Speer v. Pool

210 S.W.2d 423, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1081
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 4, 1947
DocketNo. 4540
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 210 S.W.2d 423 (Speer v. Pool) 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
Speer v. Pool, 210 S.W.2d 423, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1081 (Tex. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinions

McGILL, Justice.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the District Court of Ector County. Appellants as plaintiffs sued appellee as defendant seeking to recover damages for fraudulent misrepresentations which induced them to purchase a tract of land, being a portion of Lot No. 7 in Block No. 10 in the Pool Annex to the Town of Odessa.

The alleged misrepresentations were as to the true north boundary line of the land and that a frame house was entirely lo[424]*424cated thereon. Trial was to a jury. Answers were returned to special issues submitted; the court rendered judgment in favor of plaintiffs for nominal damages of One Dollar and costs.

Appellants’ points complain of the Court’s action in failing and refusing to enter judgment for them in accordance with their motion for judgment for $2250 based on the verdict, and in entering its own judgment for the sum of One Dollar in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendant, disregarding all motions of the plaintiffs and the defendant for judgment otherwise.

In referring to proceedings in the trial court the parties will be designated as they there appear.

Plaintiffs alleged that shortly before January 1, 1945, plaintiffs and defendant entered into an agreement whereby defendant was to convey to plaintiffs the south portion of Lot 7, Block 10 of the Pool Annex Addition to the Town of Odessa, for a stated consideration and that defendant did execute and deliver to plaintiffs a deed conveying some property on Lot 7, but that plaintiffs discovered after accepting the deed that it did not convey the property bargained for and pointed out by defendant as being the property he was selling; that during negotiations and inspection of the premises defendant stated that the four room house there situated was on the part of the lot conveyed “and pointed out the North line as being a line running directly across the Lot 7 to a cedar post on the West side of the lot pointed out by Pool, such line running in an Easterly-Westerly direction, beginning at a small tree situated along or near the East boundary line of the said lot, such north boundary line running clear of the rear end of the house about nine feet, approximately”; that after delivery of the deed plaintiffs had the lot surveyed and found that the residence did not wholly set on the lot purchased; “that in fact and in truth the North boundary line is something like 18 feet South of the line pointed out as above by the defendant, and the true surveyed line, as reflected in the deed delivered, runs under or across the house, leaving a portion of the residence on that portion of the lot theretofore sold by the said Defendant to another party.” They alleged that they depended on defendant’s statements as to the position of the North boundary and that the house was situated on the part of the lot purchased and had they known such statements were false they would not have purchased the place. They allege that the fair market value of the lot as pointed out was $3,500 and the fair market value of the 75 foot lot called for in the deed with improvements partly thereon was $600. They prayed for actual damages of $2,900.

Defendant answered by general denial and further alleged that on February, 5, 1946, he did accompany plaintiff, Mrs. Lottie Speer, to the South part of Lot 7, and indicate to her the approximate North boundary line of the property to be sold; that the line was indicated by him to be a short distance South of the Spanish cedar tree on the east boundary line of Lot 7 and would run westerly parallel with the south boundary line of said Lot 7; that on such date he did not own the north portion of Lot 7; that it was his intention to convey all of his interest in Lot 7; “that thereafter, after a survey of the property by plaintiffs and another survey by defendant, defendant did purchase the property to the north of the south seventy-five feet of said Lot 7, as described in the warranty deed to plaintiffs dated February 6, 1946, and now owns the south twenty-one feet of the North sixty-five feet of said Lot 7, Block 10, Pool’s Annex, an addition to the Town of Odessa, Ector County, Texas, and does here and now, in open court, tender unto plaintiffs herein a good and sufficient warranty deed, executed by defendant herein, W. J. Pool, joined therein by his wife, Ida B. Pool, conveying unto plaintiffs the south twenty-one feet of the north sixty-five feet of said Lot 7. That this tender is made for the sole and only purpose of delivering unto plaintiffs the property so as to include the house situated thereon, and to give them title to the North boundary line as indicated to plaintiffs by defendant on February 5, 1946. That this tender of the twenty-one feet immediately North and adjoining the tract heretofore conveyed to plaintiffs is made for the purpose of mitigating or minimizing or alleviating the damages alleged to have been suffered by plaintiffs herein.”

[425]*425Attached to plaintiffs’ petition and to appellants’ brief is a copy of a map which was introduced in evidence and is here reproduced :

It appears from defendant’s testimony that the south line of the tract described in the deed tendered in Court is coincident with the line A-B shown on the map; that the east line is coincident with twenty-one feet of line A-D shown on the map beginning- at point A; the west line is coincident with the line B-C shown on the map and extends to a point in the west line of Lot 7 four feet north of point C; the north line [426]*426connects this point with the north end of the east line.

The jury found: (1) That defendant represented to plaintiffs that the north boundary line of the part of Lot 7 being offered for sale ran through the Spanish cedar tree and the cedar post, being indicated on the map as the line C-D; (2) That such representation was a material inducement to plaintiffs to purchase the real estate in question ; (3) That the reasonable market value of the real estate conveyed in the deed of February 6, 1946, designated on the map as A-B-F-E including only such improvements as rest directly thereon was $750; (4) That the reasonable market value of the real estate bargained to be sold designated on the map as C-D-F-E, was $5,000; (5) That the deed tendered in court together with the original conveyance did not convey to plaintiffs all of the land defendant originally agreed to convey to them; (6) That the' reasonable market value of the real estate conveyed in the deed of February 6, 1946, and designated on the map as A-B-FE, and the real estate conveyed in the deed tendered in court by defendant was $3,000.' Defendant filed a motion for judgment on the ground that “the answer to Special Issue No. 4 by the jury in the amount of $3,000.00 and the answer of the jury to Special Issue No. 6 in the amount of $3,000.00 is a finding that the property actually received by plaintiffs is of the same value as the property claimed by them.

“Without dispute the evidence showed that plaintiffs purchased seventy-five (75) feet of land and a house; that the property actually received by plaintiffs, including the property tendered in Court, includes the same seventy-five (75) feet of land and the same house and is a substantial compliance with the representations alleged by plaintiffs to be made by defendant; that the offer or delivery of the deed for the additional property was in r/iedigation

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
210 S.W.2d 423, 1947 Tex. App. LEXIS 1081, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/speer-v-pool-texapp-1947.