Minchen v. Hirsch

295 S.W.2d 529, 6 Oil & Gas Rep. 1364, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1934
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 20, 1956
Docket6044
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 295 S.W.2d 529 (Minchen v. Hirsch) 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
Minchen v. Hirsch, 295 S.W.2d 529, 6 Oil & Gas Rep. 1364, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1934 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

R. L. MURRAY, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment in the district court of Brazoria County, decreeing the respective mineral interests of the appellants and the various appellees in and under a tract of land in Brazoria County. The case was submitted in the trial court without a jury and the parties entered into various stipulations of fact and agreed that the cause should be decided and judgment entered according to the construction given by the court to three disputed instruments.

The instruments to be construed were as follows:

(1) Deed of Trust from Dave F. Bryan to Henry James, Trustee for Southern Mortgage Company, dated June 17, 1924;

(2) a supplemental instrument involving said deed of trust, executed by J. L. Iiiers, President of Southern Mortgage Company, dated May 16, 1928;

(3)a royalty deed from Dave F. Bryan et al. to S. Minchen, dated July 10, 1928.

The trial court held in its judgment that the deed of trust and supplemental instrument (Nos. 1 and 2 above) granted to the trustee for Southern Mortgage Company, in trust, an undivided %th mineral interest in and under said land, and further held that the mineral interest or royalty deed (No. 3 above) conveyed to Minchen an undivided %4th mineral royalty in, on and under said tract of land and rendered judgment accordingly. The parties had entered into an agreement as to what interest each party would have under each alternative construction of these instruments, and the court rendered judgment in accordance with such agreement under the court’s construction of the three written instruments.

S. Minchen has appealed from said judgment, only as to the court’s construction of the royalty deed from Bryan to Minchen, and says that the instrument should be construed to convey to him an undivided %eth fee royalty interest in and under the tract in question.

Appellants Maurice Hirsch et al. appealed only from that portion of the judgment which construed the deed of trust and the subsequent instrument relating thereto as passing title only to the %th undivided interest and say that such instrument should be construed as conveying “one-half of what the grantor Bryan owned, to-wit, ®%92nds.”

Appellees W. Stewart Boyle et al., and appellees Addie Damon et al., contend that the judgment in its entirety should be affirmed.

The parties stipulated as to the following instruments which affect title to the land in question: This stipulation began with deeds from the immediate grantors to the common source of title, Dave F. Bryan, to whom was conveyed a total undivided 3%eths mineral interest in the tract in question. After acquiring this undivided 3%eths *531 mineral interest, Dave F. Bryan executed a deed of trust to Henry James, Trustee for Southern Mortgage Company, on June 17, 1924, which deed of trust covers a mineral interest, the extent of which is in dispute in this lawsuit. On February 9, 1926, Dave F. Bryan granted a total of an undivided ^éeths mineral interest to Oscar James by two separate deeds, leaving to Bryan an undivided 1%eths mineral interest. On May 16, 1928, a supplemental instrument having to do with the above mentioned deed of trust was executed by J. L. Hiers, President for the Southern Mortgage Company, and this instrument was filed for record on July 16, 1928. The construction of this instrument with the above mentioned deed of trust is in dispute in this lawsuit. On July 10, 1928, Dave F. Bryan (and his sister, Ludie J. Bryan, who need not be considered further, since there is no showing she had any interest in the property), made a conveyance of royalty to the plaintiff, S. Minchen, the extent of interest conveyed being in dispute in this lawsuit and the royalty interest held to be conveyed by the trial court (an undivided Yetth royalty interest) being assigned as error by Minchen. He contends that this instrument conveyed an undivided 146th royalty interest to him.

We consider first the contention of appellants Maurice Hirsch, et al., that the trial court erred in construing the deed of trust and subsequent instrument by the mortgagee as passing title only to an undivided %th mineral interest in the land involved. Under this point such appellants point out that Dave F. Bryan, the common source of title to all parties in the suit, had record title to an undivided 3%6ths interest in the minerals under the land at the time of and prior to the date of execution of the deed of trust to Henry James, Trustee for Southern Mortgage Company. The mortgagee under said deed of trust subsequently executed an instrument which they say attempted to define the intention under the deed of trust. The deed of trust itself conveyed to the trustee in trust “one-half Q4) of all the right, title and interest of D. F. Bryan and Ludie J. Bryan, whether owned jointly or severally in and to all the oil, gas, sulphur and any other minerals * * Such deed of trust also contained the following statement as to what was granted thereby, “together with all right, title, estate or interest that grantor now owns or may hereafter own in said land in and to any and all mines or minerals, including oil and gas, or any and all rents, royalties or other revenues arising from any such minerals and any mineral lease now existing, or that may hereafter exist under said lands or any part thereof, under which Grantor would receive any rent or royalty, together with all rights and privileges as lessor for the purpose of collecting said rents and royalties.” The second instrument, one executed by Southern Mortgage Company, was in the nature of a correction instrument and it recited that it was the understanding and intention of the mortgagors in the deed of trust to convey by said mortgage a lien on one-half i}/z) of their holdings in the minerals; the correction instrument also stated “the mortgage on the surface to be the whole of their holdings; in other words, that the mortgage created on the surface should cover three-eighths (%ths) acres, undivided in the twelve and one-half (12jd>) acres, and on the minerals an undivided one-half (Vi) of their holdings of one-fourth 04th) in the twelve and one-half (12i/i) acres, making one and five thousand, six hundred and twenty-five ten thousandths (1.5625) acres of all the minerals.”

Appellants Maurice Hirsch et al. contend that the correction instrument by its terms covered one-half of whatever the grantor Bryan owned. From the reading of the whole instrument, particularly that portion which is set out above in this opinion in quotation, we have concluded that the trial court was correct in its construction of the effects of the deed of trust and the correction instrument executed by Southern Mortgage Company. Hirsch, et al. in their argument must assume that the correction instrument was a valid one, but *532 make the argument that such correction instrument itself covered one-half of whatever Bryan owned. We think the complete language showed in detail the intention of the grantors and the entire sentence of intention showed an undivided )4th mineral interest was to be covered.

The real bone of contention in this lawsuit is the construction of the royalty deed from Bryan to Minchen. The original of this instrument was in evidence and has been brought up in the record on appeal in this case.

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Bluebook (online)
295 S.W.2d 529, 6 Oil & Gas Rep. 1364, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/minchen-v-hirsch-texapp-1956.