Lutcher v. Reed

237 S.W. 913, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 234
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedMarch 1, 1922
DocketNo. 289-3546
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 237 S.W. 913 (Lutcher v. Reed) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lutcher v. Reed, 237 S.W. 913, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 234 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1922).

Opinion

HAMILTON, J.

Defendants in error, Wright Reed and his wife, Susan Reed, brought this suit in trespass to try title against Mrs. Erancis A. Lutcher, individually and as executrix and devisee under the last will and testament of H. J. Lutcher, deceased, Meriam Stark and her husband, W. H. Stark, Carrie Brown, E. W. Brown, Jr., H. Lutcher Brown, and Eannie B. Moore and her husband, R. A. Moore, to recover title and possession of an undivided 160 acres of land in section 5, Southern Pacific Railway Company’s survey, in Newton county, Tex.

Defendants in error claimed title to the land by virtue of the 10 years’ statute of limitation.

Trial was by the court without a jury. The court rendered judgment in favor of defendants in error, and made findings of fact, among others not pertinent to assignments of error here, as follows:

“That in the year 1896 the plaintiffs cleared a 20-acre field entirely on said section 5, and since said date they have continuously, each and every year, cultivated, used, and enjoyed said 20-aere field.

“That during all the time the plaintiffs have cultivated, used, and enjoyed said land, they claimed to own 160 acres of said section 5.

“That during the year 1907 plaintiffs purchased a 50-acre tract of land on the Dailey survey, about 1% miles from the said 20-acre field, and subsequent to that date have resided upon said 50-acre tract of land as their home.

“That at all times since the year 1907 plaintiffs have, in connection with their home on said 50-acres on the Dailey survey, cultivated, used, and enjoyed the said 20-acre field, and have cleared and considered the land in controversy as a part of their homestead; that the plaintiffs, together with the aid of other members of their family, have cultivated said 20-acre field, and all of the crops grown thereon have been used by their said family.

“That since the year 1907, plaintiffs have not owned or claimed any other land, except the said 50-acre tract on the Dailey and the 160 acres of land in controversy.”

Upon motion of plaintiffs in error for additional findings of fact, the court filed other findings as follows:

“That at the time plaintiffs cleared the 20-acre field on section 5, and continuously thereafter until some time in 1907, when for the second time " plaintiffs were ejected under a judgment rendered against them in 1906, plaintiffs claimed under the same, occupancy 160 acres on section 6 as their home; and plaintiffs’ claim to, possession, and use of the 20 acres on section 5 was incidental to their home on section 6.”

Upon these findings, the trial court, as a matter of law, concluded:

“That the cultivation, use, and enjoyment of the 20-acre field on said section 5, ¡3. P. R. R. Oo. survey, together with the claim of ownership by the plaintiffs, vested in them title by. limitation to 160 acres, undivided, of section 5, to be surveyed so as to include the said 20-acre field, and that said title became vested in plaintiffs in the year 1907.”

Plaintiffs in error appealed, and the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court, 224 S. W. 540.

Plaintiffs in error contend that “the un-contradicted evidence and the facts show that defendants in error did not have peaceable and adverse possession of the land sued for for ten consecutive years,” such as to give them title.

The facts as found by the Court of Civil Appeals are as follows:

“The facts adduced upon the trial, as reflected by the record, are, we think, practically without dispute. Section 5, S. P. Ry. Co. survey, lies immediately south of section 6, S. P. Ry. Co. survey, in Newton county; the north boundary line of section 5 being the south boundary line of section 6. As early, perhaps, as 1878, Wright Reed settled upon said section 6, with the understanding at the time that the same was a school section, and that the title to the same was still in the state; but it was Reed’s intention and purpose to make application to the state for the purchase of section 6, and thereby acquire title to same. Reed built a house upon section 6, and moved in it with his family, and at some date prior to 1896 cleared 8 or 10 acres of land on section 6, about 200 yards north of the south boundary line of section 6 and the north boundary line of section 5. He inclosed this 8 or 10 acres of land, and used and cultivated it as a field, and continued to reside where he had formerly built his house, somewhere between 1% and 2 miles north of this 8 or 10 acres. Reed never did formally apply to the state to purchase said [915]*915section 6, and, having delayed the matter, the state, in 1905, awarded section 6, on proper application, to another. During the time Reed was living on section 6 (and he lived there continuously from about 1878 to 1906), he cleared and opened a field of 20 acres on said section 5. This 20 acres was cleared and inclosed in 1896, and this field of 20 acres was used, cultivated, and enjoyed by Reed and his family each and every year thereafter for a period of more than ten years before appellees filed this suit. This field of 20 acres on section 5 is about 200 yards south of the north boundary line of section 5, which, as we have stated above, is the south boundary line of section 6, and also this field of 20 acres on section 5 is between 1% miles and 2 miles from the dwelling house built by Reed on section 6.
“In 1906 John H. Kirby filed suit in the district court of Newton county against Wright Reed and wife and others to recover the title and possession of section 6, S. P. Ry. Oo. survey, and in October of that year Kirby recovered judgment against all of said defendants for said section 6. Thereupon, or shortly thereafter, Reed and family removed from said section 6, and moved onto a survey of land in Newton county known as the Dailey survey, and Reed purchased a 50-acre tract on that survey, and built a house, and lived upon it. He never at any time actually resided upon any portion of said section 5, S. P. Ry. Oo. survey; but after moving to the Dailey survey, where he purchased the 50 acres, he still continued to cultivate, use, and enjoy .the field of 20 acres on said section 5. The undisputed testimony of several witnesses, other than Reed and his wife, shows conclusively that Reed has claimed 160 acres of land on said section 5 during all the time that he was using and cultivating and enjoying said field of 20 acres on that section. This claim on his part would seem, from the evidence, to have been open and notorious in that community. The record does not disclose that any suit was ever filed by any one against Reed to recover section 5, or any portion thereof.
“The judgment was recovered by John H. Kirby in 1906 for the title and possession of said section 6 by default, Reed never having appeared or answered in that suit; but the evidence discloses the fact that, when suit for that section was filed, Reed consulted lawyers with a view to ascertaining whether he would be entitled to hold any portion of that section by limitation, and he was advised, in substance, that he could not do so, for the reason that limitation did not run against the state while title to that section was in the state, and that sufficient time had not elapsed after the state had parted with title to that section to enable him to hold any portion of that section by limitation as against the purchasers from the state.

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Bluebook (online)
237 S.W. 913, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lutcher-v-reed-texcommnapp-1922.