Louisiana & Texas Lumber Co. v. Dupuy

113 S.W. 973, 52 Tex. Civ. App. 46, 1908 Tex. App. LEXIS 299
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 24, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 113 S.W. 973 (Louisiana & Texas Lumber Co. v. Dupuy) 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
Louisiana & Texas Lumber Co. v. Dupuy, 113 S.W. 973, 52 Tex. Civ. App. 46, 1908 Tex. App. LEXIS 299 (Tex. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

PLEASANTS, Chief Justice.

— This is a suit by the appellees, the widow and heirs at law of M. C. Dupuy, deceased, to recover 9 7-10 acres of land alleged to be a part of the Allen Latham survey in Houston County. The suit is brought in the form of an action of trespass to try title, but the only issues raised by the evidence' are those of boundary and estoppel.

Plaintiffs were entitled to recover the land sued for if it was a part of the Latham survey, unless they were estopped from such recovery by facts pleaded by defendant.

The defendant claimed the land is a part of the S. Hudson survey, which is the older of the two surveys, and the line of which is called for in the field notes of the Latham survey as one of its boundary lines. It is further alleged in defendant’s answer that there was uncertainty and confusion as to the true location of said boundary line, and that “on account of the confusion of the calls in the patent of the said S. Hudson *48 survey, and the uncertainty as to its trué boundary lines, heretofore, to wit, on or about-day of-, 1900, and just before the defendant

Louisiana & Texas Lumber Company purchased the land in this suit, and with the view of making said purchase from the then owners of the said S. Hudson survey, and part of the Allen Lathan survey, it became necessary that the dividing lines between these two surveys should be established and agreed upon by the parties concerned as a condition on which the said Louisiana & Texas Lumber Company would purchase the same, and to this end and to this purpose B. F. Duren was appointed and constituted the agent of Lucien Minor and Jno. Adriance, administrators successively of the Spofford estate, then the owner of the S. Hudson survey, and W. B. Wall and H. W. Moore, the then owners of a one-half interest in the Allen Latham survey, and one Furch, whose name is not known, the owner of the other one-half of the said Allen Latham survey, met together upon the ground and agreed upon a dividing line between the said Allen Latham survey, and in pursuance of that agreement B. F. Duren, the surveyor, did run, mark and establish the said boundary between the two said, surveys as follows, to wit: Beginning at the north corner of the J. M. Creacy survey, and running S. 31 deg. W. 950 varas with its western boundary line to its S.-W. corner. Thence S. 59 deg. E. 214 yrs. with its S.-W. boundary line, establishing corner on the same. Thence S. 31 deg. W. 200 varas to corner. Thence H. 59 deg. W. 470 varas to corner on the Higgenbotham line, thus establishing and making a dividing line between the said S. Hudson survey and the said Allen Latham survey, with the consent and by the agreement of all parties then present interested in the said land. That thereafter, and on the faith of the said agreement, and believing the said line as established by the said B. F. Duren to be the true boundary line between the Allen Latham and S. Hudson survey, this defendant company, the Louisiana & Texas Lumber Company, purchased the said S. Hudson survey from the said Spofford estate, and purchased the interest and right of the said W. B. Wall and H. W. Moore, as aforesaid, in the Allen Latham survey, according to the boundary thus agreed upon and .established between these two surveys; that at the time M. C. Dupuy was not a party interested in either of these tracts of land, but he was present, and cognizant of the fact that this dividing line had been thus agreed upon and established; that thereafter he made a purchase of a part of the Allen Latham survey from the said Furch according to the boundary established and agreed on as the dividing line between the said two surveys as aforesaid; but subsequently the plaintiff, conceiving that he might be able to disregard the settlement and establishment of this dividing line, as aforesaid, and that he might insist upon the line marks placed upon the ground, as aforesaid, by the said Hudson, went to the said Furch and made further purchase from him according to his old line and marks made by. the said Hudson, as aforesaid, to include a small strip of land on the S. Hudson survey, as shown by the line marks established by B. F. Duren, surveyor, by agreement between the owners of these two several surve3rs, as aforesaid, with a full knowledge of the facts as hereinbefore set up; 'wherefore these defendants say that the plaintiff is estopped and bound by the adjustment of the boundary as aforesaid, and can not now be allowed to dispute the same.”

*49 The trial in the court below was by a jury, and resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the plaintiffs.

The first two assignments of error complain of the charge given by the court. We have considered each of these assignments and the several paragraphs of the charge complained of, and are of opinion that said charges contain no affirmative error, and therefore neither of said assignments should be sustained. It was not necessary that there should have been no mistake in the location of the agreed line in order to make the establishment of said line by agreement binding on the parties, and therefore knowledge on the part of defendant, at the time it purchased, that the agreed line was not the true line would not defeat its right to hold to said line, it having purchased on the faith of such agreement. Cooper v. Austin, 58 Texas, 494.

The court, in submitting the issue of agreed boundary, told the jury, in substance, that if they believed that the line was fixed by agreement, as alleged in defendant’s answer, and that the defendant purchased of the owners of the Hudson survey the land in controversy in this suit, believing that the same belonged to the Hudson survey, and in good faith paying value therefor, and that in thus buying it “acted on said agreement and location of said line, not knowing of any mistake, if there was a mistake, then in that event you are instructed that the owners of the Latham survey would be estopped to deny that said boundary line was not properly located.” This was not affirmative error, because it is true that the facts stated in the charge would raise an estoppel against the parties to said agreement and those who purchased with knowledge thereof. The converse of the proposition stated in the above quotation from the charge was not given, and in view of the fact that there is no evidence in the case tending to show that the defendant, at the time of its purchase, had any notice of any 'mistakes in the location of the agreed line, we can not say that the jury were misled by this charge into the belief that, unless the defendant was shown to have purchased without knowledge of any such mistake, they could not find that plaintiffs were estopped. Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. v. Hill, 95 Texas, 629.

The defendant requested special charges correcting this inaccuracy in the charge given by the court, but none of the special charges requested should have been given, because they all authorized the jury to find for the defendant if the boundary line was fixed by agreement, as alleged in the petition, regardless of whether M. C. Dupuy at the time of his purchase knew of said agreement. The question of whether the court erred in not correcting the inaccuracy in his charge, after his attention had been called thereto by the requested charges, is not raised by any assignment presented in appellant’s brief. El Paso Electric Ry. Co. v. Harry, 83 S. W., 735.

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Bluebook (online)
113 S.W. 973, 52 Tex. Civ. App. 46, 1908 Tex. App. LEXIS 299, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/louisiana-texas-lumber-co-v-dupuy-texapp-1908.