommnapp-1924.