Pepper v. Continental State Bank of Big Sandy

60 S.W.2d 1089, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 806
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 25, 1933
DocketNo. 4313
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 60 S.W.2d 1089 (Pepper v. Continental State Bank of Big Sandy) 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
Pepper v. Continental State Bank of Big Sandy, 60 S.W.2d 1089, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 806 (Tex. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Chief Justice.

The Continental State Bank of Big Sandy, Tex., hereafter referred to as plaintiff bank, sued D. G. Pepper and wife, Margaret E. Pepper-, and J. T. Eggleston in the district court of Gregg county in trespass to try title and to remove cloud from title to 100 acres of land in Gregg county. U. S. Joins, Charles Anderson, and Abe Kaufman intervened, claiming the leasehold mineral interests in the land, except ten acres in the extreme southwest corner. These interveners claimed to be innocent purchasers for value under a lease executed by D. G. Pepper and wife to J. T. Eggleston on March 16, 1931, and by Eggleston assigned to these interveners. The Amerada Petroleum Corporation also intervened, claiming the leasehold mineral interests under a lease executed to it by the plaintiff bank on March 21, 1931, and that it was an innocent purchaser for value. The defendants D. G. Pepper and wife and J. T. Eggleston answered by pleas of not guilty, and specially pleaded that on March 16, 1031, Pepper and wife executed to Eggleston the oil and gas lease which Eggleston had assigned to Joins, Anderson, and Kaufman, and that.in addition thereto, Pepper and wife had on March 27, 1931, conveyed to Eggles-ton a one-half interest in the (one-eighth royalty) remaining minerals in and under the land. Upon findings of the jury judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff bank and intervener Amerada Petroleum Corporation, from which defendants Pepper and Eggles-ton and interveners Joins, Anderson, and Kaufman have appealed.

It appears that on May 15, 1926, the plaintiff bank conveyed the land now in controversy to D. G. Pepper for recited consideration ■ of $3,245 paid and secured to be paid by D. G. Pepper as follows: $205 cash, and one promissory vendor’s lien note for $1,-640 payable to the bank in eight equal installments, due, one on each following: November 15th .until all matured; and the assumption of the payment by D. G. Pepper of a $1,400 note, which $1,400 note had been executed by W. H. Hamilton and wife, May Hamilton, to J. W. Bartlett on the 22d day of February, 1919, and due on the 1st day of March, 1926, and which was secured by a deed of trust lien executed by W. H. Hamilton and wife, May Hamilton, to J. F. Bartlett, trustee, covering the land in controversy, and which deed of trust constituted a first and superior lien on the land. This $1,400 note and deed of trust lien was then owned by W. L. Perdue, who was at that time a cashier of the plaintiff bank.

Thereafter, on June 17, 1926, W. L. Perdue transferred to the Federal Land Bank of Houston, Tex., $950 of this $1,400 Hamilton note and deed of trust lien securing the payment thereof, which assignment recited a transfer to the Federal Land Bank of “all and singular, all liens, superior title, rights, equities and interests in and to said land now owned and held by grantor to secure the payment of said indebtedness.” This assignment further provides that the portion of the indebtedness so assigned together with the lien securing the same should be and remain a first and superior lien to the remainder of the debt held by the grantor. On July 6, 1926, W. L. Perdue assigned the remaining $450 of this Hamilton note to the plaintiff bank. The Federal Land Bank, on the date of their purchase of the $950 of the Hamilton note and deed of trust lien, took a renewal thereof from D. G. Pepper and wife, including $50 stock in the bank, making a total of $1,000 on the amortization plan of sixty-nine semiannual payments, and a new deed of trust; but in this new deed of trust the Federal Land Bank did not waive any of its “rights, title, liens, equities and remedies” owned and held by .it under the Hamilton deed of trust, but therein expressly reserved them.

On January 10, 1928, it appears that W. L. Perdue, in good faith, but without an agreement with or any formal order of the board of directors of the plaintiff bank, took the $450 Hamilton deed of trust note out of the assets of the plaintiff bank and placed in lieu thereof his personal note for a like amount. W. L. Perdue then undertook in his own name to cause the $450 indebtedness and interest thereon, the payment of which had been defaulted by Pepper, to be foreclosed under the Hamilton deed of trust. W. L. Perdue thereupon made demand upon J. F. Bartlett, trustee, to foreclose the Hamilton deed of trust in satisfaction of the $450. ■ Bartlett refused to act and resigned. W. L. Perdue then appointed one B. O. Todd as substitute trustee and made demand upon him to foreclose. B. O. Todd, pursuant to the demand, caused notices to be posted, and on April 3, 1928, made public salé of the land to the plaintiff bank for $150, and executed to the bank a deed signed by B. O. Todd as substitute trustee. It appears that the Federal Land Bank did not know', of this foreclosure'until after the present suit was filed, and did not consent to or participate in the foreclosure, though it was and continued to be the owner and holder of $950» of the Hamilton note and deed of trust lien securing the payment thereof.

On the trial of this ease the plaintiff bank and the Amerada Petroleum Corporation holding under it claimed title upon two grounds: (1) Under the deed from B. O. Todd, substitute trustee; and (2) that the bank had rescinded its executory conveyance to D. G. Pepper by reason of his default in the payment of the installment notes executed to the bank. As to appellees’ claim of title under the substitute trustee’s deed, appellants contend: First, that W. L. Perdue’s [1091]*1091acts in taking the Hamilton remaining $450 note out of the bank and substituting his personal note for a like amount was in violation of article 499, Vernon’s Annotated Texas Civil Statutes, and vested no title in him, and not being a holder of the debt, or any part thereof, he had no authority to invoke the power of sale under the deed of trust, and his attempt to appoint B. C. Todd as substitute trustee and effect a sale thereunder was void, hence the bank received no title by reason of his substitute trustee’s ■deed. Second, that should it be held that W. L. Perdue was the owner of the remaining $450 of the Hamilton note at the time of the foreclosure, that he had no authority to appoint a substitute trustee or to invoke the power- of sale under the deed of trust, in that the stipulations expressed in his written transfer of the $950 and lien to the Federal Land Bank he had thereby assigned “all and singular all liens, superior title, right, equities and interest in and to said land now owned or held by grantor to secure the payment of said indebtedness,” thereby divesting himself of all the lien and rights thereunder, hence the plaintiff bank received no title by the substitute trustee’s deed. Third, that should it be held that W. L. Perdue was the owner of remaining $450 of the Hamilton note, and should it further be held that he had not by the assignment transferred all his interest in the lien, that he had by such assignment transferred to the Federal Land Bank an equal, if not superior, interest in said deed of trust lien and all rights and powers therein provided; and that the Federal Land Bank as owner and holder of a part of the indebtedness and equal, if not superior, rights under the deed of trust, should have joined in and consented to the appointment of a substitute trustee and foreclosure proceedings; and that W. L. Perdue’s appointment of B. C. Todd as substitute trustee, without the knowledge and consent of the Federal Land Bank was void, and the trustee’s deed •conveyed no title.

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Related

Rogers v. Boykin
298 S.W.2d 199 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1956)
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212 S.W.2d 945 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1948)
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114 S.W.2d 530 (Texas Supreme Court, 1938)
Continental State Bank v. Pepper
106 S.W.2d 654 (Texas Supreme Court, 1937)
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81 S.W.2d 821 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
60 S.W.2d 1089, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pepper-v-continental-state-bank-of-big-sandy-texapp-1933.