Morse v. Tackaberry

134 S.W. 273, 63 Tex. Civ. App. 487, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 564
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided January 5, 1911·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

PLEASANTS, C. J.

Appellants, Nixon Morse, Claude Tompkins, and Susan James, joined by her husband, Lee James, brought this suit ágainst appellees, J. V. Tackaberry, S. Gallias, the Kirby Lumber Company, and J. S. Rice and Cecil Lyons, receivers of said Lumber Company. The original petition alleged, in substance, that the plaintiffs, as heirs of A. N. B. Tompkins, deceased, were the owners of certain undivided interests in a tract of 673 acres of land, a part of the Valentine E. Disboe one-third league survey in Liberty county; that on the 26th day of July, 1900, the 16th day of July, 1900, the 25th day of July, 1900, and the 10th day of December, 1900, respectively, the plaintiffs Nixon Morse, Claude Tompkins, and Susan James, who was then Susan Tompkins, severally executed their respective deeds by which each of said plaintiffs conveyed to the defendant Tackaberry her undivided interest in said land; that at the date of the execution of each of said deeds the plaintiff grantor therein was unmarried, and under the age of 21 years, and that the consideration for each of said conveyances was inadequate. Plaintiffs, their disabilities of minority being removed, tendered into court the several amounts received by them as consideration for the execution of said deeds, and asked that defendants be required to accept same, and that each of the plaintiffs be permitted to repudiate her said deed, and that the same be canceled in so far as if affects plaintiff’s interest in said land. It is then alleged that under conveyance from the defendant Tackaberry the defendants Gallias and the Kirby Lumber Company are asserting claims to the land and the timber thereon, “and th’at said deeds being now of record are a cloud on plaintiffs’ title.” The prayer of the petition is as follows: “Wherefore, premises considered, plaintiffs pray the court that defendants be cited in terms of law to answer this petition, and that upon final hearing hereof plaintiffs have judgment canceling and rendering forever null and void, in so far as same affect and seek to convey the interest of these plaintiffs in the land above described, the said deeds above set forth, and have judgment removing the cloud from plaintiffs’ title caused thereby as to their interest in said land. Plaintiffs also pray that they have and recover of the defendants S. Gallias and the Kirby Lumber Company, and its receivers, as receivers, their interest *274 as above set forth in the above-described 673 acres of land; and for all other and further relief, general and special, legal and equitable, to which they may be entitled under the facts; for costs of suit in this behalf expended, and thus they will ever pray.”

This petition was filed on November 25, 1905. On February 15, 1906, defendants Kirby Lumber Company and J. S. Rice and Cecil Lyons, receivers, filed plea in abatement setting up the pendency of the receivership for said Lumber Company in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of Texas, and the failure of the plaintiffs to obtain permission of said court to bring this suit in the district court of Liberty county against said company and its receivers, and prayed that the suit be dismissed as against said defendants. This plea was heard and sustained by the court on the day on which it was filed, and plaintiffs’ suit against said defendants was dismissed. On January 27, 1907, defendants Tackaberry and Gallias filed an answer containing a general denial and a special plea by the defendant Gallias in which he asserts title to the whole of the Disboe one-third league survey, and asks for recovery of same against the plaintiffs and one P. Bailey, who he asks be made a party defendant. He also pleaded that Arch McDonald had conveyed said land to him by general warranty deed, and asks that said McDonald be made a party defendant, and in event plaintiffs recover any portion of said land that he have judgment against said McDonald on his covenants of warranty.

On September 18, 1908, plaintiffs filed an amended petition against all of the original defendants, containing the general allegations of the original petition, and in addition thereto the following: “And plaintiffs further show unto the court that since the filing of the original petition herein, to wit, on January 1, 1907, and subsequent thereto, the defendant the Kirby Lumber Company has entered upon said land and cut and removed therefrom 700,000 feet of merchantable pine timber of the reasonable -market value of $5 per thousand feet, and manufactured it into lumber of the reasonable value of $15 per M, and have sold and removed the said lumber beyond the reach of these plaintiffs, making a total value of the timber of $3,500 and a total value of the lumber of $10,500; and have cut and removed from said land 2,500 ties, the timber of which is of the reasonable market value of 5‡ per tie, and of the reasonable market value of 25 cents per tie after being manufactured, making a total of $125 for the tie timber in the ties, and total of $625 for the ties as manufactured, or a grand total of $3,625 for all the timber, and $11,125 for all the manufactured product.” In addition to the relief asked in the original petition, the amended petition contains a prayer for recovery against the defendants Kirby Lumber Company and its receivers of the sum of $11,125, the value of the timber alleged to have been taken from plaintiffs’ land. At the next term of court in February, 1909, the defendants Rice and Lyons again answered by plea in abatement setting up the pendency of the receivership and the failure of the plaintiffs to obtain of the court in which said receivership was pending permission to bring this suit. At the succeeding term of the court in August, 1909, the defendants Tackaberry and Gallias filed an amended answer in which they excepted to plaintiffs’ petition on the ground of misjoinder of causes of action and of parties plaintiff. Upon a hearing in the court below on August 30, 1909, the plea in abatement of the defendants Rice and Lyons, and the exception to the petition on the ground of misjoinder presented by the defendants Tackaberry and Gallias, were sustained, and plaintiffs declining to amend, their suit was dismissed.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Morse v. Tackaberry, 134 S.W. 273, 63 Tex. Civ. App. 487, 1911 Tex. App. LEXIS 564 (Tex. Ct. App. 1911).

134 S.W. 273 (Morse v. Tackaberry) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

Fleeger v. Clarkson Co.
86 F.R.D. 388 (N.D. Texas, 1980)
Temple Trust Co. v. Logan
82 S.W.2d 1017 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1935)
International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Dawson
193 S.W. 1145 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1917)
San Antonio, U. G. R. Co. v. Vivian
180 S.W. 952 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1915)