Landrum v. Landrum

130 S.W. 907, 62 Tex. Civ. App. 43, 1910 Tex. App. LEXIS 154
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 29, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 130 S.W. 907 (Landrum v. Landrum) 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
Landrum v. Landrum, 130 S.W. 907, 62 Tex. Civ. App. 43, 1910 Tex. App. LEXIS 154 (Tex. Ct. App. 1910).

Opinion

McMEANS, Associate Justice.

This suit was instituted by appellees, as heirs and assigns of Gabriel Landrum and wife, M. E. Landrum, both deceased, to cancel two deeds' executed by said Gabriel Landrum and wife in 1901 to J. P. Landrum, the deceased husband and father of *45 appellants, the said deeds conveying 150 and 50 acres, respectively, of land in Jefferson County, the deed conveying the 150 acres reciting a consideration of one dollar “and the further consideration of the love and affection which we have for said J. P. Landrum, who is our sou, and to whom we have heretofore donated the land herein described”; and the deed conveying the 50 acres reciting a consideration of one dollar, and “the love and affection which we have for the said J. P. Landrum, who is our son.” The case was tried before the court without a jury, and the court concluded that the two conveyances were in fact upon trusts and that the trusts had failed, and entered a decree cancelling the deeds and awarding to plaintiffs an undivided interest in the lands.

The trial court filed its findings of fact and conclusions of law to which the defendants duly excepted and they have properly brought the case before us on appeal.

Appellants’ first assignment of error is that the court erred in overruling the defendants’ general exception to plaintiffs’ petition, because the relief sought involves the cancellation of two deeds, and no sufficient reason for cancellation is stated in the petition.

The second assignment is that the court erred in rendering judgment for plaintiffs and intervener, cancelling the two deeds in question, because neither the pleadings nor evidence show any grounds of either fraud, accident or mistake to authorize a cancellation.

These assignments are grouped and are followed by the proposition that “Ueitber courts of law or equity have any right or power to cancel absolute deeds but for fraud, accident or mistake.”

The tenth assignment is as follows: “The court erred in its judgment in so far as same affects the 50 acres of land in question, because, even taking the evidence most favorable to plaintiffs and intervener, it is manifest that the deed to it was intended to be absolute, and'that if it was intended as compensation for making sale of the other 150 acres, it was clearly earned, since J. P. Landrum made a binding contract of sale of the 150 acres as shown by the undisputed evidence.”

Appellants urge under this assignment the proposition that “Where • one conveys a piece of land as a consideration for services, a nonperformance of the services does not authorize a cancellation of the deed nor a decree establishing a resulting trust, but only gives a cause of action for damages.”

The allegations bearing on the nature of the transaction between the grantors and grantee in the two deeds are those embraced in clauses 5 to 8 of the amended petition, which are as follows:

“5. That before the execution of these two above mentioned deeds the said J. P. Landrum had made and entered into an agreement with one C. B. Hollifield to sell to the said Hollifield the 150 acres above described, or 150 acres out of the said 320-acre tract of the Hillebrandt survey, at $55 per acre, and at the time said agreement was made the said J. P. Landrum had no interest or title whatever in the land he had thus offered to convey, but he went to the said Gabriel Landrum and M. *46 E. Landrum and told them of his said contract with the said Hollifield and insisted on their executing to him a deed to the land so he could hold his contract with the said Hollifield without further troubling them.

“6. The said Gabriel Landrum and M. E. Landrum were anxious to sell the said 150 acres at the price agreed upon between the said J. P. Landrum and the said Hollifield, because they were old and needed the money, and didn’t need the said 150 acres of land, since they still reserved the 50 acres upon which they resided.

“7. So that when this matter was presented to them, they agreed with J. P. Landrum as follows: If he would sell the 150 acres of land for them at the stipulated price of $55 per acre, and give them all the money, they would deed to him the 50 acres above referred to, which included their homestead, and that while they reserved the right to use said homestead as long as they lived, yet he should have said 50 acres at their death, and with this distinct agreement and understanding the two deeds above referred to were executed and delivered to the said J. P. Landrum.

“8. That the said J. P. Landrum failed in the consummation of the deal with the said Hollifield, and as he was only holding the two aforesaid tracts of land in trust for the said Gabriel and M. E. Landrum, he should have conveyed same back to them; but in about one month after the execution of the two aforesaid deeds the said M. E. Landrum died leaving the legal title in J. P. Landrum, but in trust for the other heirs of the said M. E. Landrum, and that subsequent to the death of the said M. E. Landrum the said J. P. Landrum died without having conveyed said land to the said M. E. Landrum or her heirs, and that subsequent to the death of said J. P. Landrum the said Gabriel Landrum died, and plaintiffs herein are entitled to five-sixths of the estate of said Gabriel Landrum and M. E. Landrum, and are entitled to five-sixths of the two aforesaid tracts of land, but defendants are in possession of said land, and deny the agreement between said Gabriel Landrum and M. E. Landrum on the one part and J. P. Landrum on the other at the time the two deeds were executed, deny plaintiffs’ right to any portion of said two tracts.

“That plaintiff, V. A. Collins, is the owner of an undivided one-third of one-half, and an undivided one-third of five-sixths of said land. That his coplaintiffs are the owners of an undivided five-sixths and defendants the other one-sixth undivided, less the interest of V. A. Collins.

“Plaintiffs allege and would show the court that at the time of the execution of the two aforesaid deeds from Gabriel Landrum and his wife, M. E. Landrum, to J. P. Landrum, and long prior thereto, that the land described in said deeds was the homestead of the said Gabriel Landrum and M. E. Landrum, and that said land constituted their homestead up to the time of the death of M. E. Landrum, which occurred about June 15, 1901, and that said land was occupied and used continuously by the said Gabriel Landrum as surviving husband up to *47 the time of his death, which occurred in. the latter part of 1908, as his homestead.”

The evidence shows that prior to the execution of the deeds in question Gabriel Landrum and wife, M. E. Landrum, owned 200 acres in the Hillebrandt survey. The findings of fact filed by the trial court are as follows:

“I find that on May 2, 1901, Gabriel Landrum and his wife, M. E. Landrum, executed two deeds (general warranty deeds) to J. P. Landrum, who was the son of said Gabriel Landrum and M. E. Landrum, and who was the husband of the defendant, Elizabeth Landrum, and the father of her children named in plaintiffs’ petition; said deeds reciting a consideration of love and affection for the said J. P. Landrum.

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Bluebook (online)
130 S.W. 907, 62 Tex. Civ. App. 43, 1910 Tex. App. LEXIS 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/landrum-v-landrum-texapp-1910.