Lewis v. Ross

67 S.W. 405, 95 Tex. 358, 1902 Tex. LEXIS 171
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 31, 1902
DocketNo. 1098.
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 67 S.W. 405 (Lewis v. Ross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lewis v. Ross, 67 S.W. 405, 95 Tex. 358, 1902 Tex. LEXIS 171 (Tex. 1902).

Opinion

BROWN, Associate Justice.

H. G. Ross and wife instituted this ¡suit in the District Court of Mills County against Mrs. McGuire upon a note executed by her to J. N. Schultz and to foreclose the vendor’s lien upon land described in the petition. Casbeer was joined as a defendant, he being in possession and claiming the land. He vouched in J. L. Lewis, a remote warrantor, and prayed that in case judgment should be rendered foreclosing the lien upon the land, he might have judgment ¡against Lewis upon his warranty. Lewis and Casbeer joined in filing •an answer to the petition in which they set up that the note sued upon was one of two given by Mrs. McGuire to J. N. Schultz for the purchase money of the land in question, and that Schultz, for a valuable consideration, assigned the note first to become due to Lewis with the agreement that Lewis should have priority in the payment. If was alleged that the plaintiffs in this suit had notice of this agreement when they acquired the note sued upon.

*361 Lewis instituted suit upon the note held by him and foreclosed the vendor’s lien against Mrs. McGuire, but the holder of the note now sued upon was not a party to that suit. Judgment was entered in that case foreclosing the lien and the land was sold under it and purchased by Lewis for $20. Lewis sold to another, giving a warranty deed, and through this source of title the defendant Casbeer claimed by regular conveyances to himself.

From the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals we copy as follows:

“The undisputed testimony shows that J. ET. Schultz conveyed the land to Mrs. M. A. McGuire, October 26, 1895, taking in payment therefor two notes for $175 each, with interest from date at 10 per cent per annum, one due in one and the other in two years; that a lien to secure the payment of each note was expressly stated and retained in each and in the deed from Schultz to McGuire, which deed was duly recorded in Mills County, where the land is situated, before Schultz transferred either note. It was also shown that the note assigned to the plaintiffs was transferred by Schultz to one Gillespie, who in turn transferred it to Mrs. Boss, one of the plaintiffs, before maturity, and that Gillespie had knowledge of the contract between Schultz and Lewis, but the plaintiffs acquired the note without such knowledge and without notice of any fact that would put them upon inquiry, unless it be that knowledge of the fact that another note was given by Mrs. McGuire in part payment for the land and secured by a contract lien of record cast upon them the duty of inquiring of Schultz whether or not he had assigned the other note in such a manner as to diminish his rights as holder of the note involved in this suit.
“There was a nonjury trial resulting in a judgment for the plaintiffs for $263.95, principal and interest, against the defendant McGuire, and a foreclosure of the vendor’s lien on the land involved as against the defendants Lewis and Casbeer. Judgment was also rendered for the defendant Casbeer against Lewis on his warranty for the sum of $550, with the proviso that if the defendant Lewis paid off and discharged the judgment in favor of the plaintiffs, such action on his part should operate as a satisfaction of the judgment in favor of Casbeer against him.”

As between the plaintiffs in error and the defendants, two questions are presented by the application: (1) That the court below erred in holding that Lewis was not entitled to prior payment of the note held by him, heretofore foreclosed, out of the proceeds of the sale ordered; (2) that the court erred in not allowing Casbeer to participate in the proceeds of the sale of the land under the judgment entered in this case.

