Szanto v. Pagel

47 S.W.2d 632
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 17, 1932
DocketNo. 7680
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 47 S.W.2d 632 (Szanto v. Pagel) 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
Szanto v. Pagel, 47 S.W.2d 632 (Tex. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

BLAIR, J.

The parties will be designated herein as appellants and appellee.

Appellants, John Szanto and W. R. Rogers, sued appellee, H. A. Pagel, to recover $1,700 as stipulated damages for the breach of a written contract for the exchange of certain lands, executed by Szanto and Pagel, and providing that $000 of such damages should be paid appellant Rogers, who acted as broker for both parties in procuring the contract. The contract required Szanto to furnish an abstract showing a “good merchantable title” in himself to the land he was agreeing to convey Pagel. A trial to the court without a jury resulted in a finding that Szanto failed to furnish Pagel with an abstract showing a good merchantable title in himself to the land, and that therefore Szanto was'not entitled to recover the damages sued for by him; hence this appeal.

Under the terms of the contract Szanto was to convey Pagel 1,288 acres of land, Pagel to assume an'indebtedness of $10,000 against the land, in exchange for his land. Abstracts showing good merchantable titles were to be furnished by the respective parties by November 1, 1929, and ten days thereafter were allowed for examination of the abstracts; and, if defects were shown in either title, the party whose title was defective was given until November 25, 1929, in which to cure the defects susceptible of being cured without suit; but, if suit were necessary, then a reasonable time should be had for that purpose.

The contract also provided that, if Pagel could not secure the renewal of the $10,000 [634]*634indebtedness against tbe land for twelve months at the rate of interest it was bearing, he could terminate the contract, unless Szan-to should carry it, or get some one to carry it. On or about November 1, 1929, Szanto delivered his abstract to Rogers for delivery to Pagel, but about that time Pagel notified Szanto that he could not procure a renewal of the loan. Szanto then toot the abstract from Rogers, and he and Pagel went to Waco and applied to the Bankers’ Life Insurance Company for the loan; Pagel testifying that he made the application solely for the purpose of “hurrying up the matter.” Szanto testified that, while they were making this application for the loan, he and Pagel had “a verbal agreement if the loan company would accept title he (Pagel) would when we made the deal.” Appellee testified that he did not remember making any agreement to accept the opinion of the loan company’s attorney on the title, and that he “did not agree at any time to waive my right to get a good, merchantable title.” The loan company accepted the title, provided certain objections were met, but only agreed to lend $8,000, or probably $8,500, on the land. Szanto procured the agreement of a bank to carry $1,500 under a second lien, and notified Pagel that the loan had been approved, and to come to 'Waco and execute necessary papers which had been prepared. Pagel then claimed the right to have another attorney pass upon the title, and the abstract was delivered to his attorney for that purpose on November 18, 1929. On November 22, 1929, Pagel’s attorney rejected the title as not showing a good merchantable title to the land in Szanto. It was then proposed by Szanto that he could cure some of the defects, and that others would be cured by suit. The evidence is undisputed that the abstract furnished Pagel’s attorney and the amended one tendered into court showed only a possessory or limitation title in Szanto to at least a part of the land; that a suit would have to be instituted against unknown owners and unknown heirs, and constructive service had upon them to clear the title; that six months would elapse before the court having jurisdiction would convene; and tliat the judgment would not become final until two years after its date., Both Pagel and his attorney advised Szanto that the time required to remove objections to the title by’ suit under the facts stated" above would be unreasonable, and that Pagel did not wish to close the trade because the title offered by Szanto was not a good merchantable title to the land, but merely a limitation title; whereupon this suit was filed with the above-stated results.

Appellants contend that under the above-stated facts they were entitled to judgment for the $1,700 damages, as follows:

(1) That “the agreement between Szanto and Pagel subsequent to the making of the contract that each would accept the opinion of the examiner of the title for the lender as to the sufficiency of the respective titles, modified the corresponding provision in the contract, and was binding upon each; and the' acceptance of the title to the land in question by the attorney for the lender was binding upon Pagel,, and he was not thereafter privileged to reject the title because of subsequent adverse .opinion by another attorney.”

On this issue the trial court found: ■ First, that Szanto and Pagel made a verbal agreement to accept the opinion of attorneys for the loan company as to title to the land, but, in making the agreement, Pagel did not understand that he was waiving nor did he intend to waive his right to have a good merchantable title to the land he was getting, nor did he understand that he was precluded by the agreement from having his title .examined by his own attorneys; and, second, that there was no consideration moving to Pagel for such waiver.

In pleading the alleged waiver, appellants pleaded no facts or circumstances creating an estoppel, but merely pleaded “that at the time Pagel made said application for the loan he did then and there agree to accept the opinion of the attorneys for the loan company as to the sufficiency of the title.” The contract provided that Pagel could terminate the trade if he was unable to renew the loan against the land, unless Szanto got it renewed. Pagel notified Szanto that he was unable to get the renewal from the party they had in mind. Szanto then undertook to renew the loan. There would have been no necessity for Pagel to incur the expense of having the title examined until after it was known whether a renewal of the loan could be had. He testified that he agreed to make the application for the loan to hurry the matter up, but that he did not understand he was waiving his right to have a good merchantable title, nor that he would be precluded ther’eby from having his own attorney pass upon the title, if the renewal of the loan was secured. The loan company’s attorneys did not approve the title, except upon condition that certain objections be met, including ■one which required affidavits of possession showing a limitation title to the land in Szanto. The record does not show whether Pagel saw the objections, but he did insist upon and was granted the right to have his own attorney pass upon the title. Szanto acquiesced in this examination, and offered to cure the defects urged by Pagel’s attorney, and to bring suit to clear the title, which in the opinion of Pagel’s attorney was the only way the title could be made good and merchantable, and which fact is not disputed. This evidence sustains the first finding above that in making the agreement Pagel did not understand that he was waiving, nor did he intend to waive, his right to have a good [635]*635merchantable title to the land he was getting in the exchange. It is “the fundamental rule that no one can be hound by a waiver of his rights unless such waiver is distinctly made with full knowledge of the rights which lie intends to waive, and a knowledge of all the facts and circumstances affecting such rights.” Ferguson v. Mounts (Tex. Civ. App.) 281 S. W. 616, 621. Or, as is held in Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Hendricks, 49 Tex. Civ. App. 314, 108 S.

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Bluebook (online)
47 S.W.2d 632, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/szanto-v-pagel-texapp-1932.