Smith v. Chipley

42 S.W.2d 645
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 30, 1931
DocketNo. 3591
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 42 S.W.2d 645 (Smith v. Chipley) 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
Smith v. Chipley, 42 S.W.2d 645 (Tex. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

HAUL, C. J.

On September 3, 1921, a written contract was entered into between Mrs. Minnie Slaughter Veal and her husband, as vendors, and H. D. Chipley, as vendee, involving a sale and an option to sell about 19,600 acres of land. The contract divides the land into the east half and the west half, and provides that the sellers are to have $15 per acre for the east half and $10 per acre for the west half. It was contemplated at the time the contract was entered into that the purchaser would subdivide and resell the east half in small tracts at prices fixed in the contract, and that, if tlié entire east half was sold on or before December 31, 1922, the purchaser, Chipley, would then have the right to acquire the entire west half at the contract price of $10 by paying not less than $2 per acre in cash and executing his notes for the remainder, payable according to the terms fixed in the contract.

Thereafter Chipley assigned his rights and interest under the contract with Mrs. Veal to Morton Smith and R. Taylor Woodson; Smith acquiring a three-fourths interest and Woodson the remaining one-fourth interest.

On December 30, 1922, a part of the east half being unsold, it was purchased by Smith and Chipley, and by that purchase they acquired the right under the contract to the entire west'half at $10.per acre, $2 of which must be paid in cash and the remainder in notes.

Thereafter, in February, 1923, Woodson died, and his wife, Lora A. Woodson, married Chipley. She then filed suit, joined by her husband, H. D. Chipley, in the district court of Lubbock county, against Morton J. Smith, W. S. Posey, O. L. Slaton, and the First National Bank of Lubbock, to recover as the sole heir of Woodson her interest in the profits realized from the sale of the east half of the Veal lands. From a judgment in her favor Smith appealed to this court, "and on November 3, 1926, this court reversed the judgment and remanded the cause, because she had sued alleging only a conversion of her interest in the proceeds realized from the sale of the east half, and did not sue for an accounting of the partnership affairs. See 287 S. W. 156, 157.

Upon writ of error to the Supreme Court, Powell, P. J., reversed the judgment of this court, principally upon the theory that the partnership existing between Smith and others was only a single venture, and did not involve complicated accounts, and further because it had terminated on completion of the transaction, holding that under such circumstances one partner could sue another at law for conversion of profits without first having dn equitable accounting. See 292 S. W. 209.

After Chipley had assigned all of his interest in the Veal contract of November 22,1922, to Smith and Woodson, and after Smith, on December 31, 1922, had purchased the then unsold part of the east half of said land with money which Slaton and Posey had indirectly provided, Smith, Woodson, Slaton, and Posey, as the owners, entered into the contract set out in 118 Tex. 415, 16 S.W.(2d) 269, 273, et seq., under the terms of which Smith, as trustee, was to hold title to the lands described therein for himself and the other signers of the contract, which provides that Woodson owns a one-sixth interest, Slaton and Posey two-sixths interest, and Smith a three-sixth interest.

The first suit filed by Mrs. Chipley was numbered 2013 upon the docket of the district court of Lubbock county, and, after the Supreme Court had affirmed the judgment which she recovered against Smith in that case, Smith settled it in full by paying to her the amount of the judgment, $11,788 and interest.

It appears that, in order to secure an af-firmance of the district court’s judgment in cause No. 2013 in the Supreme Court upon writ of error from this court, the appellee represented in her application that there was no controversy between the parties with reference to the west half of the Veal land, and expressly disclaimed any interest in said west half. Presumably the purpose of this representation and disclaimer was to avoid the effect of this Court’s holding that she could not maintain a suit to recover any interest due her from the sale of the east half because the Veal-Chipley contract was an entirety, and that her action was, in effect, a suit for a settlement and an accounting of partnership affairs. She stated in her application for writ of error and briefs that the matter with reference to the west half was settled, and no one was complaining of the settlement. By these representations she misled the Supreme Court and secured an affirmance of the district court’s judgment, because, as appears from the Supreme Court’s decision, they thought all controversy, with reference to the west half had been eliminated by agreement of the parties, in which event there was nothing to be settled but the east half, and under that condition an accounting and settlement of the partnership affairs was not necessary, because she could recover as for conversion her ‘ interest in the profits by a suit at law.

After she had secured her judgment, and it had been affirmed by the Supreme Court, such affirmance being based upon the mistaken impression made in her pleadings filed in the Supreme Court that she was claiming no interest whatever in the west half, she filed this suit No. 3065 in the district court of Lubbock county against the said Smith, Slaton, and Posey to recover her interest in the west half. Upon a trial, she recovered another judgment, from which an appeal was prosecuted to this court, 24 S.W.(2d) 87. This sec[647]*647ond judgment was reversed and remanded, but upon motion for a rehearing this court certified to the Supreme Court this question: “The disclaimer of interest in the west half as made in the application for the writ of error so filed in the Supreme Court, being totally inconsistent with the assertion of an interest in the west half which antedates the filing of said application, is the plaintiff, Mrs. Chipley, estopped thereby from asserting any interest in the west half?”

In an extended opinion, 118 Tex. 415, 16 S. W.(2d) 269, Judge Critz sets out the certificate, together with the application for writ of error filed in the first case by Mrs. Chip-ley, in which she disclaimed any interest in the west half, and which for the sake of brevity we will not reproduce here, and, after discussing the right of Mrs. Chipley to maintain this suit, answered the certified question in the affirmative. It would needlessly prolong this opinion to quote from the decision, but 'the holding is that, after she had disclaimed her interest in the west half in a previous application for writ of error to the Supreme Court, she was estopped from asserting in this case against the same parties any interest in the west half, and that to permit her to recover in this case would be tantamount to allowing her to recover by her own wrong and take an advantage of an error committed by the Supreme Court induced and invited by her, even though the judgment which was rendered, relying upon her statements, was erroneous.

Upon the return of the certificate with the answer thereto from the Supreme Court, the judgment of the district- court was reversed and the cause remanded. Motions to render judgment in favor of Smith were overruled in both the Supreme Court and in this court.

For a full statement and understanding of the case, reference is made to the opinions previously rendered by this court and the Commission of Appeals.

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Bluebook (online)
42 S.W.2d 645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-chipley-texapp-1931.