Rio Bravo Oil Co. v. McEntire

59 S.W.2d 962, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 650
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 29, 1933
DocketNo. 7736
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 59 S.W.2d 962 (Rio Bravo Oil Co. v. McEntire) 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
Rio Bravo Oil Co. v. McEntire, 59 S.W.2d 962, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 650 (Tex. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinions

BLAIR, Justice.

Appellee George MeEntire sued appellant, Rio Bravo Oil Company, in trespass to try title to recover sections 13, 23, and 25 in block 23, Houston & Texas Central Railway Company lands in Sterling county (formerly a part of Tom Green county). Appellant filed a general denial and general demurrer, and a plea of not guilty; but on the trial claimed only the minerals in the land with certain surface rights for the development and production of minerals. The Gulf Production Company intervened, claiming the oil and gas in sections 13 and 23, under a lease executed by appellee MeEntire, which lease MeEntire admitted to be valid. A trial to the court without a jury resulted in a judgment for appellee as prayed, and a judgment for the Gulf Production Company establishing the validity of its oil and gas lease; hence this appeal.

Appellant attacks the judgment in favor of appellee MeEntire as not being supported by the evidence adduced; and the appeal therefore involves an analysis of the evidence and the construction of certain instruments in the light of the facts and circumstances surrounding their execution, as links in the chain of McEntire’s title. We have reached the conclusion that the evidence sufficiently supports the judgments rendered.

The Houston & Texas Central Railway Company, hereinafter designated railway company, is the admitted common source of titlej the 3 sections of land having been duly patented to it by the state of Texas in 187T, by virtue of surveys made under land scrip issued to it in 1867. In 1872 the railway company mortgaged- these lands to the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company, trustee, the mortgage providing that said trustee shall sell the lands “at public or private sale,” in default of the payment of the indebtedness secured; and that said trustee “shall execute a deed in fee simple” to purchaser, which “shall be a bar against * * * all claims * * * and all right of redemption” of the mortgagor and its successors and assigns; and that the deed “shall convey full and absolute title therein to the purchaser free and clear of all encumbrance.” Thereafter, on June 24, 1882, the -railway company' contracted to sell section 23 to Jos. M. Kelley; and on August 12, 1882, it contracted to sell Kelley sections 13 and 25, the contracts reciti'ng that the. consideration was paid partly in cash and partly by notes secured by a lien upon the lands; and both of the contracts contained the following stipulations and reservations;

“In case the party of the second part, his legal representatives or assigns shall pay the said notes according to their tenor and effect, then the said railway company will make or cause to be made and executed unto the said party of the second part, his heirs or assigns (upon request at the general office of the party of the first part and the surrender of this contract) a deed conveying said premises with special warranty, but made subject to the' following rights of the said railway company, each and all of which rights are hereby reserved and are not to pass by the deed to be made by said railway company. * * *
“The Houston and Texas Central Railway Company reserves the right at all times hereafter to enter upon the land hereby conveyed and prospect for and make surveys at will, and any part of it, for coal, mineral, stone, or any other valuable deposits, and to open upon said land and operate with all machinery, appliances and attachments which it may deem necessary, mines, borings and quarries, and the coal, mineral, stone, or other .valuable deposits found in and taken from all such mines, borings and quarries shall be the property of said Houston and Texas Central Railway Company, and it shall have the right to remove the same, and for the purpose of ingress and egress to and from such mines, borings and quarries a further right of way over the land hereby conveyed sixty feet in width to and from such mines, borings and quarries is hereby reserved.
[964]*964“The said Joseph M. Kelley, hy accepting this deed, agrees to the reservation aforesaid and to the entire contract hereinbefore specified, and covenants to and with the said railway company and its assigns that it and they shall have and enjoy all the reservations, rights and privileges contained and contracted for in this deed, and further agrees that this covenant shall run with the land hereby sold, and it is stipulated in this agreement that no assignment of the premises shall he valid unless the same shall he endorsed hereon.”

It may here he noted that appellee contended, and the trial court found, that these contracts of sale did not include in the reservations petroleum or natural gas.

The June 24, 1882, contract was filed for record December 17, 1886; hut the August, 1882, contract was not filed for record until October 4, 1929. On the June, 1882, contract there was indorsed: “Duplicate No. 12,781, Contract No. 31½0. Houston & Texas Central Ry. Co. With.Joseph M. Kelley. For Sale of whole Sec. 23, Block 23, Tom Green County, 640 acres.”

The notes referred to in tlie June, 1882, contract each recited:

“This note is given in part payment for 640 acres of land, being the whole of Section No. 23, Block No. 23, in the County of Tom Green, sold and conveyed to me by the said Houston & Texas Central Railway Company, by Contract No. 31⅛0, bearing date the. 24th day of June, 1882, and is secured by a vendor’s lien on said property as retained in said contract. No. D106, Due June 24, 1883.”

Note No. 1 of this series of notes was paid June 25, 1883. The August, 1882, contract bears the following indorsement: “No. 12,-781, Contract No. 58C, Houston & Texas Central Ry. Co. With Joseph M. Kelley. Eor sale of Whole Sect. 13 and 25, Block 23, Tom Green County, 1280 Acres.”

The notes referred to in the August, 1882, contract each recite: “This note is given in part payment for 1280 acres of land, being the whole of Section Nos. 13 and 25, Block No. 23, in the County of Tom Green, sold and conveyed to me by said Houston & Texas Central Railway Company, by contract No. 58.C, bearing date the 12 day of August, 1882, and is secured by a Vendor’s Lien on said property, as retained in said contract. No. L203, due Aug. 12, 1883.”

The first of these notes was paid on August 16, 1883.

In 1885 several suits were filed in the federal court, seeking to foreclose mortgages executed by the railway company, one of which was filed by the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company, trustee; and these suits were all consolidated by order of the court and a- receiver appointed.

On May 7, 1885, the court ordered the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company, trustee, to sell the lands in controversy, and to report to the receiver of the railway company all such sales. The said trustee was further ordered to execute deeds for lands theretofore sold by the railway company in all instances where the purchase-money notes had been paid; and that, in instances where contracts of sale had been made by the railway company and approved by the trustee, he should execute deeds to the respective purchasers ; and that .such deeds were to be held in escrow by the receiver for delivery to the purchasers whenever they had paid for the lands in full. On August 20, 1885, in pursuance of this order, the Farmers’ Loan & Trust Company, trustee, acting under the deed of trust of October 1, 1872, executed to J. M.

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Related

Gladys City Co. v. Amoco Production Co.
528 F. Supp. 624 (E.D. Texas, 1981)
Wright v. Dunklin
123 S.W.2d 301 (Texas Supreme Court, 1939)
Rio Bravo Oil Co. v. McEntire
95 S.W.2d 381 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1936)
Rio Bravo Oil Co. v. McEntire
95 S.W.2d 391 (Texas Supreme Court, 1936)

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Bluebook (online)
59 S.W.2d 962, 1933 Tex. App. LEXIS 650, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rio-bravo-oil-co-v-mcentire-texapp-1933.