Meade v. Jones

35 S.W. 350, 13 Tex. Civ. App. 320, 1896 Tex. App. LEXIS 70
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 15, 1896
DocketNo. 1520.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 35 S.W. 350 (Meade v. Jones) 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
Meade v. Jones, 35 S.W. 350, 13 Tex. Civ. App. 320, 1896 Tex. App. LEXIS 70 (Tex. Ct. App. 1896).

Opinion

COLLARD, Associate Justice.

— We adopt in part the statement of the case as made by appellee. On December 30, 1889, G. P. Meade owned the S. A. & M. G. Ry. Co. survey No. 2, in Clay County, which was located north of survey No. 55, the H. T. & B. R. R. Co. survey, *323 which belonged then and now belongs to plaintiff below in this suit. G. P. Meade, desiring to place his land on the market, had survey No. 2 surveyed, but the surveyor by mistake ran over on survey No. 55, on its north side, seventy-two varas, and plowed a furrow on the south line of the survey so surveyed, seventy-two varas south of the north line of survey No. 55. Meade sold to appellee Jones, the east 174 acres of his survey, pointing out to him the furrow as the south line, all the parties believing at the time that the furrow was the true south line, but the deed executed to Jones described the 174 acres as the east 174 acres of survey No. 2, which did not in fact by the calls, correctly followed, include the strip seventy-two varas wide north of the furrow. The deed of Meade contained covenant of general warranty of title.

On August 19, 1892, M, J. Thompkins, P. Ragan and A. D. Good-enough, as guardians of the estate of Dora Boone, Hugh Boone and Thomas H. Boone, brought this suit in trespass to try title for that part of survey No. 55 included in Meade’s deed to Jones, the strip on the south side seventy-two varas wide and 860 varas long, against E. S. Cook. T. W. and R. E. Warring, A. F. Fassett, George E. Martin, J. H. Jones, Penn Ralls, J. O. Boone and Franklin Cook; the suit being for other land against all the defendants other than Jones, who alone claimed the said strip.

Jones answered September 10, 1892, disclaiming title to the strip, setting up the warranty of Meade, a resident citizen of Tarrant County, Texas, impleading him as warrantor to defend his title, and praying for judgment over against him for the value of the strip of land, and damages on his warranty in case plaintiff should recover the land.

Meade answered, by general denial, the pleadings of his warrantee March 23, 1893.

March 12, 1894, defendant Jones filed his second amended answer, alleging the facts with more particularity, disclaiming the land sued for, and setting up that Meade was estopped from denying that the land in controversy was embraced in the deed, particularly alleging the facts of estoppel, but he did not ask that the deed be corrected or reformed to include the land in controversy.

March 23, 1894, Meade filed a plea to the jurisdiction over his person, alleging his residence in Tarrant County. This plea was by the court overruled, Meade excepting.

March 23, 1894, the court granted motion to sever into several suits, according to the interests of the defendants claiming different portions of the land sued for, thus leaving Jones and Meade the only parties defendant in this branch of the suit. The case was tried without a jury October 9, 1894, and judgment was rendered for plaintiff, and over against Meade on his warranty in favor of Jones, for $84, from which Meade has appealed.

There was an agreement of the parties filed September 28, 1894, as follows:

“1. G. P. Meade by his attorney confesses that plaintiff in this suit *324 is entitled to recover the land as set out in the disclaimer of the defendant J. H. Jones, as the same is set out in the second amended answer of said defendant herein, filed on March 12, 1894, and that said defendant has lost or will lose same in this suit.
“2. The said G-. P. Meade by his attorney confesses all the facts as alleged in the second amended answer of said defendant.”

We make the second amended answer of defendant referred to in the-foregoing agreement and adopt the same as part of the statement and findings of fact by this court, in so far as facts are alleged therein.

Opinion. — 1. There was no error in the holding of the court below that it had jurisdiction over defendant Gr. P. Meade, brought into the suit by his warrantor. Meade had, prior to his plea to the jurisdiction, answered to the merits, thus submitting to the jurisdiction of the court and waiving his privilege. His plea was not in due order of pleading and was properly overruled. Campbell v. Wilson, 6 Texas, 379; Burnley v. Cook, 13 Texas, 586; Insurance Co. v. Ray, 50 Texas, 517; Watson v. Baker, 67 Texas, 48.

Jones being sued for land sold to him by Meade had the right to implead the latter on his warranty though the suit was in a county other than his residence. Rev. Stats., 4788; McCreary v. Douglas, 5 Texas Civ. App., 494; Johns v. Hardin, 81 Texas, 37; 75 Texas, 484. This would be the right of the warrantee though the amount of the claim under the warranty should be less than $500, the least amount of the District Court’s jurisdiction in a suit on a money demand. We do not agree with appellant that the second amended answer of defendant Jones, setting up mutual mistake of the .parties as to the location of the land described in his deed from Meade and estoppel, set up a new cause of action against Meade. It only averred more particularly and definitely the facts of Meade’s liability on his warranty that had before been alleged. Thouvenin v. Lea, 26 Texas, 615. The amendment only enlarged the averments of his liability on the warranty. Texas Elevator Co. v. Mitchell, 78 Texas, 67, and authorities cited.

2. Appellant contends that the court erred in rendering judgment against him, for the reason that the proof shows that Meade deeded by warranty deed 174 acres of land, and the agreement was that he was to deed 174 acres of land, and the land recovered of Jones is not a part of the land conveyed by Meade by the deed, and the land recovered of Jones is a part of the land intended to have been conveyed by Meade, but which was not, and Jones now has 174 acres of land which has never been lost to him, and the court did not compel Jones to return to Meade an amount of land equal to the amount of land for which he recovered on the warranty.

The second amended answer of defendant Jones, which is admitted to be true, alleges that the 174 acres of land was sold to him by Meade by the acre at $6 per acre, which amount was then fully paid in cash in defendant’s negotiable interest-bearing notes, which have been long *325 since paid off and discharged; that prior to the sale and for the purpose of the sale, Meade’s agent caused the 174 acres of land to be located and the lines and corners to be marked and designated on the ground by one C. B. Patterson, a surveyor then residing in Clay County; that the 174 acres as it was located on the ground by the surveyor, and the four lines thereof as fixed and located on the ground, were marked, — the corners by stones duly set up and marked, and established for and to designate such corners, and the lines by furrows plowed to and from said corners. That in offering the land for sale the said Meade, his agents and servants, adopted the boundaries thereof as they had been surveyed and established on the ground by said surveyor as the true boundaries of the east 174 acres of said survey No. 2.

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Bluebook (online)
35 S.W. 350, 13 Tex. Civ. App. 320, 1896 Tex. App. LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meade-v-jones-texapp-1896.