Spiller v. Bell

55 S.W.2d 634
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 2, 1932
DocketNo. 9775.
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 55 S.W.2d 634 (Spiller v. Bell) 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
Spiller v. Bell, 55 S.W.2d 634 (Tex. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

PLEASANTS, C. J.

This suit was brought by appellee R. E. Bell against appellants and other defendants to recover the title and possession of the east half of section 84, block 2, Houston & Texas Central Railroad Company survey in Harris county.

The defendants named in plaintiff’s petition are R. C. Lambie,' Gibbs Spiller and wife, Annie Spiller, the Guaranty State Bank, a private corporation, and the Gulf Produe *635 tion Company, and a number of vendors in tbe chain of title specially pleaded by plaintiff, and the unknown heirs, devisees, and legal representatives of each such named vendors. All these remote and intermediate vendors and their heirs, devisees, and legal representatives were cited by publication.

Upon the call of the case for trial in the court below, plaintiff dismissed his suit against the heirs, devisees, and legal representatives of the vendors in plaintiff’s chain of title who were made parties defendant as above stated. All of the other parties announced ready for trial without a jury. After hearing the evidence, the trial court rendered judgment in' favor of tlie plaintiff against all the remaining defendants for the title and possession of the land sued for. From this judgment the defendants Lambie, Spiller and wife, and I. D. Childress prosecute this appeal.

The evidence shows that the title- to all of the land passed -through I. D. Childress, through whom' appellee claims, to R. C. Lam-bie on February 27, 1913, and on January 6, 1914, R. C. Lambie executed a deed of trust to George E. Shelly to secure a note for $4,-000 owing by him to John Burwell Pope, the said note being due five years after its date. On August 3, 1914, Lambie conveyed the land to J. E. Smith, who assumed the Pope note. The land was passed back to Lambie by mesne conveyances, in which each grantee except Lambie assumed the Pope debt; the reconveyance to Lambie being dated February, 1917. To this point the deed of trust lien securing the Pope note was unchanged, except by the assumptions of Lambie’s vendees and his failure to reas-sume in the reconveyance to him.

On October 3, 1917, R. C. Lambie conveyed the surface of the land, together with one-third of the minerals therein, to John Wolf, by deed recorded in volume 389, p. 427, of the Deed Records of Harris county, and as part of the consideration for said deed Wolf specifically assumed the payment of the note to Pope.

The grant to Wolf was by said deed “subject to the oil and mineral rights hereinafter reserved,” and the habendum limits the grant as follows: “To have and to hold the above described tracts of land and premises unto the said John Wolf, his heirs and assigns forever, subject to the oil and mineral reservation hereinafter; and I do hereby bind myself, my heirs, executors and administrators to warrant and forever defend the right and title of the above described premises unto the said John Wolf, his heirs and assigns, against the lawful claim and claims of all persons whomsoever claiming or to claim the same or any part thereof. It is expressly understood that two-thirds of all oil and minerals in the above described tracts of land shall be and remain the property of the grantor herein and are here reserved unto him and not conveyed by this deed, and the right in and to said two-thirds of all oil and minerals is hereby reserved by the grantor herein unto himself.”

On March 19, 1920, Lambie and Wolf entered into a contract in which they agreed that Lambie was then owner of two-thirds, and Wolf one-third, of the oil, gas, and minerals in and under said land, and caused this contract to be recorded in Harris county.

Thereafter, on February 27, 1922, John Wolf conveyed the land to Gibbs Spiller, who also specifically assumed the payment of the Pope note, and the deed says it is the same land which was conveyed to him by R. C. Lambie by deed dated October 3,1917, recorded in volume 389, p. 42†, of the Deed Records of Harris county. The deed referred to for description of the land conveyed is the identical deed which reserved two-thirds of the minerals in Lambie.

On March 15, 1922, Gibbs Spiller and his wife, Annie Spiller, executed a deed of trust on the land to M. H. Gossett as trustee to secure a note for $3,200 which Spiller had borrowed from the Federal Land Bank to pay the -balance of $2,817 then "owing on the Pope note. Lambie was not a party to this loan transaction, and the deed of trust refers to the deed which reserved two-thirds of the minerals in Lambie, for description of the property on which the lien was fixed. On the same date Pope assigned and transferred the unpaid balance of $2,817 to the Land Bank, and also “all of the right, title and interest now owned or held by the grantor in and to said land by virtue of said note or notes and the lien securing the same.” This note had and has never been renewed by Lambie, and he has not been a party to any transaction affecting its maturity since its execution on January 6, 1914, or the increase of the debt by Spiller and the Land Bank. This $3,200 note is payable in installments extending over thirty-three years. The value of the land decreased from $6,-400 to $3,200 after the extension and increase in the amount of the note, and before the sale in 1927.

The Pope note was executed by Lambie on January 6, 1914, and was due January 6, 1919, and as to him it became barred by limitation on January 6, 1923. The full amount due on this note was paid Pope out of the $3,200 loan made by Spiller and wife from the Land Bank.

On March 24, 1923, Lambie conveyed his two-thirds of all of the oil and minerals to Spiller, reserving a royalty of one-sixteenth to himself.

On May 12,1927, M. H. Gossett, trustee, acting under power conferred by the deed of trust before mentioned, executed a power of *636 attorney by which he appointed J. W. Canada his agent and attorney in fact. Thereafter, on June 27, 1927, Canada, acting under such power of attorney, at the request of the Fair-: banks National Earm Loan Association, the holder of unpaid installments due on the Spiller $3,200 note, advertised and sold the property conveyed by the trust deed from Spiller and wife to Gossett to secure the payment of the note: The Fairbanks Association became the purchaser at this sale, and thereafter conveyed the property to appellee.

The deed from Wolf to Spiller, the deed of trust by Spiller and wife to Gobsett, the power of attorney from Gossett to Canada, the deed from Canada to Fairbanks Association, and the deed from the Fairbanks Association to the plaintiff Bell, each refer to the deed from Lambie to Wolf, dated October 3, 1917, and recorded in volume 389, p. 427, of the Deqd Records of Harris county, for description.

The pleadings of appellants in the trial court and their briefs in this court fully present the defenses, and raise the issues hereinafter discussed and decided, and need not be. further here stated.

Upon the facts before set out, we agree with appellants that the deed from Wolf to Spiller, under which appellee deraigns title, did not pass title to two-thirds of the oil and other minerals in and under the land. When Lambie conveyed to Wolf, he expressly reserved the title to two-thirds of the oil and minerals. This deed, which was of record in the deed records of Harris county, was referred to in the deed from Wolf to Spiller for a description of the land thereby conveyed.

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55 S.W.2d 634, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spiller-v-bell-texapp-1932.