March v. Huyter

50 Tex. 243
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1878
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 50 Tex. 243 (March v. Huyter) 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
March v. Huyter, 50 Tex. 243 (Tex. 1878).

Opinion

Bonner, Associate Justice.

The material issues and. facts in this case are substantially these: Bird Linthecum and his wife Susan, being the owners of certain personal property, slaves, and lands, on September 28, 1860, made a joint will, to the effect that the survivor was to keep and remain in possession of the property during lifetime, with power to sell the land and other property, except the slaves, and make title thereto, and at the death of the survivor the slaves were specifically given to their three living children, T. B. Linthecum, R. C. Linthecum, and Martha Salmons, and the sum of §1,200 was given to the heirs of a deceased daughter, Fannie Walton, wife of George J. Walton, viz., William, Oakley, and Jabez Walton, and to one of the plaintiff's, L. D. March, who was a son of a deceased daughter of the said Fannie. Susan Linthecum died in the year 1860, before Bird, who died [249]*249in January, 1870. The will was not probated until March, 1870, after the death of both, and then probated as the will of Susan Linthecum. At her death they were possessed of certain personal property, slaves, and three tracts of land: one of two hundred and two, one of one hundred and sixty, and the other of one hundred and sixty-seven and one-half acres. After her death Bird Linthecum sold fifty acres not in controversy off' the tract of two hundred and two acres. He afterwards conveyed the tract of one hundred and sixty acres to Martha Salmons, and the remainder of the land he sold and conveyed to R. C. Linthecum. The deed to him conveyed also seventy-five acres of land which Bird Linthecum had purchased, subsequently to the death of Susan Linthecum, from George J. Walton. Subsequently, by mesne conveyances, the land thus sold to R. C. Linthecum was purchased by J. J. Huyter, one of the appellees.

This suit was brought by S. W. March, who purchased the interest of all the heirs of Fannie Walton in and to the estates of Bird and Susan Linthecum, except that owned by L. D. March, the grandson of Fannie Walton, and who-joins as a plaintiff'; they claiming to be entitled to one-fourth interests in the estates of Bird and Susan Linthecum. The other heirs of Bird and Susan are made parties, and the suit is brought to cancel the deeds to Martha Salmons and R. G. Linthecum, and for partition. J. J. Huyter, having purchased the lands sold to R. C. Linthecum, intervenes. The plaintiffs allege that the personal property was taken into possession by R. 0. Linthecum, and pending the suit they compromised with him, and the suit then, virtual ly, was finally prosecuted between the plaintiff's and Martha Salmons and the intervenor Huyter for the land. The cause came on for trial at the September Term, 1876; a jury was waived and the issues of law and fact submitted to the court, and the same taken under advisement. At the succeeding January Term, 1877, judgment was rendered for Martha Salmons and the intervenor Huyter for the lands claimed by [250]*250them respectively, and from that judgment this appeal is taken.

1. The first error assigned is, that the court rendered judgment at a term subsequent to that at which the cause had been submitted and tried.

To prevent the great difficulty which might arise in making up statements of fact and bills of exception, and other very embarrassing questions, should the practice prevail, without proper limitations, that causes submitted to the court on the law and the facts should be taken under advisement until the next or some succeeding term, was doubtless the object of the present rule Ho. 65 for the District Court. This rule is as follows: “A cause that has been submitted for trial to the judge on the law and facts shall be determined and judgment rendered therein during the term at which it has been submitted, and at least two days before the end of the term, if it has been tried and submitted one day before that time, unless it is continued, after such submission for trial, by the consent of the parties, placed on the record; and in such event a statement of facts and bills of exception shall be prepared and filed, upon a request, in writing, by either party.”

The present case was tried before the new rules went into effect. Had objection been taken by either party at the time the cause was taken under advisement and held over, or before the judgment at the succeeding term was announced, and the judge presiding had, over this objection, taken the case under advisement, or made his decision at the subsequent term, we think it would have been such a departure from a proper practice as should call for a reversal of the judgment. The record, however, does not show any objection, taken either at the time the court announced that the cause would be taken under advisement or before announcing the decision, but it seems to have been made subsequently, and we think it may reasonably be presumed that there was an implied consent, at least, to the action of the court. It does not appear that the' parties have been prejudiced [251]*251thereby, there being both full bills of exception and a voluminous statement of facts; the court had jurisdiction both of the person and the subject-matter; and as the judgment was rendered at the regular term, we do not think, under the circumstances, there was error which would authorize its reversal.

2. The second error assigned is, that the court erred in admitting in evidence the deed to the seventy-five acres of land purchased by Bird Linthecum from George J. Walton, for the reason that it was part of a tract owned by George J. and Martha Walton as their community property, and the deed objected to was made after her death and conveyed this seventy-five acres by specified metes and bounds.

It was not intended to decide, in the cases of Dorn v. Dunham, 24 Tex., 376; Good v. Coombs, 28 Tex., 51; McKey v. Welch, 22 Tex., 396, and other decisions on this subject, that the deed of one joint tenant, or tenant in common, to a distinct portion of the estate by certain metes and bounds was absolutely void as to all parties and all interest, but that the effect of such deeds was that they should not prejudice the rights of co-tenants. As against the grantor himself, the deed would be valid and effectual to bind, by estoppel, at least his interest in the specific land conveyed. (Paschal’s Dig., art. 998.) For this purpose, if for no other, the deed objected to was admissible. ‘

There is, however, no very satisfactory evidence that the land was community property of George J. and Martha Walton. The statement of facts recites that she died in the year 1854, and the deed is made to him, and bears date on the last day but one of that year. If, however, it be admitted that it is such community property, although it is embraced in the deed from Bird Linthecum to E. C. Linthecum, it was not community property of Bird and Susan Linthecum, and was not sued for by the plaintiffs. If the deed was not sufficient to pass title to this seventy-five acres, on the ground objected to, this would not make it invalid for such other [252]*252interest as was conveyed. • It is not, then, apparent why the deed could, as to this interest, prejudice the rights of the plaintiffs, or that there was error in overruling the objection to it.

3. The third error assigned‘is, that the court erred in overruling the objections to the introduction in evidence of the deed from Bird Linthecum to B. 0. Linthecum—

First. Because of want of capacity to make the same by reason of old age and imbecility.

Second.

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Bluebook (online)
50 Tex. 243, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/march-v-huyter-tex-1878.