Stark v. Leonard

212 S.W. 677, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 719
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 23, 1919
DocketNo. 415.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 212 S.W. 677 (Stark v. Leonard) 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. Leonard, 212 S.W. 677, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 719 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

BROOKE, J.

This is the second appeal in this cause; the opinion on the first appeal being reported in 196 S. W. 709. A full understanding of the case may be better had, perhaps, by referring to the above-styled cause.

One Dick Holmes, the father of Lou Leonard, about 1871, bought what was then known as the Joe Hardy place and gave it to his daughter Lou. At that time the place was supposed to be public land, and Joe Hardy had made a small improvement on it, with the view of purchasing it from the state. After Dick Holmes purchased the place he had the same surveyed by the county surveyor, upon his application to purchase from the state. At this time his daughter Lou was living in the Joe Hardy house with her former husband. After this survey was made for Holmes, the place was known as the Richard Holmes survey, under which name Dick Holmes rendered it for taxes and paid taxes on it for a long number of years. Dick Holmes gave his daughter Mazie a home on this land, but she never lived on it, and he also gave his son Will Holmes a part of the land, and he lived on his place, about 300 yards from the Hardy place, until he died. These various gifts were verbal. Lou Leonard went upon the land with her present husband, Levi, in 1881, and lived there with him until 1888, when they left. After living at various places, they finally pre-empted a piece of land in 1898, where they have since lived.

The land known as the Richard Holmes survey embraced within its boundaries about 20 acres of public land, about 80 acres of the McGee league not in conflict with any other survey, about 40 acres of the McGee league covered by the McWilliams survey in conflict, and about 20 acres of the McWilliams survey not in conflict with the McGee, making 160 acres in all, and the judgment from *678 which this appeal is perfected is for all of the land.

The first assignment of error made by appellants complains of the action of the court in refusing the request of defendants for a peremptory instruction to the jury to return a verdict in their favor, as shown by their bill of exceptions No. 1. Under this assignment is this proposition:

“Where the only possession of land is shown to have been held under the claim of another who asserts no title in himself, the limitation claim is not available, and the occupancy of appellees, being under a claim of ownership in Richard Holmes, is not such adverse possession in thorn as to ripen into a limitation title in their favor.”

The case was submitted to the jury on special issues, as follows:

“Question No. 1. Did the plaintiffs Lou Leonard and Levi Leonard, or either of them, either in person or through tenants, have peaceable and adverse possession of the land in controversy, cultivating, using, or enjoying the same for a period of ten consecutive years before the filing of this suit? You will answer this question ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as you may find the fact to be.
“Question No. 2. Was the possession of the plaintiffs by themselves or through tenants, if any, of such a nature and character as to put a reasonably prudent person on notice that the plaintiffs were occupying said land and claiming 160 acres thereof? You will answer this question ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as you may determine from the evidence.
“Question No. 3. Do you believe from the evidence that Richard Holmes claimed the land sued for while rendering the same for taxes? You will answer this question ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as you may find the fact to be.”

To question No. 1 the jury answered “Yes”; to No. 2 “Yes”; and to No. 3 “No.” Therefore by these findings the jury found that Lou Leonard and her husband, either one or both, had adverse possession, cultivation, use, and enjoyment of the same for a period of ten years before the filing of this suit, and that the nature and character of the possession was sufficient to put a reasonably prudent person on notice that the plaintiffs were occupying said land, claiming 160 acres thereof, and that Richard Holmes did not claim the land sued for while rendering the same for taxes. Therefore these findings of the jury answer the contention of appellants, and we hold that the evidence is sufficient to sustain the findings of the jury.

The second and third assignments are:

(a) “The court erred in rendering judgment for plaintiffs for the land sued for upon the verdict of the jury because by the verdict of the jury it was established that plaintiffs asserted claim to a specific tract of land not identified by any evidence as being the land sued for.”
(b) “The court erred in submitting to the jury question No. 1 because the undisputed evidence shows that any claim asserted by plaintiffs to any land during their period of occupancy was to a specific survey located by metes and bounds, and not identified by any evidence as being the land sued for.”

The following agreement as to title was made by the parties to this suit: '

“It is agreed by the parties plaintiff and defendant that plaintiffs claim the land sued for by virtue of the statutes of limitation as shown by their petition, and do not claim to have any record or paper title thereto, but their sole claim thereto rests upon occupancy under the statutes of limitation as stated.
“(2) Defendants own the land (subject to plaintiffs’ title by limitation) and claim the ?ame by regular chain of conveyances from the sovereignty to themselves, and the record title thereto is perfect in said defendants, said land having been patented or granted by the state of Texas prior to the year 1860 to John McGee, and that defendants would be entitled to recover and hold the same unless defeated in their claim by the plaintiffs’ claim of title by limitation, and no proof of such record title shall be required on the trial of this cause.”

The proposition under the second assignment is that, where a claim is made to a specific tract of land while being occupied, the limitation title is confined to the specific land, and a failure to identify the particular land claimed constitutes a failure to make out a case entitling the claimant to recover.

It is argued that plaintiffs’ possession of land was under a claim to a.specific tract as surveyed for them by the surveyor Nations, and if they could recover under the limitation statutes any land, it would be the land claimed, and a failure to identify the land claimed as being the land sued for would defeat a recovery.

The jury found that Richard Holmes lived on the land from 1872 to 1881, and that at the time Richard Holmes purchased said land he gave it to his daughter Lou, one of the appellees; that appellee Lou Leonard lived on the land from 1872 until 1888, and that appellee and Levi Leonard lived on the land from 1881 to 1888; that appellees, in person or by tenants, have had adverse and peaceable use of the land in controversy for a period of ten consecutive years before this suit was filed; that the possession of the land by appellees was of such nature and character as to constitute notice that they were claiming 160 acres. Appellee Lou Leonard testified to the following: That she and Dan Foster married in the fall and made one crop on the Chas.

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Bluebook (online)
212 S.W. 677, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 719, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stark-v-leonard-texapp-1919.