Stark v. Brown

210 S.W. 811, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 453
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 10, 1919
DocketNo. 414
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 210 S.W. 811 (Stark v. Brown) 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
Stark v. Brown, 210 S.W. 811, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 453 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinions

WALKER, J.

This is a suit in trespass to try title, brought by appellees against appel[812]*812lants to recover 160 acres of land, a part of International & Great Northern Railway survey No. 5 in Newton county, appellees’ title being one by limitation, and appellants being, by agreement, the owners of the record title. There was a judgment for appel-lees, from which appeal has been properly perfected. A former appeal is reported in 193 S. W. 717. A full statement of the facts of this case is given in the former opinion, to which we hereby refer.

This case was tried on special issues, and on the return of the verdict of the jury both parties filed motions asking the court to render judgment in their favor on such findings. Under the charge of the court, answering the special issues submitted, the jury found that the plaintiffs, through tenants, had held and had peaceable possession of the land described in plaintiffs’ petition, using and cultivating the same, and claiming the same for a period of ten consecutive years prior to January 1, 1918, to wit, from 1902 to 1917, inclusive. They further found that the possession began in the year 1902. They further found that the possession and acts of plaintiffs, through their tenants, were of such nature and character as to put a reasonably prudent person on notice that the plaintiffs were occupying said land and claiming 160 acres thereof. Quoting from the former opinion:

“The section of land involved contains about 388 acres, and is of irregular shape, about 90 acres thereof lying below a point where the two adjoining surveys come within 20' varas of each other, and from that point extending out in irregular shape around such adjoining surveys.”

The shape of this section is so irregular that we insert here a map of same in order that our decision of the points involved may be more readily understood.

In 1910 the appellants in this ease filed suit against Hannah Rhone and Jim Brown in the district court of Newton county, Tex., the lands involved in that suit being described as follows:

“That heretofore, to wit, on or about January 1, 1910, plaintiffs were lawfully seized and possessed and were the owners in fee simple of the following described tract of land, situated in Newton county, Tex., to wit: Being I. & G. N. survey No. 5, abstract No. 246, certificate 3880, beginning at McMahon’s S. W. corner on the Miller league line, a point from which a black oak marked ‘W. M.’ bears south 3.4 varas, and a black gum, same mark, bears south 57° W. 66 varas; thence N. 40° E. 872 varas, the S. E. corner of F. M. Stewart survey; thence north 60° W. with Stewart’s line 960 varas past Stewart’s S. W. corner, and at 973 varas stake on Keaghey’s east line; thence south 1,100 varas to Keaghey’s S. B. corner on Miller line; thence south 60° E. 262 varas to the place of beginning.”

On the 17th day of March, 1913, a judgment by agreement was entered in this last-named cause wherein the plaintiffs recovered from Hannah Rhone and Jim Brown the lands involved in that litigation; the judgment reciting the same description as given in plaintiffs’ petition.

On the former trial of this case the jury found that the possession of the plaintiffs under their plea of ten years’ limitation began in 1898. On the trial from which it is now before us the jury found that the possession of plaintiffs began in 1902.

By a proper charge appellants requested the court to instruct the jury that the filing of the suit in 1910 broke the possession of plaintiffs, thus preventing their holding from being “peaceable,” as that, term is defined by statute. Appellants also filed a motion, at the close of the testimony, asking the court to enter judgment in their favor on the record. This charge and this motion were by the court refused.

Appellants’ first assignment is that the court erred in failing to render judgment for them on the verdict of the jury.

[1] Under this assignment, appellants assert that their petition in the suit filed in 1910 was for all of survey No. 5, and that the suit against Hannah Rhone and Jim Brown, who were tenants of the appellees, broke the continuity of their possession, and, as the jury found on this trial that their possession began in 1902, they had only eight years’ possession, 'and hence cannot recover.

If plaintiffs’ suit filed in 1910 included all of I. & G. N. survey No. 6, then this proposition is well taken.

The construction of the description in the suit filed in 1910 is not entirely free from difficulty. We have above set out this description in full. The general description, “being I. & G. N. survey No. 6, abstract No. 246, certificate 3880,” includes all of this sur-[813]*813yey, and is sufficient to identify the same; hut, in addition, appellants followed this general description hya particular description describing the land sued for by metes and 'bounds.

In construing descriptions of the character involved in this appeal, Devlin, in his admirable work on Deeds (volume 2, p. 2016, § 1039), announces the following general rule:

“Where there is a repugnance between a general and a particular description in a deed, the latter will control. But, whenever possible, the real intent is to be gathered from the whole description, including the general description as well as the particular.”

In support of this rule, he cites the following Texas cases: Stafford v. King, 30 Tex. 257, 94 Am. Dec. 304; Cullers v. Platt, 81 Tex. 258, 16 S. W. 1003; Tate v. Betts, 97 S. W. 707.

In Tate v. Betts, supra, Chief Justice Fisher said:

“The only question in the case is as to whether or not the trial court placed the proper construction on the deed from Bennett Hill to Metzler. If the conclusion reached by the court was correct, the judgment in appellee’s favor must be affirmed. The ruling of the court is supported by Cullers v. Platt, 81 Tex. 263, 16 S. W. 1003, and Boggess v. Allen, 56 S. W. 195. In both cases the particular description contained in the deeds was held to control the general description.”

In Cullers v. Platt, supra, the general description conveyed all the land in the Tyson survey except 140 acres belonging to the Montgomery estate, and also described the land conveyed by metes and bounds. In disposing of the same, the Supreme Court said:

“But the rule is that, where there is a repugnance between a general and a particular description in a deed, the latter will control (2 Dev. on Deeds, § 1039), although, whenever it is possible, the real intent must be gathered from the whole description, including the general as well as the particular. Where a grantor 'conveys specifically by metes and bounds, so there can be no controversy abput what land is included and really conveyed, a general description as of all of a certain tract conveyed to him by another person, or, as in this ease, all of a survey except a tract belonging to another person, cannot control; for there is a specific and particular description about which there can be no mistake and no necessity for invoking the aid of the general description.”

In Waldin v. Smith, 76 Iowa, 652, 39 N. W. 82, the court said:

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210 S.W. 811, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 453, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stark-v-brown-texapp-1919.