Spencer v. Baumgart

157 S.W.2d 664, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 1042
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 17, 1941
DocketNo. 5259
StatusPublished

This text of 157 S.W.2d 664 (Spencer v. Baumgart) 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
Spencer v. Baumgart, 157 S.W.2d 664, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 1042 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

FOLLEY, Justice.

This suit was filed by the appellants Lila Vee McFarland Spencer and husband, Guy G. Spencer, S. E. Cone and John W. Murchison, against the appellees, George Baumgart and wife, Dulcie Baumgart, and the Shell Oil Company to recover the title and possession of Section No. 829, Block D, John H. Gibson Survey, in Yoakum County, wherein the appellants attacked as void a certain attempted foreclosure judgment and sale thereunder and an asserted rescission by George Baumgart, the appellants tendering and offering to pay such purchase money and indebtedness as due against the land and all taxes and school land interest, and offering generally to do equity. The court sustained general demurrers filed by the appellees to appellants’ fifth amended original petition; and, upon appellants’ failure to amend, dismissed the suit.

The petition of the appellees in the instant case is similar to and involves substantially the same basic facts as the petition of the appellants in the case of Patterson et ux. v. Shell Petroleum Corporation et al., Tex.Civ.App., 143 S.W.2d 208, in which this court reversed the ruling of the same trial court sustaining a general demurrer to that petition. As we view the two cases the only distinction in them is that in the Patterson case there were certain allegations seeking to cancel .a quitclaim deed to the land therein involved which was alleged to have been obtained from the Pat-tersons through fraudulent representations, whereas in the instant case no such issue is presented by the pleadings, and also in the case at bar additional allegations were made attempting to show that a rescission upon the part of Baumgart would be inequitable against Zella M. White and the appellants, her successors in interest.

The land involved in the Patterson case was the Northeast Quarter of Section 826 of Block D, while that in the instant case is Section 829 of the same block. As indicated in the opinion in the Patterson case Edward Randall is the common source of title of all the parties in this and the Patterson case. Without repeating the allegations here we refer to the former opinion to show the various transfers in the chain of title from Edward Randall through George Baumgart to Zella M. White, together with the indebtedness and liens created upon the lands involved, which include Section 829 in this case and the Northeast Quarter of Section 826 in the Patterson case. In the instant case the appellants made substantially these same allegations, and further alleged that although Mrs. White had sold the other lands purchased from Baumgart she never sold or conveyed Section 829, the land involved herein.

Having thus alleged title in Zella M. White the appellants further alleged that Lila Vee McFarland Spencer is the sole heir of Zella M. White, deceased since 1933, and that she and her husband had sold an undivided one-half interest in Section 829 to the appellant S. E. Cone for him to hold for himself and the other appellant John W. Murchison. They also alleged that they were in possession of the land on January 1, 1937, at which time they were dispossessed by the appellee under a claim of title and possession by a foreclosure suit in Cause No. 199 in the District Court of Yoakum County or under a pretended rescission by George Baumgart of his sale of the land to Mrs. Zella M. White. They further alleged, as did the appellants in the Patterson case, that in 1927 Baumgart filed suit in' Cause No. 199 against Zella M. White and others in the District Court of Yoakum County to foreclose his lien; that in such suit he alleged the residences of the defendants were unknown; that citation by publication was issued therein; that no affidavit was made therefor; that judgment was rendered upon such service and order of sale issued; that the land was sold undef said order of sale after the return day thereof; that such judgment and sale were therefore void; that Baumgart claims that at the time such suit was filed he notified Mrs. Zella M. White that several of the [666]*666fourteen notes executed by her for the land and payable to him were in default and that unless she paid the entire amount of the notes he would bring suit to foreclose against her; that appellants expressly denying any such notice would show the court that at such time only one of such notes could have been past due and, if past due, it was not past due for more than two or three months and no demand for payment was made; that the $13,008.60 recited consideration passing from Mrs. White to Baumgart in the purchase of the land was in truth and fact represented by an exchange of properties wherein Mrs. White and her husband conveyed to Baumgart certain hotel properties in the city of Clovis, New Mexico; that in the deed conveying the hotel property to Baumgart the latter assumed certain indebtedness existing against it; that at no time has Baumgart tendered or offered to return to Mrs. White or her heirs the hotel property nor the purchase money notes executed by her or a release for her assumption of the indebtedness due Edward Randall and his successors in interest; that long before there was any default in the performance of the contract by Zella M.' White, and before Baumgart claimed any right of rescission, he sold or exchanged the hotel property in Clovis since which time he has not been in position to restore such property to Mrs. White; that Baumgart never at any time before or after filing his foreclosure suit advised or notified Mrs. White or her heirs that he intended to rescind the sale or in any wise abandon his foreclosure suit; that having pursued such suit to final judgment he waived his right of rescission and elected his remedy of foreclosure; that having retained the benefits of the transáction with Mrs. White it would be inequitable to permit him to assert any right of rescission and he was estopped to do so; that by reason of the premises any rescission claimed by Baumgart was wholly ineffective; that Cause No. 199 wherein the void foreclosure was attempted is still pending, the same never having been abandoned or dismissed; that appellants had filed answers therein and tendered all sums due or owing on the purchase money notes; that Baumgart is merely a mortgagee in possession under invalid foreclosure proceedings; that whatever right, title or claim the Shell Oil Company has in the land is under and through George Baumgart and was acquired with full knowledge of the invalidity of the foreclosure proceedings and said alleged rescission; and that the appellants in-the instant cause offered to do full equity with reference to any amounts due Baum-gart or any other person by virtue of any vendor’s lien notes, assumption of indebtedness, taxes or other just amounts claimed against Mrs. Zella M. White dr her vendees,, assignees, heirs or those claiming under her, and tendered into open court any amounts ascertained by the court as due. Such were the allegations of the appellants’ petition against which the general demurrer was sustained which action forms the basis of this appeal. .

We think our disposition of the Patterson case is controlling here. If our judgment was correct reversing the trial' court in the Patterson case similar action is-warranted herein notwithstanding the distinction in the pleadings of the two cases-above mentioned which we think material only in that it tends to confirm the correctness of our present action.

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131 S.W.2d 95 (Texas Supreme Court, 1939)
Hill v. Preston
34 S.W.2d 780 (Texas Supreme Court, 1931)
G. W. Tom & Wife v. Wollhoefer
61 Tex. 277 (Texas Supreme Court, 1884)
Marshall v. Mayfield
227 S.W. 1097 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1921)
Walls v. Cruse
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Patterson v. Shell Petroleum Corp.
143 S.W.2d 208 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
157 S.W.2d 664, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 1042, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spencer-v-baumgart-texapp-1941.