Stewart v. McKee

150 S.W.2d 415
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 24, 1941
DocketNo. 2079
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 150 S.W.2d 415 (Stewart v. McKee) 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
Stewart v. McKee, 150 S.W.2d 415 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinions

FUNDERBURK, Justice.

This is a suit in trespass to try title and for damages to a 4.4-acre tract of land in Smith County. The 4.4 acres of land was described by metes and bounds as beginning at a stake in an old fence line 1,328 feet along such old fence line, and in a course south 10° 35' W, from the NW corner of the Wyley 320-acre Survey and the NE corner of the Louis Roberson 35-acre tract. From this beginning point the calls were:

“Thence N. 80 W 79 feet to stake for corner;
“Thence S. 11° 45' W crossing Wilshire Creek and continuing 1320 feet to stake for corner on the old NL of the McNary Smith tract of the McDavid property, said corner being in the old hedge lines and the old fence lines;
“Thence S. 80 E with the McDavid old fence line crossing Wilshire Creek continuing 54 feet to stake for corner on the East line of the Mayfield Estate property, said point being in the old fence line that now stands;
“Thence in a northerly direction following in a general manner but not the meanders along the E bank of Wilshire Creek as an old fence line now stands between Bateman’s property and Mayfield Estate property, by survey on the ground as follows: N 12 34' E 174 ft; N 62 11' E 91 ft; N 31 16' E 261 ft; N 10 15' E 181 ft; N 1 22' E 292 ft; N 23 08' W 92 ft; N 2 31' W 143 ft; N 6 15' E 201 ft. to the place of beginning.”

The plaintiffs were E. R. Stewart, A. S. Genecov and Sam Roosth. The defendants were Jesse McKee, Ed Taubert, C. L. Mahaney, and nineteen others, including the heirs of Parmelia Turner, deceased.

In addition to a general averment of ownership of the land and of particular interests therein, plaintiffs specially pleaded title by ten years limitation.

One of the defendants was DeSoto Crude Oil Purchasing Corporation, which, by its pleadings, showed that from a well drilled by defendants Taubert & McKee and Ma-haney upon the said land, it had purchased all the oil produced therefrom. It stated the amount of the total production, amounts paid, and to whom, and the amounts not paid but held in suspense.

The answer of defendants Libby Singer and husband, M. Singer, disclosed that they claimed to be the owners of an oil and gas lease upon the strip of land, subject to outstanding interests in other defendants, from which lease the oil had been produced. In addition to a general denial, and plea of not guilty, they pleaded improvements in good faith, and sought allowance therefor.

In a non-jury trial the court gave judgment for the defendants, from which the plaintiffs have appealed.

Appellants’ Fifth Proposition is as follows : “The record affirmatively shows that the W 79 feet of the strip claimed by the defendants, and for which plaintiffs sued were included in, and a part of, the 73 acre tract conveyed by Parmelia Turner and husband to Ben Roberson. Plaintiff showed a consecutive record chain of title to this strip out of Parmelia Turner 52 years before Mahaney bought the south one acre of the tract from the Turner heirs and 54 years before Taubert & McKee took an oil and gas lease out of the Turner heirs covering the remainder. The trial court therefore erred in not awarding plaintiffs title to this 79 foot strip.”

It was shown conclusively by the evidence that the NW corner of the Wyley (sometimes referred to as the Tucker) 320-acre tract, and the NE corner of the Louis Roberson 35-acre tract were the same, being a point on the N boundary line of the James Jordan Leiague Survey. There was no controversy as to the location of this corner upon the ground. The further fact was uncontroverted that the NE corner of the Ben Roberson 37-acre tract and the SE corner of the Louis Roberson 35-acre tract were the same. This corner, according to the- undisputed evidence, existed on the ground at a point 1,328 feet along an old fence line running in the course of S 10° 35' W from the said NW corner of the Wyley 320-acre tract, and the co-incident NE corner of the Louis Roberson 35-acre tract. The East, boundary line of the Ben Roberson 35-acre tract, according to the record title to said tract, was a line beginning at said undisputed corner (i.e., NE corner of the Ben Roberson 37-acre tract, and co-incident SE corner of the Louis Roberson 35-acre tract), [418]*418which corner was also in the West boundary line of the said' Wyley, or Tucker, 320-acre tract, and running “Thence South 80 rods to a corner.” Therefore, it appears any line beginning at said corner, whether running “N 80° W 79 ft” and Thence “S 11° 45' W crossing Wilshire Creek and continuing 1320 feet to a stake for corner”, as called for in the description of the strip of land in suit, or whether running directly from said corner in a course “S 11° 45' W”, or “10° 35' W”, would immediately run into said Ben Roberson’s 37 acre tract, and through land, the record title to which was in the assignees of Ben Roberson.

That some of the defendants were claiming the land described in plaintiffs’ pleadings was shown by the fact that the lease claimed by the defendants Taubert & McKee described the land in precisely the same way as described in plaintiffs’ petition. The defendants’ pleas of not guilty constituted an admission that the defendants were in possession of said strip of land. R.S.1925, Art. 7374. J. C. Bateman (joined by his wife), a remote grantee of Ben Roberson as to the entire 37-acre tract, on February 3, 1931, executed an oil and gas lease upon said land to Sun Oil Company. (H. A. Pace, another remote grantee of Ben Roberson, and the grantor of Bateman, joined in said lease.) Said lease, after describing the land the same as it had been described throughout the chain of title from Ben Roberson, except by adding “more or less” to the statement that the tract contained 37 acres, further recited that it was the “intention, however, of lessor to include within the terms of this lease not only the above described land, but also any and all other land owned or claimed by lessor in said Survey or Surveys in which the above described land is situated or in adjoining surveys and adjoining the above described land.”

This lease covered the Ben Roberson 37-acre tract and the Louis Roberson 35-acre tract.

By separate instruments, Sun Oil Company assigned said lease, except as to 15 acres out of the West side of the 37-acre tract, to James Stewart and plaintiffs Genecov' and Roosth. The portion of said lease, of which E. R. Stewart became the assignee, included all of the Ben Roberson 37-acre tract, except the west 15 acres, and the East line of the Stewart lease was a north-south line. It was, therefore, shown by the undisputed evidence that, of the tract of land described in plaintiffs’ petition, 79 feet off the West side (slightly northwest side) was included in the E. R. Stewart lease which the judgment awarded to the defendants. It is true, perhaps, that particular portions of the evidence may be pointed out, in conflict with this conclusion, but the material portions of such evidence was not possibly true. We know that a line run from a given point thence south 11° 45' W will never meet a line run upon the same course from a point north 80 west 79 feet from such point.

The evidence shows that Taubert & McKee, claiming a lease upon the 4.4-acre tract in controversy, less one acre which Mahaney claimed in fee, made a pooling agreement with Mahaney and had a well location made upon the land.

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Bluebook (online)
150 S.W.2d 415, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stewart-v-mckee-texapp-1941.