Natalia v. Witthaus

135 S.W.2d 969, 134 Tex. 513, 1940 Tex. LEXIS 283
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 31, 1940
DocketNo. 7329.
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 135 S.W.2d 969 (Natalia v. Witthaus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Natalia v. Witthaus, 135 S.W.2d 969, 134 Tex. 513, 1940 Tex. LEXIS 283 (Tex. 1940).

Opinion

Mr. Presiding Judge Smedley

delivered the opinion of the Commission of Appeals, Section B.

This suit is a formal action of trespass to try title, brought by defendants in error against plaintiffs in error for the recovery of two tracts of land in Brazoria County. Plaintiffs in error claim and possess the land1 through a sale made by a *516 trustee under power of sale given in a deed of trust to secure the payment of a note held by The Federal Land Bank of Houston. Decision of the first and most important question presented in the case requires either the approval or the disapproval of the holding made in the opinion written by Associate Justice Dibrell in Wiener v. Zwieb, 105 Texas 262, 141 S. W. 771, 147 S. W. 867.

The case was tried before the court without a jury and judgment rendered that defendants in error take nothing. Elaborate findings of fact were made. The Court of Civil Appeals, approving the dissenting opinion of Associate Justice Ramsey in Wiener v. Zwieb, reversed the trial court’s judgment, rendered judgment for defendants in error for the title and possession of the land, and remanded the case for determination of the amount of damages for oil taken from the land and for accounting and adjustment of equities between the parties. 107 S. W. (2d) 998.

The facts material to decision of the question first presented are as follows: Title to the land as community property of himself and wife Mathilda was acquired by Max Witthaus through deeds which retained vendor’s liens to secure purchase money notes. On June 3, 1919, after the purchase money notes and the superior title had been assigned and conveyed to The Federal Land Bank of Houston, Max Witthaus and Mathilda Witthaus, for the purpose of extending and rearranging the notes, executed and delivered to The Federal Land Bank of Houston their note in the principal sum of $2650.00, payable in 68 semi-annual installments, and executed also a deed of trust conveying the land to M. H. Gossett, trustee, to secure the payment of the said note. The grantors in the deed of trust expressly agreed to pay when due all taxes, charges and assessments legally levied against the land, and the deed of trust contained a paragraph by which it was provided that if any of the payments on the note should not be made when due, or if the grantors should permit any taxes or assessments on the land to become delinquent, or in case of a breach of any of the agreements or covenants made, the whole of the note, at the option of The Federal Land Bank of Houston or other holder thereof, should become immediately due and payable, and at the request of the holder of the note the trustee or his successor should sell the property at public auction. By deed dated June 27, 1925, Witthaus and wife conveyed the land to J. W. Hathaway, reserving, however, a 1/16 royalty interest. The grantee *517 assumed payment of the note held by The Federal Land Bank of Houston.

Max Witthaus died intestate September 20, 1927, leaving surviving him as his sole heirs his wife, Mathilda, and his two daughters, Ester W. Smith and Edna W. Keener, who with J. W. Hathaway and the husbands of said two daughters are the defendants in error here. At the time of the death of Max Witthaus he and his wife owned community property, in addition to the royalty interest in the land in controversy, but the value of such other community property was not shown on the trial. Witthaus and his wife owed when he died community debts other than that to The Federal Land Bank of Houston, but no evidence was offered proving or tending to prove that such other debts were not paid when the trustee’s sale of the land in controversy was made. There has never been an administration in probate court of the estate of Max Witthaus and the time within which such administration might have been taken out elapsed more than two years prior to the filing of this suit.

The taxes assessed against the land for the years 1923 to 1927 inclusive were not paid, but became and remained delinquent. On account of such delinquency The Federal Land Bank of Houston exercised its option and declared the entire note for '$2650.00 due and requested the trustee to sell the land in accordance with the provisions of the deed of trust. At the trustee’s sale, which was made on May 1, 1928, The Federal Land Bank of Houston became the purchaser of the land for the sum of $2500.00, and M. H. Gossett, trustee, acting through his agent and attorney in fact G. A. Barth, conveyed the land to The Federal Land Bank of Houston, the conveyance reciting a compliance with the provisions of the deed of trust with respect to the default, the request for sale, the giving of notice, and the time and the manner of sale. The Federal Land Bank of Houston conveyed the land to plaintiff in error C. Natali on May 11, 1928, for a consideration of $3000.00, of which $1000.00 was paid in cash, the balance being evidenced by a promissory note payable on or before one year from its date. The plaintiff’s in error other than Natali claim under Natali.

This suit was filed October 30, 1933, more than six years after the death of Max Witthaus and more than five years after the trustee’s sale.

The Court of Civil Appeals held that at the time the trustee’s sale was made, which was about eight months after the death of Witthaus, the probate court of Brazoria County was the exclusive agency through which the sale of the land *518 for foreclosure of the deed of trust lien could have been effectually made, and that the trustee’s sale was for that reason void and passed no title.

The holding made in Wiener v. Zwieb, supra, is thus expressed in Associate Justice Dibrell’s opinion:

“The Court of Civil Appeals, speaking through Justice Fly, in an elaborate and well considered opinion, holds the view that where there was no administration on the estate of the grantor and after the lapse of four years, the time within which an administration could be sued out, that a sale under the deed of trust after the death of the grantor and before the lapse of four years, was valid and passed title to the land conveyed, and we approve that holding.”

The opinion contains the following more explicit statement as to the validity of the trustee’s sale and the effect of the trustee’s deed:

“The trustee’s' deed made after the death of the constituent and before the lapse of the time within which an administration migh have been sued out on the estate of the grantor, was valid and effective and passed the title to the land conveyed, subject only to be set aside by an administration for the payment of such preferred claims as might have existed under the law at the time and as such deed might have interfered with the orderly administration of said estate. Such deed made under the circumstances of this case was neither invalid nor in a state of suspense, except insofar as it might have interfered with the due execution of an administration of the estate of the deceased grantor in said deed of trust, but to the contrary said deed was valid and effective and upon its execution passed the title to the purchaser of said land at said sale against the heirs of the deceased and all other persons with the bare exception above stated.”

Chief Justice Brown, writing on motion for rehearing in Wiener v.

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Bluebook (online)
135 S.W.2d 969, 134 Tex. 513, 1940 Tex. LEXIS 283, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/natalia-v-witthaus-tex-1940.