McDonald v. Galt

173 S.W.2d 962, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 535
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 4, 1943
DocketNo. 14533.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 173 S.W.2d 962 (McDonald v. Galt) 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
McDonald v. Galt, 173 S.W.2d 962, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 535 (Tex. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinion

BROWN, Justice.

Ed E. Galt and Myra Galt were husband and wife and acquired as community property the 395 acres of land in controversy.

Ed Galt died intestate on November 30, 1925, and an administration on the estate being necessary, his said wife qualified as administratrix through proceedings in the Probate Court of Franklin County, on January 28, 1926.

The probate proceedings are now, and have been since last named date, pending in such court, in which the claim of National Life & Accident Insurance Co., a creditor of the community estate, was filed, approved and allowed by the court.

This claim consisted of a note in the principal sum of $4,000, secured by a deed of trust lien on the land in controversy.

Other creditors, namely, M. L. Edwards, J. M. Fleming, A. J. Patton, Mrs. T. A. Holder, Mrs. N. H. Long and the First National Bank of Mt. Vernon, Texas, likewise filed their claims against the said community estate and same were approved and allowed by the Probate Court.

Mrs. Myra Galt, as said administratrix, on December 7, 1935, filed in the said Probate Court an application for an order of the court authorizing her to sell the tract of land in controversy to the National Life & ■ Accident Insurance Company in satisfaction of its debt and lien, and such application recites that, in the opinion of the administratrix, the land is not worth more than the indebtedness held against it by said Insurance Company, that it would *964 be to the best interest of the estate for such sale to be made.

On the same day the application was made, the Probate Court made the order applied for and authorized the administra-trix to make the sale, reciting in such order that it appeared to the court there was no equity in the land for the benefit of the estate, and on December 19, 1935, the ad-ministratrix executed a deed to said Insurance Company and signed same, “Mrs. Ed E. Galt, Administratrix of the estate of Ed E. Galt, deceased”.

Early in 1936, Mary Galt (a daughter of Ed E. Galt) filed a petition for certiorari to the county court to have the proceedings of said court reviewed as to the order theretofore entered authorizing the admin-istratrix to convey the said lands to said Insurance Company, and attacked such order and sale, alleging particularly that the sale was made for a grossly inadequate price. She made the administratrix and said Insurance Company defendants.

Likewise, a similar proceeding was filed by Mrs. Margaret Moore (a daughter of Ed Galt), in which her husband, Fate Moore, joined, as well as did her brother, Tack P. Galt.

The said creditors, namely, M. L. Edwards, J. M. Fleming, A. J. Patton, Mrs. T. A. Holder, the surviving wife of T. A. Holder, deceased, Mrs. N. H. Long, a single woman, and the First National Bank of Mt. Vernon, also filed similar certiorari proceedings, and alleged that their claims against the estate, in the sum of approximately $45,000 would be lost unless the order authorizing the sale was set aside, and they prayed for judgment and for a cancellation of the deed executed to said Insurance Company.

These three causes properly lodged in the District Court were, by order of the court, consolidated.

It appears that the Insurance Company having executed a deed to one D. L. McDonald at or about the time the first certiorari proceeding was filed, the said creditors made him a defendant in their petition.

The administratrix answered, admitting the allegations of the petitioners for a writ of certiorari and excused herself of wrong doing by alleging that she was, in effect, overreached in the matter by a representative of the Insurance Company, who instigated the entire proceedings and prepared and furnished to her all the documents that she signed.

Whatever rights D. L. McDonald may have, or those of any of the other parties to the proceeding before us who claim or acquired any rights from either the Insurance Company or from D. L. McDonald, were all acquired at a time and under such circumstances as that they had notice of the attacks being made upon the Probate Court order and the deed made by the ad-ministratrix pursuant thereto.

In other words, there is no issue of innocent purchaser for value and without notice in the instant case, nor was there such in the former suit.

On the trial of the consolidated causes, a jury found that the land was sold for a grossly inadequate price, and the trial court rendered judgment setting aside and annulling the order of the Probate Court and the deed executed by the administra-trix to said Insurance Company and denied the application of the Insurance Company for an order authorizing the administra-trix to execute a deed to it in satisfaction of its debt.

D. L. McDonald and said Insurance Company, being aggrieved by the judgment, appealed and the cause was lodged in the Court of Civil Appeals for the Beaumont District, by an equalization order. Such Court of Civil Appeals, in an able opinion found in McDonald v. Edwards, 115 S.W.2d pages 762 to 769, found as a matter of fact that Galt’s estate was notoriously insolvent and that the said 395 acres constitute not only the bulk but almost all of the estate.

Because of procedural errors, on motion of appellees, the 'appeal of the Insurance Company was dismissed and the cause was disposed of on McDonald’s issues. The substance of the holdings of the Court of Civil Appeals is: That the 395 acres, being a part of the community estate, was subject to the payment of the community debts— both as to the deceased husband’s interest therein and as to the surviving wife’s interest ; that the heirs were vested with the lawful right to prosecute the certiorari proceedings because of their residuary interests, if any existed after payment of the debts; that the surviving wife could not convey her interest in such community property and thus take it out of the administration, with the debts of the estate unpaid; that when the order of the probate *965 court authorizing the administratrix to sell was rescinded, the title which found life only in the order necessarily failed.

The judgment of the trial court having been affirmed, McDonald procured a writ of error and our Supreme Court disposed of the writ by its opinion found in McDonald v. Edwards, 137 Tex. 423, 153 S.W.2d at pages 567 to 571.

The judgments of the district court and the Court of Civil Appeals were affirmed, in an opinion by Mr. Justice Sharp, these words being used at its conclusion: “As construed in this opinion, the judgments of the trial court and Court of Civil Appeals are affirmed.”

In this former suit much ado was made over whether or not the district court committed error in annulling the probate order and the deed executed in pursuance thereof, insofar as such conveyance affected the personal interest of the admin-istratrix, because, it is contended, the deed was effective to convey her individual interest, subject to the payment of the community debts.

In making clear its position in the premises, the Supreme Court said:

“The plaintiffs who instituted the suit sued as heirs and creditors of Ed E. Galt, deceased, and made Mrs.

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173 S.W.2d 962, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonald-v-galt-texapp-1943.