McWilliams v. Adoue

51 S.W.2d 1104, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 680
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 23, 1932
DocketNo. 2688.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 51 S.W.2d 1104 (McWilliams v. Adoue) 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
McWilliams v. Adoue, 51 S.W.2d 1104, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 680 (Tex. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinions

WALTHALL, J.

On November 26, 1925, W. SJ- McWilliams executed and delivered to J. B. Adoue three certain promissory notes, the first two for $1,250 each and the third for $500, all due and payable three years after date, and to secure the payment of these notes W. S. Mc-Williams executed to George Miller, as trustee, a deed of trust upon a tract of land (a house and lot) situated on Main street in the city of Dallas, Tex., sufficiently described, and referred to in the evidence as the Main street property. The notes themselves and in the deed of trust are described and referred to as renewal and extension notes of like notes secured by deed of trust of May' 26, 1923. None of the original notes, nor the extended and renewal notes, nor either of the deeds of trust, were signed by Mrs. Ethel Lydia Mc-Williams. The extension and renewal notes each refer to the deed of trust, recite that it is one of a series of three similar notes, and that a failure to perform any of the agreements contained in the deed of trust, at the election of the holder of all or any one of the series of notes, shall mature the notes and be subject to foreclosure proceedings under the deed of trust. The notes also provide for payment of attorney fees.

The deed of trust of November 26,1925, provides! “That failure to pay said note or any installment of interest on said note when due, or to keep and perform any covenant or agreement in this deed contained, shall at the election of the holder or holders of said notes at once mature same with all interest accrued; that if said note.is placed in the hands of an attorney for collection, 10 peí-cent additional on the full amount due shall be paid as attorney’s fees.”

The deed of trust covenants that McWil- ’ liams has good title to the property conveyed, has the right to convey same, that the property conveyed is clear and free of any and all liens and incumbrances “except that taken up by the proceeds of this loan,” and that the property “is not any part of my business or residence homestead, and is not in any way occupied, used or enjoyed as such; that I will pay all taxes, assessments and charges now due or which may become due on said premises, or chargeable against said promissory notes or this deed of trust before the same shall become delinquent (then some provision about insurance, etc., not involved here); and if I fail to do so, the holder of said note may pay the same, and I will, on demand, repay to the legal holder or holders of said notes, or trustee all sums of money they may advance to satisfy any taxes, assessments, insurance premiums and charges of whatever nature chargeable against said premises or against said notes, or this deed of trust, with 10 per cent interest per annum from date of ad *1105 vancement, all said advancements to be a lien on the property hereby conveyed.”

On April 25, 1927, the state of Texas filed suit in the district court of Dallas county against W. S. McWilliams, as owner, and J. B. Adoue, Jr., and W. O. Hoffman, as valid lienholders on the property involved here, for the taxes for the year 1924, alleging same to be due and unpaid, and asserting a superior lien on said property for the payment of said taxes, penalties, and interest from January 1, 1925.

W. S. McWilliams failed to answer in the tax suit; J. B. Adoue, Jr., filed answer in the nature of a cross-action against W. S. Mc-Williams setting up the making of said notes and deed of trust, default in the payment of the notes, and asked for judgment and a foreclosure of the deed of trust lien on the property. Upon receiving citation in the cross-action, W.- S. McWilliams opened negotiations with Adoue and his attorneys for the purpose of securing dismissal of Adoue’s cross-action. The negotiations resulted in an agreement substantially to the effect that if McWilliams would pay the taxes, penalties, interest, and court costs due the state, and pay Adoue’s attorneys $50, Adoue would dismiss his cross-action. McWilliams paid the taxes, penalties, court costs, and interest due the state, but did not pay the $50 attorney fees. Upon the payment of the taxes, penalties, costs, and interest due the state, the court entered an order on June 6, 1929, dismissing the tax suit, stating the payment of ■the taxes and court costs in full, and said nothing in the order as to the retention or pendency of the cross-action. Upon inquiry McWilliams learned that the tax suit had been dismissed, and paid no further attention to it.

On October 18,1927, without further actual notice, negotiations, or knowledge of Mc-Williams of anything happening in the tax suit or Adoue’s cross-action, Adoue took judgment against McWilliams on the two $1,250, aggregating the sum of $3,056.76 and costs, with a foreclosure of the deed of trust lien upon the property in controversy.

On September 20, 1927, the plaintiff in this suit, Mrs. Ethel Lydia McWilliams, joined by her husband, W. S. McWilliams, filed this suit against J. B. Adoue, setting up the execution •of said three notes to Adoue and the execution of said deeds of trust on said property by W. S. McWilliams, and the recording of same; she alleged that when the deeds of trust were made said property was then lived in and occupied, used, and maintained as a homestead of herself and her husband and that same were not executed by her, Mrs. Ethel Lydia McWilliams, and that she did not know until shortly before this suit of the deed of trust, and that upon discovery of such deed of trust she filed this suit. She alleged that the deed of trust cast a cloud upon said homestead property, and she asked that it be removed, and for damages. Adoue, after pleading matters we need not state, set up that the money loaned W. S. McWilliams for which said notes were given went to discharge the payment of certain vendor’s lien notes given •by W. S. McWilliams to W. ,0. Hoffman in the purchase of said property, and in the alternative that at the request of W. S. Mc-Williams said money was borrowed to be used for the payment of said Hoffman notes.

On May 10,1928, W. S. McWilliams filed his third amended original petition setting up the facts as heretofore stated, that is, the recovery of judgment by Adoue on his cross-action, against W. S. McWilliams on October 18, 1927; that said judgment was procured by fraud, stating the grounds to. be, briefly, Adoue’s answer by cross-action as to the execution of said notes and deed of trust; the agreement to dismiss the cross-action on the payment of the taxes, etc., and his reliance ■thereon, and that so relying he paid no further •attention thereto until March, 1928, when he discovered the judgment on the cross-action; that the term of court had expired and it was too late to have the judgment set aside by the trial court; the filing of his suit to remove cloud from title before the judgment on Adoue’s cross-action was entered, and some matters which he asserts caused him to delay said suit and which he says was a fraud upon the court and plaintiff.

W. S. McWilliams then pleaded in the nature of a bill of review, restating some of the matters set out above, alleged that the deeds of trust were void for the reason that at the time the deeds of trust were executed the property was the homestead of himself and wife; that the notes sued on were not a renewal of any vendor’s- lien notes and, if they were, they were renewed without the knowledge or consent of his wife, Ethel Lydia Mc-Williams.

On May 25, 1931, Ethel Lydia McWilliams intervened in the suit. Her petition is in the nature of a bill of review.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 S.W.2d 1104, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 680, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcwilliams-v-adoue-texapp-1932.