Nunn v. Peavy

286 S.W. 909, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 750
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 19, 1926
DocketNo. 1378. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 286 S.W. 909 (Nunn v. Peavy) 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
Nunn v. Peavy, 286 S.W. 909, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 750 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

*910 O’QUINN, J.

This was a suit in trespass to try title to all of the Charles Gilchrist league of land situated in Jasper county, Tex., except certain small tracts, brought by appellants against appellees. The land' was described in plaintiffs’ petition as in two tracts, designated as “first tract” and “second tract,” and excepting certain small tracts. The “first tract” was alleged to contain 2,375 acres and the “second tract” 1,733 acres, excluding two tracts of 100 acres each. The plaintiffs described the land sued for as in two tracts for convenience in presenting their title, the chain of title not being the same to both. They also sued for the value of timber cut from the land by appellees, which was of an agreed value of $35,000.

Appellees answered by general demurrer, general denial, and plea of not guilty. They also alleged that they owned the land by fee-simple title, and pleaded the three, five, and ten years’ statutes of limitation as to all the land sued for by appellants.

The case was tried to the court with the aid of a jury. The only issue submitted related to the defenses of limitation under the three, five, and ten years’ statutes, and they were all submitted as special issues and all answered by the jury in favor of appellees, upon which judgment was rendered for ap-pellees, from which plaintiffs have appealed.

It appears from the record that Charles Gilchrist was a colonist in the colony of Lorenzo de. Zavala, and on November 20, 1835, there was issued to him by the Mexican government as such colonist a grant or certificate for a league of land which was located upon the land in question.

Appellants offered as evidence of their title:

(1) The grant from the Mexican government to Charles Gilchrist, dated November 20, 1835, and recorded in Jasper county, Tex., April 21, 1853.

(2) Deed from 'Charles Gilchrist and wife, Jane Gilchrist, to William Jones, dated May 6, 1837, conveying the south two-thirds of the league, which deed was recorded in Jasper county on November 30, 1837.

(3) Deed from William Jones and wife to Abel Adams dated December 15, 1851, recorded May 25, 1852, conveying the south two-thirds of the league, and which comprised the 2,375 acres described in the plaintiffs’ petition as “first tract:”

(4) Deed from Abel Adams and R. C. Doom to A. A. H. Knox, dated December 2, 1858, and filed for record on said date, conveying the south two-thirds of said league, containing the 2,375 acres described as “first tract.”

(5) They asserted title to the north one-third of the league described by them as “second tract,” containing 1.733 acres, through a deed from W.1 B. Williamson and his wife, Sarah Ann Williamson, ,to Stephen Everett, of date December 23, 1840, filed for record October 8, 1857. This chain of title to said one-third of the league finally lodged in A. A. H. Knox. There was nothing to show how, if at all, Williamson got title. Appellants insist that a deed from Charles Gilchrist to Williamson should be presumed.

(6)Proof that appellants were the heirs at law and the only heirs of A. A. H. Knox and wife.

In connection with their title, appellants offered certified copies of documents out of the general land office of Texas, as follows:

(a) Petition to the Legislature of the state of Texas, reciting that Charles Gilchrist emigrated to Texas prior to the Declaration of Independence March 2, 1836, was a married man, head of a family; had resided continuously in the state until his death, had performed the duties of a good citizen, and had not received but one labor of land, and that his heirs were entitled to one league of land.

(b) Affidavit of James Armstrong, setting forth that he was well acquainted with Charles Gilchrist from the year 1835 until his death, which occurred some four or five years prior to the date of the affidavit, January 26, 1858.

(c) Affidavit of H. C. Pedigo, of date January 20, 1858, that he knew Charles Gilchrist personally, and that he died some three or four years prior to the making of the affidavit, and that he left a widow and children.

(d) Affidavits of Thomas B. Huling and George W. Glasscock, dated December 29, 1857, to the effect that they knew Charles Gilchrist; that he was a resident of Zavala’s colony, and resided on the league of land in question, located in Jasper county, Tex., from about 1835 to 1839, and that he performed the duties of a citizen.

The above, it appears from the record, were presented to the Legislature of the state of Texas in 1858 for the purpose of getting the Legislature to confirm the grant made to Gilchrist on November 20, 1835, which was void because of being issued after the closing of the land office on November 13, 1835, but the application was rejected on the ground the grant being void it could not be so confirmed.

(e) Certified copy of a special act of the Legislature approved February 16, 1858, authorizing and requiring the commissioner of claims to issue to “the heirs of Charles Gilchrist a certificate for one league, in consideration of a grant issued by Geo. A. Nixon to said Gilchrist on November 20, 1835.”

(f) Certified copy of a certificate issued on February 25, 1S58, that the heirs of Charles Gilchrist were entitled to have surveyed “upon any of the vacant and unappropriated public domain of the state of Texas one league of land in consideration of grant issued by Geo. A. (Nixon to said Chas. Gilchrist, the 20th of November, 1835,” which was filed September 9, 1869.

(g) Certified copy of the field notes of the *911 Gilchrist, league survey made for the heirs of Charles Gilchrist giving field notes and covering the league of land in controversy.

(h) Certified copy of patent by the State of Texas to the heirs of Charles Gilchrist to the land in question, dated November 3,1870.

The record showed appellees to be the owners of the title of the heirs of Charles Gilchrist under the patent from the state to the land in controversy. In addition to this title they plead that they had title to the land by and through the three, five, and ten years’ statutes of limitation.

Numerous interesting propositions and counterpropositions, presented and ably briefed, are urged by appellants and appel-lees relating to the legal effect of the grant from the Mexican government to Charles Gilchrist on November 20, 1835, and his deed to Jones in 1837, etc., through which line of conveyances appellants . claim title to the south two-thirds of the league; also, as to whether the granting to the heirs'of Charles Gilchrist by special act of the Legislature in 1858 of a certificate for a league of land and its subsequent location upon the same land as was claimed by the location of the original grant of November 20,1835, had the effect to legalize and mate valid the title to said land in Charles Gilchrist’s grantees, inured to the benefit of the grantees of 'Charles Gilchrist, or whether the title to said land was wholly in the heirs of said Charles Gilchrist by virtue of the patent to them from the State and finally rested in appellees.

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Bluebook (online)
286 S.W. 909, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 750, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nunn-v-peavy-texapp-1926.