Schroeder v. Rosenbaum

21 S.W.2d 694, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 1080
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided July 19, 1929·No. No. 9313.·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

GRAVES, J.

With only such interpolations added at places not therein specifically indicated as to make it slightly more detailed, this substantially correct statement is appropriated from the appellees’ brief:

“This suit was instituted by the appellees against the appellants in the District Court of Washington County, Texas; the first count of the petition being in the statutory form of trespass to try title and the second count being, in substance, for reformation of the deed dated November 29, A. D. 1926, executed by the appellants to the appellees to recover a strip of 14.42 acres and 8¾ acres that had been pointed out to appellees by appellants besides other lands that would be conveyed to appellees, but were omitted from the deed-executed by appellants to appellees.
“The appellees allege in their petition that I-I. II. Sehroeder, one of the appellants, while the negotiations for the sale were going on, went with the appellees on the land and pointed the land out to them and told them that appellants would sell them all of the lands under fence to the south side of a public road which cut off about 40 acres to the north side of the road that appellants would reserve; and that all of the lands to the south of the road belonged to the appellants and was in one body and all of that land would be sold. That appellees relied on his statements and acted thereon and a deed of general warranty was subsequently made by him and his children to them. That after the deed had been executed and delivered to the appel-lees and appellees placed in actual possession of all of the land to the south of the public road, and appellants had received the money for the land, $3800.00 as for 190 acres more or less at $20.00 per acre, then appellants attempted to fence part of the same land that had been pointed out to them by H. H. Sehroeder and that was in possession of the appellees which was part of the body of land under the fence to the south of the road. Ap-pellees set up that if the deed did not describe and embrace the lands that appellants were attempting to fence on the south side of the road of which the appellees had been placed in actual possession By appellants, then the deed did not describe the -lands actually purchased by them and in their possession and that the deed should therefore be so reformed as to embrace all of the lands that were to the south side of the public road under fence in that one body as the appellants had agreed to sell them and the possession of which had been delivered to them by appellants. That the deed should be so reformed as to embrace the lands purchased by the appellees, and to carry out the agreement between appellants and appellees as originally made by them.
“The appellants answered by general demurrer and specially disclaimed as to any of the lands described in the deed from appellants to appellees, dated November 29, A. D. 1926. That if the appellees thought that they were purchasing all of the lands to the south of the road under fence and in one body, then there was no meeting of the minds of the parties, and no contract was really made, and that appellants tendered to the appellees the purchase price recited in the deed, together with 6% interest, and asked that appellees re-convey to them the land, rents, lease money and royalties received by the appellees, which appellants say is an excess of $5000.00, and that the deed should- be cancelled, set aside and annulled. And further they answer that appellees are seeking to invoke .the equitable power of the court to grant them equitable relief, they must come into court offering to do equity, and without such offer the court is powerless to exercise its equitable power, and further they filed a .general denial and plea of not guilty.
“The case was called for trial on September 27, 1928, and the general demurrer of appellants was overruled, and thereupon all parties announced ready for trial, a jury was duly impanelled and sworn to try the issues, and after the introduction of all the testimony, the court submitted the case to the jury on these special issues:
“ T. When Mrs. Ida. Rosenbaum and her husband were on the land with H. H. Schroeder, that Sehroeder was proposing to sell to Mrs. Ida Rosenbaum and her husband, did II. H. Sehroeder state to Mrs. Ida Rosenbaum and her husband that the land he was offering to sell Mrs. Ida Rosenbaum and her husband was all of the land under his fence on *696 the south side of the public road running through Schroeder’s land?
“ ‘2. If you answer Special Issue No. 1, Yes, or in the affirmative, then you will answer the following special issue:
“ ‘Did Mrs. Ida' Rosenbaum believe and rely on the statement made to her by H. H. Schroeder, that the land he was offering to sell her was all of the land under his fence to the south .of the public road running through this land?
“ ‘3. If you answer special issue Nos. 1 and 2 in the affirmative, or Yes, then you will answer the following special issue:
“ ‘Did Mrs. Ida Rosenbaum believe at the time she accepted the deed from H. H. Schroeder and paid him for the land that the deed conveyed to her all of the land under Schroeder’s fence on the south side of the public road running through the land?’
“The answers to all of which issues were found in favor of the appellees, and the court then entered judgment in favor of the appel-lees, so reforming the deed from appellants to them of date November 29, 1926, as to include the two tracts sued for.”

The Schroeders, having duly presented an appeal from such adverse judgment, make no attack upon the verdict as not being supported by the evidence, but through more than thirty propositions, ba,sed on even more assignments, some of which are mere abstractions, present here what may be thus epitomized as their main contentions:

(1) Their general demurrer to the ap-pellees’ petition should have been sustained, the suit being one to reform a deed without allegation of fraud, accident, 'or mistake — either mutual or unilateral induced by the opposite party’s fraud.

This cannot be sustained; the general demurrer was addressed to the petition as a whole, which, as the preliminary statement has shown, was a twofold declaration: First, in trespass to try title to the two omitted strips of land comprising 14.42 and 8% acres, respectively; second, to reform the deed that passed between the parties so. as to make it include them, under averment that they had been omitted from the description of land for which the appellees had not only paid appellants, but of which the latter had put them in actual possession at the time as constituting part of the whole body contracted for. This stated a good cause of action.

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Schroeder v. Rosenbaum, 21 S.W.2d 694, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 1080 (Tex. Ct. App. 1929).

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