McNeely v. Southwestern Settlement & Development Corp.

282 S.W.2d 932, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2097
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 7, 1955
DocketNo. 5053
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 282 S.W.2d 932 (McNeely v. Southwestern Settlement & Development Corp.) 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
McNeely v. Southwestern Settlement & Development Corp., 282 S.W.2d 932, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2097 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

WALKER, Justice.

Plaintiff, Southwestern Settlement & Development Corporation, sued George Mc-Neely in Trespass to Try Title to recover the surface estate in a tract of land, 31.28 acres in extent and a part of the BBB & C Rr. Co. Survey 120, Abstract 97, in Hardin County., McNeely answered and by cross action sued plaintiff and others for the title to the entire survey, less - a tract of 44.28 acres in the southeastern corner which had belonged to J. H. Me-[934]*934Neely and wife. There were other parties, but discussion of them and of the pleadings pertaining to them and discussion of the cross defendants’ pleadings may be omitted. The cause was tried to a jury, and the trial court at the close of the evidence withdrew the case from the jury and rendered judgment in behalf of plaintiff and cross defendants that George McNeely take nothing as to his cross action, and that plaintiff have title to the surface estate and said cross defendants have title to the mineral estate, in the survey less the J. H. McNeely tract of 44.28 acres. From this judgment George McNeely has appealed.

George McNeely now claims title only to the 31.28 acre tract described in the amended petition, admitting that he showed no title to any other land on the survey, and his claim of title to the 31.28 acres is based on adverse possession by himself which, he says,, complied with the ten year statute, Art. 5510, R.S.1925. He says that there is evidence that in April, May and June of 1937, he enclosed the 31.28 acre tract by a fence; that about five acres of this tract was then or a little later separately enclosed within this fence by a cross fence; that in 1937 he cultivated this five acres as a field and used the rest of-the 31.28acres-as a pasture; and that for more than ten consecutive years thereafter he had exclusive and adverse possession of the 31.28acre tract, lawfully maintaining the fence about it and using it as a pasture and sometimes cultivating the field just mentioned; and that the issue of title to the 31.28acre tract by adverse possession ought to have been submitted to the jury. The evidence pertaining to the question of title by adverse possession supports' this contention unless one or more of the appellees’ counterpoints is valid, and we proceed, therefore, to discussion of these counterpoints.

Under Counterpoint 1 appellees contend that George McNeely was estopped to claim title by adverse possession because, as a matter of law, he entered and occupied the 31.28acre tract as a tenant and never repudiated the tenancy.

George McNeely is-a son of J. H. Mc-Neely, whom we have mentioned above, and the 44.28 acre tract in the southeastern corner of the survey which we have referred to as the property of J. H. McNeely and wife was conveyed to J. H. McNeely in 1904. J. H. McNeely established his home on this tract prior to the birth of George McNeely in 1906, and he and his wife resided on this tract until his death in February, 1937. He died intestate, and his widow, the mother of George McNeely, survived him and succeeded to her community one half of the 44.28 acre tract and the title to the other one half of this land and of J. H. McNeely’s estate vested in the heirs of J. H. McNeely under the statutes of descent and distribution. One of these heirs was George McNeely; and a few days after his father’s death, he and his family established their residence in his parents’ home, with his mother. There is evidence that afterward, in April, May and June of 1937, George McNeely did enclose the 31.28 acre tract with a fence and began to use it for a pasture and to cultivate a part of it as we have stated. His mother continued to reside with him and his family for at least a part of the time when, he said, he was erecting the fence around the 31.28 acre tract in suit, and thereafter she resided with him from time to time, spending a part of her time with him and part with other children of hers. The 31.28 acre tract adjoins the J. H. Mc-Neely 44.28.acre tract at the northwestern corner and, from that corner, parts of the western and northern lines of the J. H. McNeely tract; and Mrs. J. H. McNeely must have known, at least, that George Mc-Neely was making some use of the 31.28 acres in suit. There is no evidence that she ever objected to this and none that she affirmatively authorized it. At most, the evidence shows that she acquiesced in it.

During J. H. McNeely’s lifetime and while he resided on the 44.28 acres, he enclosed a part of the survey outside of his 44.28acres and used this inclosure as a. pasture, and the 31.28 acre tract in suit is a part of this pasture. J. H. McNeely and [935]*935wife, on December 6, 1935, executed an acknowledgment of tenancy in behalf of the owners which covered all of the survey except their own 44.28 ' acres, and in this agreement declared that they then held possession of said property as tenants of the said owners, and the agreement authorized them to keep possession of the property and to use it for pasturage until their landlords requested them to leave the property.

This agreement created a simple tenancy at will. Appellees say that George McNeely inherited from his father a right under this agreement to enter and occupy the 31.28 acres in suit and that the possession claimed by him must be treated as only a continuance of the original tenancy under the rule stated in Flanagan v. Pearson, 61 Tex. 302; Juneman v. Franklin, 67 Tex. 411, 3 S.W. 562; Benskin v. Barksdale, Tex.Com.App., 246 S.W. 360; W. T. Carter & Bro. v. Collins, Tex.Civ.App., 192 S.W. 316, and similar cases.

Counterpoint 1 is overruled. The tenancy being only at will, the rights ■of J. H. McNeely ended at his death and ■did not pass to his heirs under the statutes <®f ‘descent and distribution. Lea v. Hernandez, 10 Tex. 137; Carter v. Town of La Grange, 60 Tex. 636, at page 639. The tenancy must be proved as a matter of law ⅛® support the judgment and there is evidence that George McNeely did not intend or purport to enter or to occupy the 31.28 •acres in suit under his father’s right of possession. He testified that he did not know that his father and mother had signed ;an acknowledgment of tenancy and did not know that they considered themselves ⅛® he tenants. As we have stated, there is nothing to show that his mother gave him permission to occupy the land in suit, and it may be inferred from his testimony that 'he did not act by virtue of permission from any one. It was at least not proved as a matter of law that he did. - While his mother must be-taken to have known what he actually did, her unilateral acquiescence in his conduct could not make him a tenant. Then, there is evidence that his father’s ■inclosure on the survey had ceased to exist and that his father’s pasture had not been in use for more- than a year before his father died, and the 31.28 acre tract in suit is only a part of the pasture of George McNeely’s father. The jury could have found that George McNeely’s entry and possession were new and separate and distinct from those of his father.

Counterpoint 2 is that George Mc-Neely’s claim to the land in suit “was not of such unequivocal notoriety as to charge the owners — with notice thereof.” Most of the circumstances which appellees offer in support of this counterpoint tend only to raise questions of fact for the jury and need not be discussed. Others are referred to under counterpoints following.

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Bluebook (online)
282 S.W.2d 932, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2097, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcneely-v-southwestern-settlement-development-corp-texapp-1955.