Moran v. Wheeler, 87 Texas, 179, very clearly and conclusively settles the first question against the contention of the plaintiffs in error. We need not discuss the question further than to state simply that under the law of this State the deed from Schultz to McGuire gave notice to Mrs. Boss that there was another note outstanding which held a lien upon the land equally with the one she bought. But it gave no notice to her of *362 any prior right in the holder of the other note. If one who acquires a purchase money note with an agreement for priority of payment desires to preserve that right as against persons who may subsequently purchase the other notes, he may and should take a written assignment of the note purchased, embodying in it the agreement for priority of payment, and have it recorded, and, failing to do so, one who purchases another of the same series of notes without notice of the prior right will take it subject to the legal effect of the reservation of the lien in the deed; that is, equality of lien between the several notes. There was no error in the judgment of the court refusing Lewis priority of payment.

Upon the other question, the court erred in its judgment. Lewis, by his purchase at the foreclosure sale under the judgment procured by him against Mrs. McGuire and Schultz, acquired all of Mrs. McGuire’s title in the land and an interest in it absolute in proportion that the judgment under which he purchased held a lien upon the land, and he was entitled, in case of sale under a subsequent foreclosure of the outstanding note, to participate in the proceeds of such sale in the ratio that the two notes bore to each other; that is, the notes being equal, each holder of a note would be entitled to one-half of the proceeds of the sale to the extent of the payment of the nóte last foreclosed, and if there should be more than sufficient to satisfy the two notes, then the surplus should be paid to Casbeer, who owns the interest that Lewis acquired, because he . is the owner of the equity of. redemption which Mrs. McGuire had under her purchase. Pugh v. Holt, 27 Miss., 468; Dean v. Hudson, 1 Posey’s U. C., 371.

When the note held by Lewis fell due, he had the right to sue upon it and foreclose to the extent that the note held a lien upon the land without making the holder of the other note a party to the suit; but in such case, the judgment would in no way affect the lien of the outstanding note in the hands of a person not a party to the suit. Pugh v. Holt, 27 Miss., 468 ; Thompson v. Robinson, 93 Texas, 170; Foster v. Powers, 64 Texas, 250; Dean v. Hudson, supra. By his purchase under the judg- • ment rendered in the former suit, Lewis acquired the title of Mrs. McGuire, and also that which had.been reserved in the deed to the extent that the judgment foreclosed the lien upon the land. See authorities ' above cited. Lewis held the land subject to the foreclosure of the outstanding notes to the extent of one-half of the land, and, by reason of his representing the.interest of Mrs. McGuire, he had the right to pay off the outstanding note and prevent a foreclosure, or to suffer foreclosure and participate in the proceeds of the sale.-

The result of the judgment in this case is that Lewis, by foreclosing . his note upon the land and purchase, paid out $20 and satisfied his lien. He is condemned to refund all of the money he received in the sale of the . land and denied any part of the proceeds of the sale, whereby he loses the lien that his note held upon the land, and the money that he paid in the purchase, while Mrs. Ross gets all of her debt and Mrs. McGuire gets *363

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

I-10 Colony, Inc. v. Chao Kuan Lee, Li Yang Lee, Li Hsiang Chang
393 S.W.3d 467 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Kirby Lumber Corporation v. John W. Williams
230 F.2d 330 (Fifth Circuit, 1956)
Price v. Bevers
91 S.W.2d 797 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1936)
Maltby v. Longoria
78 S.W.2d 176 (Texas Supreme Court, 1935)
Maltby v. Longoria
78 S.W.2d 176 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1935)
Wood v. Sparks
63 S.W.2d 1109 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1933)
Ratliff v. Russek
59 S.W.2d 859 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1933)
Allen v. Hall
52 S.W.2d 661 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Weeks v. Goldstein
288 S.W. 540 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1926)
Hopper v. Tancil
285 S.W. 900 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1926)
Beard v. Continental State Bank of Beckville
280 S.W. 840 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1925)
Sanger Bros. v. Hammonds
248 S.W. 477 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1923)
Biswell v. Gladney
213 S.W. 256 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1919)
Armstrong v. Parr
162 S.W. 1003 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1913)
Davidson v. McKinley
152 S.W. 1142 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1912)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
67 S.W. 405, 95 Tex. 358, 1902 Tex. LEXIS 171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-ross-tex-1902.