Strait Bros. v. Chaney

209 S.W. 219, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 234
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 5, 1919
DocketNo. 6156.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 209 S.W. 219 (Strait Bros. v. Chaney) 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
Strait Bros. v. Chaney, 209 S.W. 219, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 234 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

FLY, C. J.

Appellee instituted this action against Strait Bros., as a partnership and as individuals, and Price, Ritchie & Buttles, as a partnership and as individuals, to recover for the use of appellee’s land, consisting of G40 acres, for the time beginning in 1908 and ending with 1917, alleging that the defendants had conspired to use his land without paying for the rent of the same, and had used the same for the time indicated, and had prevented appellee from renting the land to others. Strait Bros, and Joel Buttles filed pleas of privilege to be sued in other counties than Bexar counts’-, which were overruled, and all the defendants interposed pleas of limitation, which were sustained, except for the years 1915,1916, and 1917, and judgment was rendered in favor of appellee against Strait Bros. Jesse B. Strait, Yancy | Strait, and Joel Buttles, but the court rendered judgment for their costs in favor of J. E. Ritchie and Lucilius Price; it appearing that the partnership of Price, Ritchie & Buttles was dissolved in 1913.

The facts show that appellants took possession of appellee’s 640 acres of land in 1913, and appropriated it to their use and benefit until the end of 1917, renting it and receiving for its use the sum of 25 cents an acre, and they are justly indebted to appel-lee for the years 1915, 1916, and 1917 in the sum of $320, as found by the trial judge.

[1-3] The first assignment of error complains of the action of the court in overruling a general demurrer to the amended petition on which the cause was tried. The following allegations are found in the petition:

“On the 1st day of January, 1908, defendants, without the knowledge and consent of your plaintiff, entered upon the said premises owned by your plaintiff, as above described, and used- and occupied the property for a period of nine years up to and including the 1st day of January, 1917, and the defendants each and all shared the profits and revenues accruing by reason of the said use and occupancy of the said land so owned by your plaintiff; that your plaintiff, during said period at various times, tried to rent the said premises to some of these defendants, as well as to others, but these defendants schemed and conspired together to prevent your plaintiff from securing a renter for the said premises, and concealed all of these facts from the knowledge of your petitioner, and by reason of the facts above alleged your plaintiff was unable to rent said land.
“Plaintiff further shows to the court that the land above described was in a larger inelosurc, and not fenced off separately, and for this, etc., he resides in a county distant from that in which this land is situated, among other reasons, he did not know that the defendants were deriving revenues from said land and using the same; and on divers occasions he attempted to rent said land to the defendants, or some of them, and particularly the firm of Price, Ritchie & Buttles, and they declined to rent the same from him either at that time or any other time. But, during all of the time herein alleged, the defendants were occupying said land, and using it together, and deriving large revenues therefrom; and plaintiff says that it became the duty of the defendants, when he interviewed them with reference to renting said land to them for pasturage purposes, and they declined to do so, to inform him that they were so occupying and using said land and deriving revenues therefrom, but this they absolutely failed to do, and the failure so to inform him of their use and occupancy of said land at a time when it became their duty to speak was equivalent to and was a fraud upon this plaintiff.”

The petition was not subject to attack through a general demurrer. If, as alleged, appellants entered upon appellee’s land without his knowledge or consent, and used and occupied it, and shared the px-ofits and revenues arising from it, and prevented appellee from renting the same, they would be liable to appellee for such revenues, no matter if *221 the land was inclosed in a pasture with over 4,000 acres of land belonging to appellants. Every intendment being resolved in favor of a pleading assailed by general demurrer, it must be read into the petition that as appellants were obtaining all the profits and revenues from the use of the land, they were in exclusive possession of the same. We cannot accede to the proposition that a person can rent the property of another in the same inclosure and use the revenues to the exclusion of the owner. It may be that under the system in Texas the owner of a pasture in which another has land could pasture his own stock thereon without being liable to the other for such pasturage, but we cannot go to the extent of holding that the owner can rent the land of the other for farming or pasturage purposes and not be liable for the rents arising therefrom. By leasing the land the owner of the large portion in the pasture or farm is appropriating the property of another to his own use and benefit and depriving that other of the same. The open use of the land did not deprive ap-pellee of his rights, nor fortify any claim of appellants to the revenues arising from the property of another. While it has been the policy of this state to permit stock to run at large upon any one’s uninclosed land, it has never been held or imagined that a person could rent the uninclosed land to another to use by herding his cattle upon it. The land being inclosed with that of appellants merely secured the right to each party to pasture cattle upon the land In proportion to the number of acres owned by him, and while the doctrine might possibly be stretched so as to permit one party to pasture all the land, it could not in equity and justice permit leases to others and an appropriation of the lease money by one of the owners of the inclosed land. No such doctrine is advanced in Pace v. Potter, 85 Tex. 473, 22 S. W. 300, Lyons v. Slaughter, 87 -S. W. 182, and Durst v. Mann, 35 S. W. 950. The case of Pace v. Potter merely holds that cattle running on the uninclosed land of another does not constitute a trespass, and that where the lands of two or more persons are inclosed in the same pasture, each owner can pasture cattle in proportion to the number of acres he owns. It is also held that the exclusive possession of one owner would make him liable to the others. To the same effect is Lyons v. Slaughter, and it was also held that an owner would be liable for any stock pastured over and above his pro rata. In the case of Durst v. Mann it wás held that one who fences land with his own and uses the land as a pasture to the exclusion of others will be liable for the rental value of the land.

[4] The -case of St. Louis Cattle Co. v. Vaught, 1 Tex. Civ. App. 388, 20 S. W. 855, clearly states the law as applied to this case under a similar but not so cogent a state of facts. The facts in that case were that Vaught owned a section of land, which was in an inclosure belonging to the cattle company. The inclosure was used as a pasture by the company to pasture its cattle. The company had from 75,000 to 100,000 acres in the pasture. Eree ingress to and egress-from the land was not denied the owner. The court said:

“In this state, on account of the condition-which has existed from time immemorial of the grazing lands, the owner of such property cannot complain, as long as it remains a portion of the ‘commons,; that the cattle of another should roam over it and graze upon it at will.

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Bluebook (online)
209 S.W. 219, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strait-bros-v-chaney-texapp-1919.