Jones v. Lockhart

144 S.W.2d 426
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 18, 1940
DocketNo. 14123
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 144 S.W.2d 426 (Jones v. Lockhart) 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
Jones v. Lockhart, 144 S.W.2d 426 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinions

SPEER, Justice.

D. H. Jones and The Bank of Teneha, unincorporated (a copartnership), and the owners of said Bank and copartnership, D. DuBose, J. T. Peddy, S. B. Bed, Luke Motley, George W. Duke, J. P. James, H. P. Parkman, J. R. Weir, E. S. Hicks, H. C. Parker, A. C. Hargraves, J. S. Baldwin, J. N. Parker and -Stanton DuBose) collectively and individually, instituted this suit in usual form of trespass to try title against A. A. Lockhart and fifteen others, to recover title to a tract or lot of land in the City of Longview, Gregg County, Texas. The description given in [427]*427the pleading indicates that the lot is approximately 185 feet by 266 feet, save and except (as stated in the petition): “That part of said tract now being occupied by the Jerusalem Colored Baptist Church, by its Sunday School room and by its toilet, being about 50 feet off of the south end of the part of this land west of the street.”

The defendants filed pleas in abatement and bar, and subject thereto filed general denials, pleas of not guilty and special defenses. The pleas in abatement and bar. were heard by the court and, after hearing and considering the testimony offered, were sustained and plaintiffs’ suit was dismissed. From this judgment one of the plaintiffs, D. H. Jones, has perfected an appeal by writ of error to the Sixth Supreme Judicial District, and . under an equalization order by the Supreme Court, is before us for review. We shall refer to D. H. Jones, plaintiff in error here, as plaintiff, as he appeared in the trial court, and to defendants in error as defendants, as they were designated below. In the petition for writ of error, plaintiff D. H. Jones is joined by W. E. Jones and the two prosecute the appeal. We shall’refer to this later in this opinion.

The plea in abatement and bar urged by defendants and sustained by the court, presented these points: (a) One of the plaintiffs in this case, The Bank of Teneha, unincorporated, a copartnership, .did not exist at the time suit was instituted, having been dissolved and discontinued since the latter part of 1909 or early in 1910; that it was succeeded by The First State Bank of Teneha in 1910; (b) C. S. and Addie M. McKinley sold and conveyéd the land in controversy to Luke Motley, cashier of The Bank of Teneha (unincorporated) March 17th, 1909; (c) Luke Motley and others, as sole owners of The Bank of Teneha, conveyed to George T. Reynolds and Miss Alice Reynolds, by deed dated October 28th, 1909; (d) the independent executor of George T. Reynolds and all of his heirs (naming them) and the independent executor of the estate of Agnes Alice Reynolds, deceased, by deed dated July 6, 1937, conveyed the property to W. E. Jones; (e) W. E. Jones filed suit in the District Court of Gregg County against defendants, in cause No. 11,304C, to recover the land here in controversy; that on November 15, 1937, judgment was entered denying recovery by the plaintiff W. E. Jones, and awarding title to certain defendants on their cross-action therefor; that appeal was taken by W. E. Jones to the Texarkana Court of Civil Appeals,, in which court the judgment so entered below was affirmed on certificate May 26,. 1938, and the mandate duly returned to-the trial court; (f) W. E. Jones conveyed by his deed' dated May 12th,- 1938, the-land to D. H. Jones, and (g) Luke Motley and The First State Bank of Teneha, incorporated, quitclaimed unto D. H. Jones all interest they may have in the tract of land, under date June 14, 1938. Further alleging in said pleas that The Bank .of Teneha, unincorporated, instituted the instant suit against defendants to recover the identical land which wás in controversy in cause No. 11,304C; that defendant.Á. A. Lockhart is the owner of the land both by mesne conveyances and the judgment aforesaid; that because plaintiff The. Bank of Teneha, unincorporated, had ‘ conveyed the land as aforesaid, in 1909, arid'that plaintiff D. H. Jones’ alleged title' was deraigned from W. E. Jones, subsequent to the failure of the latter to recover judgment for title to the land iri ’ said cátise No. 11,304C, wherein the title was awarded to A. A. Lockhart, both .plaintiffs are estop-ped and barred from prosecuting'this suit and attempting to acquire the .title 'to the tract of land. , Í !'

Testimony was heard by the.'court .when the pleas came on. for -hearing. We have searched the testimony carefully and' find that the. facts are apparently undisputed, as alleged by defendants in the pleas. At the instance of plaintiffs the 450-page volume of testimony taken in cause No. 11,304C was introduced in evidence in. this case, but as we view this appeal there is only one point urged by plaintiff here that can be gleaned from it all. That is,, when cause No. 11,304C was tried, it. is contended that plaintiff in that case, W. E. Jones, failed to recover because the court refused to admit in evidence a deed from Luke Motley et al. to George T. Reynolds and Alice Reynolds, of date October. 28, 1909, which was a link in the chain of title claimed by that plaintiff;, and upon the trial of the instant case, the court admitted it in - evidence, with the result that plaintiff D. H. Jones could not recover in this case, since he acquired no -title from W. E. Jones under the deed of May 12, 1938. ! ... ..

Plaintiff’s ■ first proposition, which! we are considering as an assignment of- error, [428]*428complains of the action of the court in admitting the deed in evidence because, he says: “Defendants were estopped from claiming any benefits under this deed and the court''could not consistently consider this deed in their behalf, since it was these same defendants who objected to the same deed and this same court who sustained them in the case to which they now refer (cause No. 11,304C).”

The statement of facts prepared in the cause number last referred to discloses that the deed was excluded from evidence by the court when offered by W. E. Jones, and the record shows that it was admitted upon the hearing ' on the pleas in this case. Why it was rejected in the trial', of another case, the judgment in which has become final by an affirmance of the Court of Civil Appeals, and the mandate returned to the District Court, cannot be reviewed by us now. To do so would present an anomalous situation resulting in a condition contrary to our well established rules of jurisprudence. See Paschall et al. v. Renshaw et al., Tex.Civ.App. 142 S.W.2d 717, and State v. Savage et al., 105 Tex. 467, 151 S.W. 530. Clearly, under the pleadings in this case, the deed was admissible in evidence to show the title was in another and not in either of the plaintiffs, D. H. Jones or The Bank of Teneha, unincorporated. To grant, for the argument, that the instrument was improperly rejected in the first suit, a thing we do not decide, would avail plaintiffs nothing in this case. It is argued by plaintiff D. H. Jones, who alone has appealed in this case, that because these same defendants, upon objection, induced the court in the other case to exclude the deed, they are now estopped to contend it admissible in this case. We think the reason assigned is untenable; there are many reasons which occur to us that would have justified its. exclusion when offered in cause No. 11,-304C that may not have existed when offered upon this trial. The court may not have excluded it for any of those reasons, but of this we have no concern here.

By his second proposition, complaint is made by plaintiff that the court erroneously admitted in evidence the deed from May B. Reynolds et al. to W. E. Jones; this deed is referred to above by us as being dated July 6, 1937.

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144 S.W.2d 426, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-lockhart-texapp-1940.