McAnally v. Texas Co.

32 S.W.2d 947
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 17, 1930
DocketNo. 715.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 32 S.W.2d 947 (McAnally v. Texas Co.) 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
McAnally v. Texas Co., 32 S.W.2d 947 (Tex. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

DESLIE, J.

This is an appeal from the district court of Fisher county. There are numerous parties who, by reason of mutual interests, fall into four groups. These groups will be referred to as ’(1) J. B. McAnally et al., plaintiffs below, appellants here; (2) Bolton Smith et al; (3) Minnie Polk et al., both defendants below, appellants also; and (4) the Texas Company et al., defendants below, appellees here. This suit is the result of a consolidation of three suits in the trial court, and the above groups assumed in the new suit the relation above indicated.

From the viewpoint of each group of litigants, the suit is essentially one in trespass to try title, both by the direct and in the various cross actions. McAnally et al. sought to recover title and possession of three several tracts of land; Bolton Smith et al. and Minnie Polk et al. sought to recover one of these tracts, and the Texas Company, grantee of Mrs. Maggie A. Teagarden, a widow, laid claims to these lands and sought to remove as clouds from its title the claims of each of the other groups.

In the trial court a verdict was instructed against Smith et al. and Polk et al., and the remaining parties, McAnally et al., plaintiffs, the Texas Company, and said Teagarden et al., were permitted to go before the jury on the single issue of limitation. The issue was resolved by the jury in favor of the appellees, and the claims of the other litigants were removed as clouds from the title to the lands. From a judgment based on the jury’s verdict, this appeal is prosecuted.

McAnally et al. sued for three tracts of land; bne containing 123 acres, alleged to be situated in the north part of the south %, Sec. No. 8, Blk. R, W. E. Richardson surveys, Fisher county, Tex.; a second, containing 28 acres, situated likewise; and a third, containing 68½ acres, alleged to be situated in section 7 or 8 of said surveys. These plaintiffs deraigned title through J. B. Coleman and J. D. Davidson, who are shown to be the common source of title.

Bolton Smith et al. sought to recover the 68%. acres, alleging it to be the north 68½ acres of section 7, and they disclaimed as to any interest in any other lands. They de-raigned title through Smith and Drought.

Minnie Polk et al. made claims to the' 63½ acres, described it substantially as did Smith et al., and also disclaimed as to other lands. They deraigned title through Smith and Drought.

The .Texas Company derived its title through Mrs. Maggie A. Teagarden, a widow, but relied on a limitation title alleged to have been perfected by her and her predecessors in title.

The claims of the respective litigants arose .from facts and circumstances substantially these: J. B. Coleman and J. D. Davidson (common source) formerly owned sections 7 and 8, Blk. R, Richardson surveys, Fisher County, Tex. They conveyed the north ½ of section 8 to Mary E. Berg, and that tract is not here involved. September 14, 1889, Coleman and Davidson conveyed to A. A. Sanders “a part” of section 8, particularly described by metes and bounds, and stating that the tract contained 257.63 acres. At this point it is well to observe that Mrs. Teagarden, the Texas Company, and the other appellees, as to that matter, contend that Sanders purchased a particular tract of land, inclosed it, and maintained adverse possession of it during his occupancy, and transferred same to his successor or vendee, who maintained like possession, and who, in turn, passed same by legal transfer on down to the Texas Company. ¡June 25, 1919, A. A. Sanders, by deed with *949 like description as that in the deed to him, conveyed the land to W. A. Hill and Maggie A. Teagarden. June 25, 1921, W. A. Hill conveyed by deed, with like description, his interest in the land to Maggie A. Teagarden. May 10, 1928, Maggie A. Teagarden conveyed the land to the Texas Company. The description of the land in this conveyance differed from that in the preceding deeds, but is the one embodied in the judgment awarding the lands to the Texas Company et al. A survey of the land was evidently made, in view of the conveyance by Mrs. Teagarden to the Texas Company. In this last conveyance it is stated that the tract contained “257.65 acres,” as in previous deeds, but that statement is followed in this last deed by the added expression, “more or less, it being the intention of this deed to convey all land under fence now or heretofore enclosing the Maggie A. Tea-garden tract, whether on Sur. No. 8, Blk. ‘R,’ or other survey or surveys.”

McAnally et al. would limit the claims of the appellees to the lands embraced in the field notes of the original deed to Sanders, thereby leaving in Coleman and Davidson originally, and now in this group of appellants, the 123.7 acres out of the north part of the south ½ of section 8. They claim that the land was not conveyed as a tract or identity possibly containing an excess of acreage, but as strictly 257.63-acre tract.

The circumstances giving rise to the controversy over the 68'½ acres are more involved. December 31, 1888, Coleman and Davidson conveyed to J. M. Ojerholm the north % of section No. 7, describing the land by metes and bounds, and stating the tract to contain 320 acres. As part of the consideration for this conveyance, Ojerholm executed and delivered to Coleman and Davidson a series of vendor’s lien notes which passed in due course into the hands of Smith and Drought, a firm composed of Frances Smith and H. P. Drought. With these notes was transferred the lien securing the same, “including' * * * superior title” to the land the same as though the as-signee of the notes had been the “original owners and vendors of said land.” Thereafter Smith and Drought brought suit on the notes and foreclosed the vendor’s lien on the land, describing it as in the original deed from Coleman and Davidson to Ojerholm, and calling for 320 acres. On February 6, 1897, Smith and Drought obtained a judgment as prayed for on the notes, with foreclosure on said lands as described in the original deed. The judgment was appealed from, as may be seen in Smith v. Ojerholm (Tex. Civ. App.) 51 S. W. 37. In satisfaction of this judgment, Ojerholm, on September 23,1902, by warranty deed, sold and conveyed to Frances Smith and H. P. Drought his title and interest in the land, describing it as in the original deed to him of December 31, 1888. This conveyance (September 23, 1902) was made by Ojerholm after he had accepted from Coleman and Davidson on December 19, 1892, a deed of correction of the original deed (1888), and also after Coleman and Davidson had parted with the Ojerholm notes, lien, and superior title as recited in the transfer just noticed of March 31, 1890. The deed of correction recited it was executed to correct the field notes in the original deed, that it was not intended to affect the vendor’s lien in that instrument, and that there was a shortage of 57 acres in the original conveyance, and that Ojerholm was to have a proportional abatement in the purchase price of the land. The correction deed was filed for record F’ebruary 27, 1893, almost nine years prior to the time Ojerholm conveyed the land to Smith and Drought in satisfaction of the judgment.

In this group of facts originates the lawsuit over the 68½ acres, in so far as the three groups of appellants are concerned. In these circumstances lay the potential boundary suit, the issues in which were eliminated by the instructed verdict against Smith et al. and Polk et al.

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Bluebook (online)
32 S.W.2d 947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcanally-v-texas-co-texapp-1930.