McLaren v. Beard

811 S.W.2d 564, 34 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 739, 1991 Tex. LEXIS 78, 1991 WL 105556
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJune 19, 1991
DocketD-0714
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 811 S.W.2d 564 (McLaren v. Beard) 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
McLaren v. Beard, 811 S.W.2d 564, 34 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 739, 1991 Tex. LEXIS 78, 1991 WL 105556 (Tex. 1991).

Opinions

OPINION

GONZALEZ, Justice.

This is a trespass to try title suit. The parties hold record title to abutting tracts of land through a partition deed executed by Col. William C. (Claude) Washington, Walter H. Washington, Sr.,1 and others. Walter’s branch of the family claims title to a subtract of the land through adverse possession under the ten-year statute of limitations. A jury found in favor of Walter’s family and judgment was rendered awarding them title to the disputed tract. At issue is whether the trial court should have instructed the jury that Walter’s family was required to repudiate the partition deed before the running of the limitations period could commence. The court of appeals held that the trial court erred in failing to give such an instruction and remanded the cause to the trial court for a new trial. 798 S.W.2d 597. Because we hold that the trial court’s instructions on the statutory elements of adverse possession were sufficient, we reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The 22.25-acre tract at issue is part of a 603-acre tract located in Travis County, originally owned by Stark Washington, who died in 1937. By his will, he devised a one-fourth interest in his estate, which included the 603-acre tract, to each of his four children, two of whom were Col. William C. (Claude) Washington and Walter H. Washington, Sr.

After initially holding the land as coten-ants, Stark’s children partitioned it in 1945 by a deed conveying “Tract A” to Claude and “Tract B” to Walter as shown in the following diagram.

[566]*566[[Image here]]

The interests received by the other two children are not at issue here.

At the time of the partition, only part of the boundary between Tracts A and B was fenced. Another fence cut across the southern part of Tract A to meet the boundary fence. The effect of this latter fence was to separate off a 22.25-acre portion of Tract A, which was enclosed with Tract B and separated by fence from the remainder of Tract A.

Neither Walter nor Claude had used or occupied the two tracts prior to the execution of the partition deed. In 1947, two years after the partitioning, Walter Washington and his family built and occupied a [567]*567house on Tract B. Walter’s widow, Dixie, and his daughter, Charlotte Washington McLaren, testified that their family believed that the fence line constituted the boundary line of their property and that they always treated the entire enclosed tract as their own. They testified that, prior to Walter’s death in 1967, the family lived on and farmed this land, grazing cattle, planting trees, picking pecans, playing, and hunting on the enclosed tract. After Walter’s death, the family returned to Austin and leased the land to tenants who continued to use the entire enclosed tract for farming and ranching.

Claude Washington and his family moved to Austin in 1945. Claude never lived on Tract A, but he did run a farming and ranching operation there either personally or through tenants and often visited the land. The land was used to raise cattle and hay, and at times, hay was stored in one or more structures located on the 22.25-acre tract. Both families repaired the fences when needed.

In 1987, Claude’s family decided they wanted to sell Tract A and asked Walter’s family to remove their property from the 22.25-acre portion. Walter’s family refused and notified Claude’s family that they claimed title to the 22.25-acre tract by adverse possession. In response, Claude’s family had a fence built along the boundary between the two tracts. Walter’s family then instituted the present suit, alleging title by limitations and dispossession as a result of the fence. After the close of the evidence, Claude’s family requested that the jury be instructed that, before they could find that Walter’s family was in adverse possession of the property, they had to find that the family repudiated the partition deed and gave notice of such repudiation to Claude and his family. The district court instructed the jury on the statutory elements of adverse possession and overruled Claude’s family’s objections to the jury charge and refused the requested instructions. The jury found in favor of Walter’s family and judgment was rendered awarding them title to the disputed tract.

Claude’s family appealed, objecting to the trial court’s failure to submit their requested jury instructions on repudiation and notice, but not challenging the legal or factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury verdict.2 The court of appeals reversed the judgment and remanded for a new trial, holding that, under the facts of this case, it was reversible error to refuse to give the instructions. 798 S.W.2d at 602. The court of appeals reasoned that, since Walter originally conveyed the 22.25-acre tract to Claude by partition deed, Walter was required to repudiate this deed and give notice thereof before his possession of the disputed tract became adverse and that the jury should have been so instructed. Id. at 601.

The complaint made by Walter’s family requires a two-part analysis: First, we must determine under what circumstances repudiation and notice are required before adverse possession can commence. Second, we must decide whether, if repudiation and notice are required, the trial court must instruct the jury as to these requirements.

Jury Question No. 1 asked whether Walter Washington and his family maintained “exclusive, peaceable and adverse possession of the land in question, cultivating, using or enjoying the same continuously for any period of ten (10) consecutive years prior to August 25, 1987.” The court gave instructions as to the meaning of “exclusive possession,” “peaceable possession,” and “adverse possession.” “Adverse possession” was defined as “actual and visible [568]*568appropriation of real property, commenced and continued under a claim of right that is inconsistent with and is hostile to the claim of another person.” The language of the jury question and the definition of “adverse possession” track the relevant statutory provisions. See Tex.Civ.Prac. & Rem.Code §§ 16.021(1), 16.026(a).3

In pertinent part, the instructions requested by Claude’s family read as follows:

(1) You are instructed that before you may find that [Walter’s family was] in adverse possession of the disputed property you must find from a preponderance of the evidence that either Walter Washington or [his wife] repudiated the title that they granted to [Claude Washington] in the partition deed.
(2) You are instructed that before you may find that [Walter’s family was] in adverse possession of the disputed property you must find from a preponderance of the evidence that either Walter Washington or [his wife] gave actual notice of that repudiation, if any, to [Claude Washington or to his family], or that after such repudiation, if any, her possession was of such unequivocal notoriety that [Claude Washington or his family] would be presumed to have had notice thereof.

The doctrine of repudiation and notice has been applied in circumstances where a grantor remains in possession of land after the execution of a deed conveying the land to another and then later attempts to claim title to the conveyed land by adverse possession.

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Bluebook (online)
811 S.W.2d 564, 34 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 739, 1991 Tex. LEXIS 78, 1991 WL 105556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mclaren-v-beard-tex-1991.