Means v. United Fidelity Life Insurance Co.

550 S.W.2d 302, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1177, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 2788
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 23, 1977
Docket6551
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 550 S.W.2d 302 (Means v. United Fidelity Life Insurance Co.) 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
Means v. United Fidelity Life Insurance Co., 550 S.W.2d 302, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1177, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 2788 (Tex. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

OPINION

WARD, Justice.

The Plaintiffs, Richard W. Means and wife, Ida G. Means, filed suit against Defendants, United Fidelity Life Insurance Company, Manuel DeBusk, and R. D. Skel-ton, Trustee, to recover the title and possession of an alleged 200-acre rural homestead, to declare the invalidity of two trustee’s sales insofar as they might affect the 200-acre homestead, to declare the invalidity of two security agreements purporting to cover certain horses and personal property, and to recover certain amounts as actual and exemplary damages. United Fidelity Life Insurance Company and Manuel DeBusk, by cross-action, sought to recover title and possession of three tracts of land, one of which included the 200-acre disputed homestead, monetary judgment, and foreclosure of security interest in the horses and personal property. After a jury trial, where special issues were answered in favor of all Defendants and Cross-Plaintiffs, judgment was entered that the Plaintiffs take nothing and that the Cross-Plaintiffs recover on their claims. Plaintiffs appeal and we affirm.

The facts regarding the dispute between the Plaintiffs and United Fidelity Life Insurance Company will be discussed first. *305 The surfaces of three tracts of land were acquired by the Plaintiffs and are involved in the suit, and they are referred to on certain of the exhibits as tracts I, I A, and II. Tract I contains 154.77 acres, and tract IA contains 324 acres, and both are a portion of Survey 20 and were deeded to the Plaintiffs by Mr. Means’ father. No claim of homestead was asserted by the Plaintiffs at this trial as to any portion of these two tracts.

The claim of the alleged 200-acre rural homestead was made as to tract II. This tract II, which lies in a portion of section 19, contains 322.59 acres and was conveyed on March 8, 1969, to the Plaintiffs. The grantors in that deed retained a vendor’s lien, together with a deed of trust lien, to secure the balance of $7,000.00 owed on the purchase price, that being evidenced by a promissory note of even date in said amount and signed by the Plaintiffs. In May, 1971, this note, together with the vendor’s lien and deed of trust liens, was sold and assigned by those original grantors to the First Savings and Loan Association of Odessa, the sum of $6,383.00 being still owed on the note at the time of this transfer.

During the next two years, the Plaintiffs executed three successive mechanic’s lien notes in the amounts of $4,356.00, $7,878.96, and $18,000.00, each being for the purpose of erecting permanent improvements on tract II, and all being secured by respective mechanic’s and materialman’s liens on tract II. All of these notes and liens were eventually transferred to the First Savings and Loan Association of Odessa, where on March 17,1972, a new extension and renewal note was executed in the principal amount of $25,000.00 by the Plaintiffs, the same being secured by a deed of trust which was made in renewal and extension of all of the four previous liens secured by tract II and being additionally secured by tracts I and IA. The validity of this $25,-000.00 indebtedness and its security has not been questioned by the Plaintiffs.

The Plaintiffs next applied to First City Mortgage Company of Dallas for a new loan and proposed to mortgage all of the real estate. In preparing for the loan, they filed of record a designation of their homestead as being on a 1-acre tract containing a stucco house on tract IA, although the evidence was to the effect that they had never moved from their homestead located in the south portion of tract II. Regardless, a loan of $75,000.00 was secured, the promissory note in that amount being executed July 20, 1972. Although this note was supposed to be secured by deed of trust on all three tracts excluding the so-called 1-acre homestead designation on tract IA, all of tract IA was excluded by mistake from the deed of trust. However, tracts I and II were in the deed of trust, and it was this note of $75,000.00 and this deed of trust lien which were thereafter transferred to the Defendant, United Fidelity Life Insurance Company. As shown by the admissions of the Plaintiff Means and the closing statement made at the time of this last loan, the sum of $26,057.02 was advanced from the proceeds of the loan at the request of the Plaintiffs to pay the balance of principal and interest then owing on the $25,000.00 note held by the First Savings and Loan Association of Odessa. After this payment, and after the execution of the deed of trust of $75,000.00, First Savings apparently did not transfer its liens but executed a release, though this is not of record.

Default thereafter occurred in the payment of the $75,000.00 note, as no payment was ever made thereon, and on May 7,1974, Lawrence L. Barber, Jr., acting as substitute trustee and under the terms of the deed of trust, sold the said tracts I and II at trustee’s sale to the Defendant, United Fidelity Life Insurance Company, at their authorized bid of $56,250.00.

No special issues were submitted to the jury regarding any of the facts between the Plaintiffs and United Fidelity, except the jury did determine that the reasonable cash market value of all the land on May 7,1974, was $63,000.00. However, in its judgment, the trial Court made certain findings which were to the effect that: (1) the rural home *306 stead of the Plaintiffs was situated on the southwest 200 acres of tract II on July 20, 1972; (2) the Defendant, United Fidelity Life Insurance Company, is subrogated to all the rights of the First Savings and Loan Association of Odessa by reason of the payment to such Association of the sum of $26,057.02 on July 20, 1972, at the special instance and request of the Plaintiffs, and is subrogated to the valid lien against the southwest 200 acres in tract II; (3) on July 20, 1972, tract IA was omitted from the deed of trust executed by the Plaintiffs for the benefit of the Defendant, United Fidelity Life Insurance Company, due to a unilateral mistake on the part of United Fidelity Life Insurance Company; (4) the foreclosure of tracts I and II had by Lawrence L. Barber, Jr., substitute trustee, and sold to the Defendant, United Fidelity Life Insurance Company, was a valid foreclosure, and the Plaintiffs are entitled to a credit of $56,250.00 bid at such sale; and (5) on May 7, 1974, the Plaintiffs were indebted to the Defendant, United Fidelity, on the note in the principal sum of $75,000.00, interest in the amount of $12,488.85, attorney’s fees in the amount of $8,748.88, for a total of $96,-237.73, less the credit of $56,250.00, leaving a balance due on May 7, 1974, in the amount of $39,987.73, with interest on said balance due from May 7,1974, to January 2, 1976, of $6,621.55.

The decretal portion of the judgment as far as United Fidelity Life is concerned was to the effect that: (1) Plaintiffs take nothing; (2) the Cross-Plaintiff, United Fidelity Life Insurance Company, recover title and possession of tracts I and II, which would include the title and possession of the claimed homestead; and (3) the Cross-Plaintiff, United Fidelity Life Insurance Company, have judgment against the Cross-Defendants, Mr. and Mrs. Means, in the sum of $37,860.40, with interest from the date of judgment of January 19, 1976, at the rate of eight percent per annum, attorney’s fees in the amount of $8,748.88, and for costs of suit.

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Bluebook (online)
550 S.W.2d 302, 21 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1177, 1977 Tex. App. LEXIS 2788, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/means-v-united-fidelity-life-insurance-co-texapp-1977.