Kuykendall v. Schell

224 S.W. 298, 1920 Tex. App. LEXIS 884
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 17, 1920
DocketNo. 7790.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 224 S.W. 298 (Kuykendall v. Schell) 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
Kuykendall v. Schell, 224 S.W. 298, 1920 Tex. App. LEXIS 884 (Tex. Ct. App. 1920).

Opinion

PLEASANTS, C. J.

This suit was brought by appellee to rescind certain several contracts of sale of land made by appellant with appellee and others, hereinafter named in our findings of fact, whose rights had been assigned to appellee, and to recover purchase money paid appellant under said contracts in the sum of $12,000.

It is alleged in the petition that John W. Gaines and W. M. Kuykendall became partners in a business venture involving the purchase, subdivision, and sale of certain lands in Matagorda county, Tex., and that as partners, acting through said Gaines, they contracted with Schell and with his assignors, by separate contracts to each, to sell the lands described in each contract upon the terms and stipulations fully set out in the pleadings, involving an' agreement to execute and deliver general warranty deeds upon demand after payment by the respective parties of one-fourth of the purchase price; it being also alleged that the contracts obligated the alleged partners to furnish abstracts under each contract. The purchasers were to execute vendors’ liens for the balance due. It was alleged in the petition that the purchasers performed their part of the contract by paying one-fourth of the purchase money, and by making demands for deeds and abstracts, but that in each instance performance was denied, and upon the claimed breach of the contracts rescission was sought.

It was alleged in the alternative that, if Kuykendall and Gaines were not partners, in that event Gaines was the agent for Kuyken-dall, and that the acts of Gaines were binding upon Kuykendall in all essential respects. The amended original answer of W. M. Kuy-kendall contained a general demurrer, a number of special exceptions, a general denial,<• a special denial of the partnership relation alleged in plaintiff’s petition, verified under oath,- and a- number of other special pleas concerning different phases of the case, which will be referred to later in the detailed presentation of the assignments of error. In this amended original answer of W. M. Kuy-kendall, his wife, Mrs. Susan M. Kuyken-dall, with leave of the court, made herself a party defendant, and, joining with W. M. Kuykendall, made tender of deed to the lands in question to the plaintiff, Schell, conditioned upon Schell’s performance of the required provisions of the original contract, and praying the court to deny the rescission asked for, but to allow the specific performance of the original contracts in that manner. They also asked for judgment over against John W. Gaines in the event of any recovery against them on the cause of action asserted by plaintiff.

The defendant John W. Gaines answered by general and special exceptions to plaintiff’s petition and the cross-action of defendant Kuykendall. He specially denied the allegations of partnership in plaintiff’s petition and made further denials and special pleas in answer to the demands against him, the nature of which it is unnecessary to state as he has not appealed from the judgment.

The trial in the court below without a jury resulted in a judgment in. favor of plaintiff against the defendants W. M. Kuy- *300 kendall and John W. Gaines for the amounts paid under the contracts of sale,- aggregating $7,109, with interest thereon from date of the filing of this suit, except as to two payments, one of $594 and another of $110, on which interest was allowed from April 24, 1914, and May 15, 1913, respectively.

The learned trial judge filed conclusions of fact and law, from which we copy and adopt the following:

“On December 27, 1909, defendant Kuyken-dall and defendant Gaines entered into the following contract and agreement (formal parts being omitted):
“ ‘The State of Texas, County of Matagorda.
“ ‘Memorandum of an agreement, this day made and entered into by and between Wiley M. Kuykendall of the county of Bee in the state of Texas, and John W. Gaines of the county of Matagorda, in the state of Texas, witnesseth: That whereas the said parties have this day made and entered into an agreement by the terms of which the said Wiley M. Kuykendall has agreed to purchase a tract of land consisting of 4,509 acres, lying and being situate in the county of Matagorda, state of Texas, and being parts of the Fisher league, Austin league, and International & Great Northern Railroad Company survey and commonly known as the Pclton ranch, upon the following terms and conditions: That is to say, the said Wiley M. Kuy-kendall is to pay for said premises the purchase price of $15 per acre, or an aggregate price of- $67,635, one-third cash and the balance on or before one and two years, and the said Jno. W. Gaines is to take charge of said property; and to handle, subdivide and sell the same for the mutual benefit of the parties hereto upon the following basis of divisibn; that is to say: First, the reasonable cost of subdividing and selling the same shall be deducted and there shall then be paid out of the first proceeds.arising from the sale of said property, to the said Wiley M. Kuykendall, all sums of money by him advanced and paid out on account of the purchase price and interest thereon from the dates of the respective payments until all said sums are repaid to the said Wiley M. Kuyken-dall, and a further sum of 8i% interest on all said sums from said date until such repayment.
“ ‘All sums remaining after sum payments are to be divided equally between the parties hereto, share and share alike, that is to say, one-half to the said Wiley M. Kuykendall and one-half to the said Jno. W. Gaines.
“ ‘And the said Jno. W. Gaines does further bind himself to look after the examination of titles, abstracts and other things in connection with such purchase, without cost for such services other than the compensation herein provided, and further, to look after the delivery of title to the purchasers, remove objections to abstracts, and such other defects as may arise, without other cost than that herein provided for; it being the purpose of this agreement that the parties hereto shall divide equally all profits made out of said transactions but that no profits shall be deemed to have arisen until the purchase money, together with the interest thereon, as herein provided, shall have been paid, together with the cost of handling the same, as herein set out.’
“Defendant Kuykendall purchased said tract of land, and defendant Gaines proceeded, in accordance with said contract, to subdivide same, place plot thereof of record, and to sell parts of same; the tracts sold to plaintiff and the other persons hereinafter named being parts of said tract of land.
“I find that by virtue of said contract and the dealings between defendant Kuykendall and defendant Gaines, and between them and plaintiff and the persons hereinafter named (of whose claim plaintiff is assignee, as hereinafter set forth), defendant Kuykendall and defendant Gaines became and were partners.
“On July 25, 1911, defendants Kuykendall and Gaines, as partners, entered into a contract with Henry Hansen, which is as follows:
“ ‘The State of Texas, County of Matagorda.
“ ‘Memorandum of a contract this day made and entered into by and between W. M. Kuy-kendall and Jno. W. Gaines, acting herein by Jno. W.

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Bluebook (online)
224 S.W. 298, 1920 Tex. App. LEXIS 884, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kuykendall-v-schell-texapp-1920.