Maulding v. Coffin

25 S.W. 480, 6 Tex. Civ. App. 416, 1894 Tex. App. LEXIS 7
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 7, 1894
DocketNo. 210.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 25 S.W. 480 (Maulding v. Coffin) 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
Maulding v. Coffin, 25 S.W. 480, 6 Tex. Civ. App. 416, 1894 Tex. App. LEXIS 7 (Tex. Ct. App. 1894).

Opinion

JAMES, Chief Justice.

Conclusions of Fact. — 1. In September, 1889, S. M. Rugg and wife conveyed to Mrs. Maulding certain real property in El Paso. The deed recited the consideration to be $11,000, paid $7000 in cash, and that she “shall assume and pay off a balance of $2000 due on a certain promissory note made by C. Q. Stanton to W. Coffin for $3000, which note is fully described in a deed of trust made by said C. Q. Stanton to C. O. Coffin, trustee, dated April 16, 1887, and recorded in book 4, page 124, record of deeds of trust in El Paso County, Texas,” and also a balance of $2000 due on five notes made by said Stanton to S. G-. Cowdry, which notes are fully described in a deed of trust dated February 1, 1887, and recorded in El Paso County, Texas.

2. The deed of trust from Stanton to C. O. Coffin, trustee, dated April *417 16,1887, above mentioned, had already, on April 18, 1888, been released by a release duly recorded on same day. On April 18, 1888, the date of such release, S. M. Rugg executed to William Coffin his note for $2000, due twelve months thereafter, with 12 per cent interest per annum from date until paid, with 10 per cent on amount unpaid if placed in the hands of an attorney for collection, and secured the same by a deed of trust on the property in question, dated at same time, to C. Q. Stanton as trustee. This deed of trust was properly acknowledged for record, and was thereupon filed for record, but in the record the acknowledgment was not correctly copied, but read thus:

‘ ‘ The State of Texas, County of El Paso. — Before M. W. Stanton, a notary public in and for El Paso County, Texas, on this day personally appeared S. M. Rugg, known to me to be the person whose name is signed to the foregoing instrument, and acknowledged to me that-executed the same for the purposes and consideration therein expressed.
“ Given under my hand and seal of office, 18th day of April, A. D. 1888.
‘ M. W. Stanton,
“ Notary Public for El Paso County, Texas.”

Under this deed of trust the property was sold in 1891 by a regular trustee’s sale, and it was bought in by William Coffin.

The plaintiff testified, in substance, that she knew little of the transactions, they being attended to for her by her agent, Loving; that the consideration as stated in Rugg’s deed to her was as she understood it; that she never knew or heard of the deed of trust under which the property was sold, or of the note it secured, until long after her purchase from Rugg, and about April 1, 1891, when Coffin spoke to her about it; and that she paid Coffin interest up to that date and supposed she was paying on the Stanton note that she had assumed, and asked him for delay, believing that it was the Stanton note to Coffin that she owed; that she was willing to pay what she had really assumed; that at the time of the trustee’s sale her property had been involved in litigation, and she was then unable to raise money on it; that the litigation had since resulted in her favor, and she was able to do so.

George B. Loving testified, that he did not know of the note or deed of trust under which the property was afterwards sold to Coffin, nor did Mrs. Maulding, until long after the deed from Rugg to her; that the consideration was just as it was expressed in the deed, and that she assumed to pay $2000 of the $3000 note made by C. Q. Stanton to W. Coffin and secured by a deed of trust on the property in controversy; and also another $2000 of Cowdry notes.

The interest of Mrs. Maulding in property at the time of the trustee’s sale was worth from $5000 to $6000, and was bid in by William Coffin *418 for $2500, and attorneys for Mrs. Maulding while the sale was progressing gave notice that Mrs. Maulding claimed that the deed of trust was invalid as to her, and that the purchaser would buy a law suit, and we conclude that this affected the proceeds of the sale.

At the time of the transaction a memorandum was drawn up and signed by Mrs. Maulding and by Rugg, purporting to be a correct. statement of settlement between them. This shows an item: “Amount of note due by Rugg to Coffin assumed by Mrs. Maulding, $2000; interest on same from April 17, 1889, to September 1, 1889, at 12 per cent per annum, four months and four days, $89.33.” It also mentioned the other $2000 assumed by her, thus: “Two-thirds being Rugg’s share of amount due A. G. Cowdry, assumed by Mrs. Maulding on note due February 1, 1889, $2000.”

It was testified to by Rugg that Loving explained to her in his presence that there was a deed of trust to secure Coffin, and that he (Loving) put it down in writing and gave it to her; that he, Rugg, had given a new note and deed of trust to Coffin in place of the former note and deed of trust from Stanton to Coffin, as he had assumed it.

William Coffin testified, that Mrs. Maulding, after being notified by him, paid him the interest on the note up to July 18, 1890, at which time she told him that it was very hard for her to get money, and she-then said that she would try to raise the money, and that if she did not raise it by the next spring he would be at perfect liberty to go on and foreclose the deed of trust; that he did not take steps to have the property sold until in May, 1891.

There is no testimony showing that Coffin or the trustee in any manner were responsible for the litigation or other difficulty Mrs. Maulding experienced in raising money with the property, nor that either of them committed any act of fraud in respect to her right in the property.

It appears that the note from Rugg to Coffin read with attorney fees, while the previous note from Stanton to Coffin did not contain such clause.

Conclusions of Law. — The District Court arrived at the following conclusions of fact: “ I find as matter of fact from the evidence: 1. That as a part of the consideration of her purchase of the property^ in controversy (with other property), the plaintiff, Mrs. Maulding, assumed the payment of the note secured by the above deed of trust (the one from Stanton to Coffin), the recording of which I have held defective. 2. That when the plaintiff, Mrs. Maulding, purchased the property in controversy from Rugg, she had actual notice of the existence of the said deed of trust under which the property was sold.”

The correctness of the finding stated in the last clause is questioned by the appellants. It is our opinion that the evidence tending to the con- ■ elusion arrived at by the judge is not insufficient to support it.

*419 The court evidently gave weight to the fact, that in the contemporaneous memorandum signed by Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
25 S.W. 480, 6 Tex. Civ. App. 416, 1894 Tex. App. LEXIS 7, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maulding-v-coffin-texapp-1894.