Lyons v. Keith

316 S.W.2d 785, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 2320
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 10, 1958
Docket6117
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 316 S.W.2d 785 (Lyons v. Keith) 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
Lyons v. Keith, 316 S.W.2d 785, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 2320 (Tex. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinions

HIGHTOWER, Justice.

This was an action by W. C. Keith to recover the value of excess acreage conveyed to defendants, J. D. Lyons and George Norman. From an adverse judgment the defendants have appealed.

The tract of land was originally a portion of the Caswell Trust, from which it devolved to the Estate of appellee’s mother, Seawillow Caswell Keith. The Caswell Trust was dissolved and distributed in September of 1950. Appellee had been one of its trustees since about 1947 to the date of its dissolution. Seawillow Caswell Keith died prior to any of the events occasioning this lawsuit. Appellee and John C. White were named as Independent Executors and Trustees in her will, by which appellee received one-half undivided interest in her estate. By written contract of January 5, 1951, appellee Keith and John C. White, as such Independent Executors and Trustees of the Estate of Seawillow Caswell Keith, agreed to sell, and appellants agreed to purchase, the tract of land in controversy, describing the same therein as follows:

Lying and situated in the County of Jefferson, State of Texas, 164.325 acres out of the W. B. Dyches Survey, described as follows : (Here follows a description of the property by field notes, minerals reserved to the seller).

The purchase price was therein stated to be $9,859.50. No reference was had of the price to be paid per acre. By deed of January 17, 1951, appellee and John C. White, in the same capacities, conveyed the property by the same description as set out in the contract to the appellants for the recited consideration of $10 and other considerations. The full purchase price stated in the contract was thereafter paid. It developed in the trial of the case that, on January 1, 1951, oral partition had been made of the Seawillow Caswell Keith Estate, which was confirmed by written partition the April following, such instrument particularly acknowledging the effective date of the partition to be as of January 1, 1951, the date of the oral partition. By such partition agreements, appellee became vested with the fee simple title to all the tract in controversy. By deed of April 9, 1953, appellants sold the tract of land to Federal Land Corporation for $85,000. This deed contained no designation of acreage, but described the tract only by metes and bounds. About this time appel-lee Keith learned that the tract contained an acreage greatly in excess of 164.325. Fie subsequently, August 24, 1954, in his individual capacity as a devisee and legatee of the Seawillow Caswell Keith Estate, instituted suit against the appellants to recover the value of the excess acreage, and alleged as grounds therefor a mutual mistake of fact of the parties concerning the true acreage of the tract. He alleged the purchase price agreed upon between the parties to be $60 per acre and sought recovery of the excess on such basis. The case was tried to the court without a jury and judgment in favor of appellee against the appellants, jointly and severally, was rendered and entered in the sum of $8,355.-[788]*78890, [139.265 excess acres at $60 per acre] together with interest on such sum at the rate of 6 percent per annum from the 17th day of January, 1951, to the 17th day of October, 1956, the date of judgment, in the sum of $2,882.77, for a total of $11,238.67, plus interest thereon at 6 percent until paid.

The trial court’s findings of fact and corresponding conclusions of law are in the record before us, and it is believed they sufficiently indicate the nature of the defense which they oppose. The court found the true acreage of the tract to be 303.950 instead of 164.325 for an excess acreage of 139.265, and such finding is not here in dispute. The substance of the findings of fact which are in dispute and with which we are first concerned are: (1) the sale was on a per acre basis; (2) the recital in the deed was a mutual mistake of the parties, all of whom believed the tract to contain only 164.325 acres of land.

The appellee makes no issue of the matter, being content to argue the sufficiency of the evidence relating to the foregoing findings of fact, but it is notable that appellants, by their points of error, do not present the fact question of the sufficiency of the evidence to support such findings. Their points 5 and 14 alone attack these findings of fact. Such points are somewhat lengthy, argumentative and multifarious but their substance is only to contend that there is no evidence to support the findings of fact of a per acre sale and mutual mistake. Our competence is thus limited to determination of the question of law of whether there is any probative evidence to support the findings. Gulf C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Deen, Tex., 312 S.W.2d 933, and cases cited. In the light of this rule we observe that the record is replete with appellee’s testimony to the effect that he was completely ignorant, during all his years of familiarity with the tract, of any appreciable amount of excess acreage contained therein beyond that of 164.325. The appellants do not argue to the contrary. Accepting such ignorance or mistake of ap-pellee’s as a fact, they contend that the same was only a unilateral mistake of fact by appellee with which they were in no way connected or bound. However, the record refutes such theory of appellants. Appellant Lyons handled the entire transaction to its culmination on behalf of himself and appellant Norman as a partnership. The appellee testified that Lyons usually referred to the tract as containing “164.65 acres,” or that “164 acre tract.” Appellee further testified that he and appellant Lyons bargained for the tract of land in the belief that it contained about 164 acres at a time when Lyons came to discuss buying the property at appellee’s home; that they there reached the agreement of $60 per acre; that the bargaining began first with Lyon’s offer of $30 per acre and culminated in the agreement of $60 per acre. This testimony of appellee was corroborated by his wife, who testified that she was there at the time, in the presence of the parties, and heard the agreement. Appellee testified in regard to appellant Norman’s participation in the transaction, as follows: “We consummated that thing at the Jefferson County Abstract Company, and as I recall it, Mr. Norman and myself both grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper and started figuring out 164 acres against $60.00. We came up with a different answer so we got Bert Holton to figure it on a calculating machine. I think we checked our figures and agreed to it.” “Q. Was that done immediately prior to signing the deed? A. Yes, sir.”

Appellant Norman testified, as follows:

“Q. Did you buy it without knowing how many acres were there approximately ? A. I knew the approximate amount of the acreage, yes.
“Q. What was your estimate of the acreage? A. Well, I did estimate it at 165 acres, more or less.
“Q. When you bought the land you thought you were buying approximately 165 acres of land? A. More or less. [789]*789I was satisfied I was getting 165 acres, more or less.”

Appellant Lyons testified on direct:

“Q. What extent of examination of the land had you made? A. I had been over all of it.
“Q. Could you tell about the acreage in the tract? A. I was satisfied with what I was buying.
“Q. You were satisfied there was 164.325 acres, more or less? A. Yes, sir.”

On cross he testified:

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

Related

Foster v. Bullard
554 S.W.2d 66 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1977)
Fiedler v. Denton
367 S.W.2d 362 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1963)
Lyons v. Keith
316 S.W.2d 785 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1958)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
316 S.W.2d 785, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 2320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyons-v-keith-texapp-1958.