Parshall v. Crabtree

516 S.W.2d 216, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2470
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 19, 1974
Docket15287
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 516 S.W.2d 216 (Parshall v. Crabtree) 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
Parshall v. Crabtree, 516 S.W.2d 216, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2470 (Tex. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

CADENA, Justice.

Defendant, Grace F. Parshall, appeals from a judgment of a district court of Frio County, following a non jury trial, awarding plaintiff, Frankie S. Crabtree, easements across defendant’s land as a means of access to plaintiff’s land and enjoining defendant from interfering with plaintiff’s use of such easements.

On and prior to February 19, 1930, G. W. Davis was the owner of a tract, consisting of approximately 19½ acres, out of the southwest part of Subdivision 30, Pablo Ortiz Survey No. 1411, Abstract No. 530, in Frio County, Texas. The land owned by Davis corresponds to the property identified in the accompanying diagram as Blocks 1, 2, 3 and 4, and did not include the tract, at the northwest corner of the diagram, on which appears the name “Frazier.” The accompanying diagram is based primarily on a plat introduced in evidence as plaintiff’s exhibit 3 and on a survey based on such plat. The diagram shows the division of Block 4 into six lots, as reflected in plaintiff’s exhibit 3, but does not show the division of Blocks 1, 2, and 3 into 60 lots. The plat relied on by plaintiff shows five strips, each 40 feet wide, which are identified simply as “road” or “street.” In the accompanying diagram, the designations “Road X,” “Road Y,” “St. A,” “St. B,” and “St. C” have been arbitrarily assigned by us to these strips.

On February 30, 1930, G. W. Davis and wife conveyed to Mary E. Koett “all that certain block 4, Lots 1 — 2—3^4—5 and 6 out of subdivision No. 30 of Pablo Ortiz Survey No. 1411 Frio County Texas, being in all six acres more or less.” This deed contained no reference to any map or plat purporting to reflect a subdivision of the 19½ acre tract into 4 blocks or the subdivision of block 4 into lots.

The evidence supports the finding.of the trial court that at the time of the conveyance from G. W. Davis and wife to Mary E. Koett there was no means of access to the land conveyed except over the remaining 13½ acres retained by Davis or over lands owned by strangers to the transaction. The land conveyed by Davis to Mary E. Koett is now owned by plaintiff.

About three months later, on May 15, 1930, Davis conveyed the remaining 13½ acres to Beatrice Poe, describing it, in effect, as the original tract of 19½ acres “save and except” the six-acre tract previously conveyed by Davis and wife to Mary E. Koett. Title to this tract of 13½ acres, which is identified on the diagram as Blocks 1, 2 and 3, is now vested in defendant.

The trial court ruled that plaintiff was entitled to easements across defendant’s land over the strips identified on the diagram as “Road X” and “St. C.”

The judgment of the trial court is based on a finding to the effect that, in conveying block 4 to Mary E. Koett on February 19, 1930, Davis and wife described the land being conveyed “by referring to the plat which was received in evidence” as plaintiff’s exhibit 3 and that Mrs. Koett “relied” on such plat and used it to locate the *218 land she had purchased; as well as on the doctrine of easements by necessity.

Texas follows the generally accepted rule that a conveyance of land by reference to a plat showing streets and roads creates in the grantee easements over the streets and roads shown on the plat which abut the land conveyed. Baylor University : Houser, Notes, 20 Baylor L.Rev. 359 (1968). The rule is applicable even where, as here, the plat has not been recorded and the streets and roads have not been dedicated to public use. Dykes v. City of Houston, 406 S.W.2d 176 (Tex. 1966); Ward v. Rice, 239 S.W.2d 823 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1951, writ ref’d n. r. e.) ; 3 Powell, Real Property, Section 409 (rev. ed. 1972).

However, this doctrine cannot be relied on to support the judgment below. As already pointed out, the deed to Mary E. Koett contains no reference to the plat relied on by plaintiff, or to any other map or plat. Nor does the evidence support the conclusion that Davis exhibited plaintiff’s exhibit 3 to Mary E. Koett or otherwise referred to it during the negotiations which culminated in the sale of the property.

The only evidence concerning plaintiff’s exhibit 3 was given by Mary E. Koett’s nephew, who was 18 years old in February, 1930. He stated that soon after the purchase of the land by his aunt she had plaintiff’s exhibit 3 in her possession, and that he knew, of his own knowledge, that she had received the plat from Davis. This testimony does not tend to show that Davis exhibited the plat during the negotiations or that Mary E. Koett received the plat from Davis before the sale was consummated and the deed executed and delivered. Further, the record makes it clear that the witness was not present during any stage of the negotiations leading to the purchase of the land by his aunt, nor was he present when the deed was executed and delivered. Despite his statement to the effect that his testimony related to matters within his own knowledge, it is obvious that, as he admitted, his testimony to the effect that his aunt received exhibit 3 from Davis is based entirely on what she told him. The testimony is plainly hearsay and lacks probative force.

The same is true of the nephew’s testimony to the effect that, in making the purchase, his aunt “relied” on having the right to use the roads and streets shown on plaintiff’s exhibit 3. It may be true that, since the deed described the land conveyed as lots 1-6, block 4, it is permissible to infer that there was in existence a plat showing the subdivision of the Davis land into 4 blocks, with at least block 4 being divided into six lots. However, the critical question here is not a reference to a plat which showed the subdivision into blocks and lots, but a reference to a plat, specifically, plaintiff’s exhibit 3, which showed roads and streets as shown on that exhibit. In this connection, it should be noted that there is no testimony indicating when the exhibit was prepared, by whom it was prepared, nor for whom it was prepared.

Plaintiff’s reliance on James v. Hitchcock, 309 S.W.2d 909 (Tex.Civ.App.—San Antonio 1958, writ ref’d n. r. e.), is misplaced. In James the instrument expressly referred to the map in question. Further, the evidence there established that the maps relied on were cop*es “of what appears to be a well-known but lost map which has been the basis for conveyances . for a hundred years.” 309 S.W. 2d at 914.

However, the law is well settled that when an owner of land conveys an inner portion of such land, and the portion conveyed is entirely surrounded by land of the grantor, or by land of the grantor and land owned by others, an easement for the purpose of access to the land conveyed is created across the retained land of the *219 grantor. 21 Tex.Jur.2d, Easements, Section 20 (1961). In the case before us the evidence establishes unity of ownership of the alleged dominant (plaintiff’s) and ser-vient (defendant’s) estates at the time of the conveyance by Davis and wife to Mary E. Koett; the necessity of a roadway across the land retained by Davis; and the existence of such necessity at the time of severance of the two estates.

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Bluebook (online)
516 S.W.2d 216, 1974 Tex. App. LEXIS 2470, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parshall-v-crabtree-texapp-1974.