Leal v. Leal

4 S.W.2d 985, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 289
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 14, 1928
DocketNo. 7962.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 4 S.W.2d 985 (Leal v. Leal) 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
Leal v. Leal, 4 S.W.2d 985, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 289 (Tex. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

COBBS, J.

Plaintiff in error sues defendant in error for an accounting and for damages. It is the same cause of action asserted in Leal v. Leal, 291 S. W. 340, once before this court. That case shows the nature of the suit, except that the pleading was amended in this case. It was designated plaintiff’s fifth original petition, upon which this case proceeded to trial. The amended pleading does not materially change the original pleading nor the cause of action. Defendant in error answered by general demurrer, pleas of two, three, and five years’ limitation, and general denial. For special answer alleged that he had acquired the interest of plaintiff, E. R. Leal, in the estate of Santos Leal, Sr., by having purchased the same of A. A. Gray, on October 20, 1909, who executed his general warranty deed conveying to him all of the *986 undivided interest of E. R. Leal in the estate of Santos Leal, Sr. On June 19, 1908, said E. R. Leal conveyed such interest to the said A. A. Gray.

Prior to February 5, 1918, Santos Leal purchased of the plaintiff, E. R„ Leal, 'all his right, title, and interest in and to the estates of Santos Leal, Sr., and Joaquin Leal, and on that date said E. R. Leal made, executed, and delivered unto Santos Leal his certain release receipt and quitclaim, acknowledging the full and final payment of all sums due him out of the community estate of Santos Leal, Sr., and Joaquin Leal. That at her death the mother, Joaquin Leal, owned no estate, having divided it among her children; E. R. Leal haying received his full share and interest therein.

By a verified supplemental pleading plaintiff denied the execution of the receipt, release, and quitclaim deed of date February 5, 1918, and alleged that the same was a forgery.

The case was submitted to the jury on three special issues, and they were answered in favor of defendant. The court thereupon entered judgment in favor of defendant in error.

Plaintiff in error presents an original brief containing 59 pages and a supplemental brief containing 14 pages.

This seems to .be a fact ease, but plaintiff in error in addition has presented a brief con-táining 81 assignments of error and 43 propositions based thereupon.

Plaintiff in error’s first and second propositions complain substantially that the two issues were not proper because there was no evidence to show, that Santos Leal purchased E. R. Leal’s expectancy or interest in his mother’s estate. That issue was properly submitted to the jury, and they found upon sufficient evidence in the affirmative. So it was a proper issue to submit to the jury, and their finding is supported by the evidence, and the propositions are overruled.

The third proposition challenges as error the submission of the third special issue to the jury, alleging it involved a question of law for construction alone by the court, claiming the deed “shows on its.face that it is a quitclaim deed, free from doubt and uncertainty, and hence purely a question of law to be determined by the court as to the legal effect and meaning of said instrument, and what interest in said real estate was thereby conveyed to defendant.” The proposition is not clear, What is meant here by “free from doubt and uncertainty?”

The deed under discussion is as follows:

“That I, Emilia R. Leal of the county of Bexar and state of Texas, for and in consideration of the sum of two thousand dollars, to me in hand paid by Santos Leal of the county of Bexar and state of Texas,. the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged, do, by thesé presents, bargain, sell, release and forever quitclaim unto the said Santos Leal and also acknowledge the same was for the 1st and 2d distribution of the following estate his- heirs and assigns, all my right, title and interest in.and to that certain tract or parcel of land lying in the county of Bexar and state of Texas, described as follows, to wit:
“Lots Nos. 10, 11, 12, 14, 15 & 16, in block No. 20. N. O. B. No. 801.
“To have and to hold the said premises, together with all and singular the rights, privileges and appurtenances thereto in a'ny manner belonging, unto the said Santos Leal his heirs and assigns forever, so that neither I the said Emilio Leal nor my heirs, nor any person or persons claiming under me shall, at any time hereafter, have, claim or demand any right or title to the aforesaid premises or appurtenances, or any part thereof.
“Witness my hand at San Antonio, this 5th day of February A. D. 1918.”

The issue was, no doubt, submitted to the jury in response to plaintiff in error’s insistence that the title to the property did not pass thereunder. Under our statute (Rev. St. 1925, arts. 1298 and 1297), no particular form is required to convey title to land.

There is language in this conveyance that brings it within the purview of the case of Cook v. Smith, 107 Tex. 119, 174 S. W. 1094, 3 A. L. R. 940. The discussion by Mr. Justice Phillips, who writes the opinion, does not appeal to the writer clearly as to what constitutes a quitclaim deed conveying a chance of title in contradistinction to a conveyance of land itself. On that subject the writer prefers the views presented by Presiding Judge Acker, in Garrett v. Christopher, 74 Tex. 453, 12 S. W. 67, 15 Am. St. Rep. 850, as follows:

“Whether the conveyance be a quitclaim or not is (dependent upon the intent of the parties to it as that intent appears from the language of the instrument itself. If the deed purports and is intended to convey only the right, title, and interest in the land, as distinguished from the land itself, it comes within the strict sense of a quitclaim deed and will not sustain the defense of innocent purchaser.”

In regard to this latter case Mr. Justice Phillips says in Cook v. Smith, supra:

“It is proper that we should call attention to the manifest conflict between the holding in Garrett v. Christopher, that notwithstanding the other features of the instrument may be those peculiar to a quitclaim deed, the use of the term ‘premises’ in the habendum clause will enlarge the effect of the instrument into that of a deed, and the later decisions of the court in Threadgill v. Bickerstaff and Dunham v. Eastham; since in neither of those cases is it recognized that the mere use of that term in such connection has, of itself, any such force. Garrett v. Christopher is not referred to in either opinion, but it cannot be otherwise regarded than as distinctly qualified by the ruling announced in each of these later cases.”

If this case does not overrule the opinion of Judge Acker in Garrett v. Christopher, su *987 pra, as to what constitutes a quitclaim deed, it qualifies it somewliat.

In regard to the proposition presented and urged by plaintiff in- error, that the evidence showed the instrument was a quitclaim deed, which would not estop plaintiff from inheriting his mother’s interest, is without merit and is overruled.

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4 S.W.2d 985, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leal-v-leal-texapp-1928.