McGriff v. Hazle

201 S.W.2d 92, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 723
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 14, 1947
DocketNo. 2565
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 201 S.W.2d 92 (McGriff v. Hazle) 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
McGriff v. Hazle, 201 S.W.2d 92, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 723 (Tex. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

GRISSOM, Chief Jusice.

In 1940 Frances Pittman (now Frances Pittman Hazle) sued Ada Pearl Rogers (now Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman) for damages for alienating the affections of her husband, Troy Pittman, now the husband of Ada Pearl Rogers. The suit resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff, Frances Pittman. The judgment was never satisfied. Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman is the daughter of Roy Hill, deceased.' About March 1, 1946, Roy Hill was shot by his wife, Eula Bea Stone Hill. On March 1, 1946, he executed a will devising and bequeathing his property in equal portions to Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman, his daughter by a former marriage to Willie McGriff, and to Dennis Hill, the son of Roy Hill and Eula Bea Stone Hill. On the night of March 4, 1946, Roy Hill died. Willie McGriff is a resident of Archer County, and Troy Pittman and wife, Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman, reside in Young County. On the morning of March S, 1946, after the death of Roy Hill the preceding night, said parties were in Breckenridge, Stephens County, and Troy Pittman on said morning caused an attorney at Breckenridge to prepare a deed conveying all of the property that his wife, Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman, might acquire under the will of her father, Roy Hill, to her mother, Willie McGriff. The consideration recited in said deed was that Willie McGriff would by will give her daughter, Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman, all of her separate estate. The deed was executed the day it was prepared, and at 3 :50 P. M. on the same day, March 5, 1946, it was filed with the Clerk of the County Court of Stephens County for record. At the same moment an abstract of the judgment in favor of Frances Pittman (now Hazle) against Ada Pearl Rogers (now Pittman) was filed with said County Clerk.

On March 26, 1946, Frances Pittman Hazle joined by her husband, J. N. Hazle, filed suit in the District Court of Stephens County against Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman, Troy Pittman, and Willie McGriff alleging the rendition of the judgment in favor of .Frances Pittman against Ada Pearl Rogers; that on the 5th of March, 1946, an abstract of judgment was filed and recorded in the records of Stephens County, Texas, and entered upon the index; that when the defendants filed the quitclaim deed from Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman and husband to Willie McGriff, they had notice and knowledge of the filing of said abstract of judgment in Stephens County and that said judgment was unsatisfied; that the deed was executed with intent to hinder, delay, and defraud the creditors of Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman, including Frances Pittman Hazle. Plaintiffs alleged that the will was executed only four days prior to the date of the quitclaim deed. Plaintiffs alleged the ownership of certain land and personal property in Stephens County by Roy Hill at the time of the execution of said will and at the date of his death; that under said will, upon the death of Roy Hill, there passed to Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman a one-half interest [94]*94in and to all of said property, subject to the payment of the debts of Roy Hill and the expenses of probating his will; that the pretended consideration for said deed was a naked promise to do something in the future which Willie McGriff might or might not do; that said promise of Willie McGriff to execute a will bequeathing and devising her separate property to her daughter was a promise wholly unexecuted, and at the time of the execution of said deed, none of said defendants intended that said , promise would ever be performed ; that the recital in said deed of “Other valuable consideration” was fictitious; that no considei-ation passed from Willie McGriff and no valuable consideration was ever intended to pass; that said recitals of consideration were inserted in the deed for the fraudulent purpose of attempting to show a valuable consideration for the purpose of defrauding the creditors of Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman; and especially the plaintiff, Frances Pittman Hazle; that said conveyance was a voluntary one, that is, without consideration, and made for the sole purpose of defrauding Mrs. Pittman’s creditors, and especially Frances Pittman Hazle in the collection of her judgment, of which' purpose Willie McGriff was fully cognizant when the deed was executed; that Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman had no other property out of which said judgment could be satisfied; that unless the property fraudulently assigned to Willie McGriff could be reached and applied to the satisfaction of said judgment, the judgment must remain wholly unsatisfied; that at the time of said pretended conveyance Mrs. Hazle’s abstract of judgment was on file in the office of the County Cleric of Stephens County, and each of the defendants had “due and personal notice and knowledge of said judgment, and plaintiff by reason thereof, had acquired and has a preference lien on said lands and personal property.” Plaintiffs prayed that said conveyance be. adjudged fraudulent and void; that it be set aside and held for naught; that plaintiff’s judgment lien be foreclosed and the land sold.

Willie McGriff filed a plea of privilege to be sued in Archer County where she resides. Plaintiffs filed a controverting affidavit.in which it was.alleged that the execution and delivery of said deed and the aepeptance thereof, by Willie McGriff were acts of fraud committed by each of said defendants in Stephens County in an effort by the Pittmans to convey and Willie Mc-Griff to receive all of the property of Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman which she owned or would be entitled to receive under the terms of the will of her father, without leaving property subject to execution sufficient to satisfy Mrs. Hazle’s judgment; that said conveyance was intended to defraud and to place the property beyond the reach of the creditors of Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman; that said deed was a voluntary conveyance, void under Arts. 3996 and 3997; that the acts of the defendants in executing, delivering, accepting, and recording said deed were committed by defendants in Stephens County and were acts of fraud; that said deed was prepared, executed, and acknowledged in Stephens County and filed for record there; and that at said time defendants had notice of the abstract of judgment in favor of the plaintiffs which was “then on file in the office of the County Clerk of Stephens County”; that said court had venue under Exception 7, Art. 1995. Plaintiffs’ petition and the exhibits attached thereto were referred to and made a part of their controverting affidavit.

Plaintiffs further alleged in the controverting affidavit in detail that an abstract of judgment was filed with the County Clerk of Stephens County prior to the filing of the quitclaim deed to Willie Mc-Griff ; that said abstract of judgment and the filing thereof constituted a judgment lien on the property of Ada Pearl Rogers Pittman and that the deed to Willie Mc-Griff was subject to said judgment lien; that plaintiffs’ suit was not only a suit to set aside said conveyance, because fraudulent, but was a suit to establish a lien on the property of said defendant, to foreclose said lien and sell said property in Stephens County; and that the said court had venue thereof under Exception 12, Art. 1995. Plaintiffs also alleged that their suit was one to cancel, vacate, and set aside said deed to' real estate in Stephens County, said deed being fraudulent and void under [95]*95the provisions of Arts.

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Bluebook (online)
201 S.W.2d 92, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 723, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcgriff-v-hazle-texapp-1947.