Pickens v. Glasscock

78 S.W.2d 257
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 3, 1934
DocketNo. 4539
StatusPublished

This text of 78 S.W.2d 257 (Pickens v. Glasscock) 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
Pickens v. Glasscock, 78 S.W.2d 257 (Tex. Ct. App. 1934).

Opinion

SELLERS, Justice.

On October 2, 1890, Joseph Dial and wife owned 300 acres of land located in Gregg county and a part of the W. H. Castelberry survey. On this date Dial and wife conveyed this tract to T. B. Harris, and the land became community property of T. B. Harris and his wife, Willie A. Harris. In 1905, Willie .a.. Harris died intestate, and, there being no necessity of administration upon her estate,none was had. There was born to T. B. Harris and Willie A. Harris seven children, six of whom survived Willie A. Harris. One of the surviving children died in 1910, and another in 1918.' Both died intestate and without ever having been married. On September 22, 1910, T. B. Harris without joinder of the children conveyed by warranty deed 1 acre of the above-mentioned 300-acre tract of land to the trustees of the Center Point Methodist Church, South, which deed contains this pro[258]*258vision: “It is expressly agreed and understood that in case said above described and conveyed property should be abandoned by said church and not used for church purposes that same shall revert back to and become the property of the grantor herein.”

In 1911, T. B. Harris married his second wife, Lou Harris. On October 28, 1919, T. B. Harris executed to Gaines B. Turner, trustee, a 20-year paid-up oil and gas lease on 77'7½ acres, of land in Gregg county. This lease was assigned by mesne conveyance to W. L. Pickens.

On January 15, 193.1, all the surviving children of T. B. Harris and his first wife executed to W. L. Pickens an oil, gas, and mineral lease on the 300-acre Dial tract. This lease was duly recorded on January 20, 1931. Thereafter, on January 26, 1931, T. B. Harris and his second wife executed to M. Stein a mineral deed to a 1¾6 interest in all the minerals in the 1-acre tract deeded by T. B. Harris to the church, and on April 3, 1931, T. B. Harris and his second wife executed and delivered to Idaho Oil Company a conveyance of ⅛ the minerals in the 1-acre tract deeded by T. B. Harris to the church. Both the M. Stein title and the Idaho Oil Company title were passed by mesne conveyances to C. G. Glasscock. On December 3, 193.1, C. G. Glasscock secured a conveyance of a ¾ mineral interest in the 1-acre church lot from its trustees.

This suit was brought by C. G. Glasscock against W. L. Pickens and others in trespass to try title to the mineral interest only in the 1-aere church lot; and in addition to the formal action of trespass to try title, Glasscock specially alleged his title to the minerals by virtue of his title from the trustees of the church and his deeds from M. Stein and the Idaho Oil Company. And, in addition to the above allegations, plaintiff set up title by limitation to the interest claimed by defendants, and further alleged as follows: “ 2 ⅜ * That if the defendants, or any of them whose title the defendants hold, ever had any title to the property herein sued for, that they were only co-tenants with T. B. Harris, at the time T. B. Harris sold plaintiff’s grantor said property, and that at the time that T. B. Harris executed and delivered said deeds under which plaintiff claims there was other property standing in the name of T. B. Harris on the records of Gregg County, Texas, of similar kind, character and quality of equal value to the property conveyed by the said T. B. Harris by each of the said deeds heretofore mentioned, and that at the time and at all times since the conveyance hereinbefore mentioned under which plaintiff claims dated September 22, 1910, there has been sufficient common property owned by the said T. B. • Harris and the defendants, or their grantors, from which the interest of which defendants could be satisfied and carved in partition or otherwise, if in fact such defendants have any interest whatsoever in said property; and this plaintiff says that by reason of the fact that he holds title under said warranty deeds and the further fact that equity can be done only by a partition of the common property so that the plaintiff may have the property herein sued for, and the defendants be compelled to accept property of like kind and value from the remaining common property after the date of the deeds hereinbefore mentioned, that the defendants and their grantors are and should be estopped to claim any interest whatsoever in the property herein sued for, because of the equitable and actual partition heretofore made of the common property by the said T. B. Harris by the said deeds heretofore mentioned under which plaintiff claims; and each of the defendants herein are bound by said partition.and ought to be compelled to receive their interest, if any, out of the common property remaining on hand after the execution of said deeds, and each of them, under which plaintiff claims.”

The plaintiff further alleged the improvements in good faith to the extent of $20,000. The plaintiff prayed for title and possession of the 1 acre involved, and in the alternative, and in the event the defendants were successful in recovering any interest in the tract, then that plaintiff have judgment for the value of the improvements made in good faith.

The defendant Pickens answered by general demurrer, general denial, plea of not guilty, and specially pleaded his title to the minerals in the 1-acre tract involved by virtue of the Gaines B. Turner lease and the lease to him by the heirs of T. B. Harris and his first wife. He further pleaded that the deed from T. B. Harris to the church was not intended to convey and in fact did not convey any interest in the minerals under the 1-acre tract of land, and, further, that the land had been abandoned for church purposes, and that such title as the church possessed by virtue of the deed executed to it by T. B. Harris had reverted to said Harris. He further alleged that the Magnolia Petroleum Company had been purchasing the oil from the well placed on the property by the plaintiff, and that the plaintiff and the Magnolia [259]*259Petroleum Company be required to account to Mm for Ms interest in the oil run from the well. Defendant further pleaded that the plaintiff had wrongfully excluded him from the possession of the land and minerals and were appropriating them for his own use and benefit, and refused to account to him for any part thereof; and asked the appointment of a receiver to take charge of the lease with power to collect and preserve the revenues therefrom until the final determination of the rights of the parties thereto. The defendant Pickens prayed for title and possession of the land, a complete and full accounting as between plaintiff Magnolia Petroleum Company and the defendant, or, in the alternative, for the establishment of the interest of all parties and an accounting, the appointment of a receiver and the sale of the property, and the disbursement of the proceeds according to the interests established. Magnolia Petroleum Company answered admitting the purchase of the oil from the well and the amount it had paid the plaintiff and the amount then on hand, and offered to pay the amount on hand to whomsoever the court might decree was entitled to the same.

Mrs. Bosa V. Glasscock, joined by her husband, M. E. Glasscock, was permitted to' intervene and adopt the pleadings of the plaintiff, C. G. Glasscock.

The court submitted certain issues to the jury which were answered by the jury, and their answers are, in our opinion, amply supported by the evidence.

The issues submitted and the answers thereto are as follows:

“No. 1: Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the Center Point Methodist Church had on the 3d day of December, A. D.

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78 S.W.2d 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pickens-v-glasscock-texapp-1934.