Rollison v. George

319 S.W.2d 389, 10 Oil & Gas Rep. 227, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1663
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 16, 1958
DocketNo. 7067
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 319 S.W.2d 389 (Rollison v. George) 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
Rollison v. George, 319 S.W.2d 389, 10 Oil & Gas Rep. 227, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1663 (Tex. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

FANNING, Justice.

Fate Rollison and others (who claim under Richard Rollison) sued R. L. George and others (who claim under D. D. Lawless) to remove cloud from title of a 50-acre tract of land (specifically described by metes and bounds) in Panola County, Texas, and to cancel certain mineral deeds pertaining to said land. Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment was denied; defendants’ motion for summary judgment was granted with defendants being decreed title and possession to ½ of the minerals under the tract. Plaintiffs have appealed.

Richard Rollison acquired a 50-acre tract in 1922 by deed describing the land as follows :

“ * * * all that certain tract or parcel of land, situated in . Panola County, Texas, being a part of the Henry Roberts being fifty acres, and described by metes and bounds in the deed records of Panola County, Texas, in Vol R page 110, to which records • reference is here made for description; and the said fifty acres if fully described as follows(Here follows a metes and bounds description of 50 acres, which metes and bounds description corresponds with the metes and bounds description of the 50 acres sued for by plaintiffs.)

As also hereinafter related, the tract specifically described by metes and bounds in said Vol. R, page 110, contained “400 acres more or less.”

Richard Rollison and others in 1926 executed a deed to D. D. Lawless, purporting to convey ½ of the minerals under a tract of land described as follows:

“All that certain tract or parcel of land situated in Panola County, Texas, being a part of the Henry Roberts Survey being fifty (50) acres and described by meters and bounds in the Deed Records of Panola County, Texas in Volume R Page 110 to which records reference is here made for description and the said fifty - (50) acres is fully discribed as follows — (See Records).”

The reference above referred to (Vol. R, p. 110, Deed Records of Panola County, Texas) is a deed from Wiley Hill to George G. Vincent, dated October 20, 1883, and describes by specific metes and bounds a tract of land in the Henry Roberts Survey in Panola County, Texas, called to contain “400 acres of land more or less.”

Defendants in connection with their motion for summary judgment also made affidavit to the effect that the 50 acres of land in controversy was within the 400-acre tract of land described in Vol. R, p. 110, Deed Records of Panola County, Texas. Although plaintiffs made various objections to the admissibility of such evidence, they did not deny the truth of such fact.

[391]*391Appellants present two points on this appeal as follows:

"1. The trial court erred in rendering the summary judgment for appel-lees because the mineral deed from Richard Rollison, et al. to D. D. Lawless, under which appellees claim, does not describe the tract of land in controversy and the description contained in such deed is fatally defective as a matter of law.
“2. The trial court erred in rendering a summary judgment for appellees based on facts stated in appellees’ supplemental pleading to their motion for summary judgment identifying the land in controversy because there was nothing in a mineral deed from Richard Rollison, et al. to D. D. Lawless, which would permit parol evidence to locate the SO acre tract of land referred to in said deed and such proof is in violation of the statute of frauds and extrinsic evidence is not admissible to prove facts where such facts are not referred to in a description and the defect in the description is patent.”

At the outset of this opinion we deem it highly important to particularly note that the description in the 1926 mineral deed from Richard Rollison et al. to D. D. Lawless does not call for the 50 acres “To Be Out Of” the tract referred to in Vol. R, page 110, Deed Records of Panola County, Texas. If it did we would have an entirely different situation and the various authorities cited by appellants would in such event be applicable. Among the cases cited by appellants and the descriptions therein referred to are the following:

Smith v. Sorell, 126 Tex. 3S3, 87 S.W.2d 703, the description is: ‘TOO acres out of Blocks 8 and 9 of the subdivision of Jose Maria Pineda Survey, which was patented to Adolphus Stern.”
Matney v. Odom, 147 Tex. 26, 210 S.W.2d 980, the description is: “four (4) acres out of East end of a ten-acre block.”
White v. Glenn, Tex.Civ.App., 138 S.W.2d 914, wr. dis., the description is: “440 acres of land out of Section No. One (1), Block D-23, Abstract No. . 838, Public School Land, W. D. Mevels, original grantee.”
Higgins v. Bankers’ Mortgage Co., Tex.ComA.pp., 13 S.W.2d 683, the description is: “140 acres out of the following 200 acre tract.”
Continental Supply Co. v. Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 2S0 S. W. 1095; Tex., 269 S.W. 1040, the description is: “120 acres out of the W. A. R. survey, Abst. No. 858 and survey No. 84.”
Rosen v. Phelps, Tex.Civ.App., 160 S.W. 104, wr. ref., the description is: “4 acres out of East end of a 10 acre blk.”
Douglass v. Texas-Canadian Oil Corp., 141 Tex. 506, 174 S.W.2d 730, • 731, the description is: “37.1 acres of land in Wood County, Texas.”

We conclude that the description in question in this case is not an attempt to describe “50 acres out of a 400-acre (more or less) tract,” but rather instead is a reference to a specific metes and bounds description of a 400-acre (more or less) tract which the grantor incorrectly says is 50 acres.

The specific metes and bounds description in question and the general description call for quantity are inconsistent with each other. In 14-B Tex.Jur., Sec. 236, p. 696-697, it is stated:

“A general description may be looked to in aid of a particular description that is defective o,r doubtful, but will not control or override a particular description about which there can be no doubt. And, if a general and a particular description are obviously in[392]*392tended to refer to the same land, and the two cannot be reconciled, the particular description is preferred to the more general one. * * * ”

In 14-B Tex.Jur., Sec. 235, p. 696, it is stated:

“Under the rule that gives a deed a liberal construction in favor of the grantee, he has been given the right, as against the grantor, to select the description most favorable to himself where his deed contains two descriptions of the land, each inconsistent with the other.
“The most favorable construction doctrine has also been applied to the , quantity of land conveyed, and as giving the grantee the largest quantity ,consistent with any provision of the deed.” (Emphasis ours.)

'In Standefer v. Miller, Tex.Civ.App., 182 -S.W.

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Bluebook (online)
319 S.W.2d 389, 10 Oil & Gas Rep. 227, 1958 Tex. App. LEXIS 1663, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rollison-v-george-texapp-1958.