Talley v. Bailey

181 S.W. 230, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1161
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 16, 1915
DocketNo. 508. [fn*]
StatusPublished

This text of 181 S.W. 230 (Talley v. Bailey) 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
Talley v. Bailey, 181 S.W. 230, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1161 (Tex. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinions

WALTHALL, J.

This is a boundary line suit brought by appellant against appellee, in the form of trespass to try title, and involves the question as to the boundary line between section 6, Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé Railway Company’s survey and section 1209, D. & S. E. Railway Company’s survey in Reagan county, Tex. The cause was tried under a stipulation to the effect that each party to the suit had title to his respective section of land, and that the only issue of fact for determination was whether or not an agreed boundary line as contended for by appellant had been established between said two surveys, and the only issue of law, whether or not such agreement, if any, was binding upon appellee. The line contended for by appellee was conceded by appellant to be correct upon the ground, unless the line as contended for by appellant had been agreed upon as the boundary line between prior owners of said surveys and such agreement was binding upon the appellee. The cause was submitted to a jury, which returned a verdict for appellee, upon which the court rendered judgment.

Appellant’s first assignment of error is directed to a special charge given.

The court prepared and submitted to counsel the following general charge:

“By virtue of the agreement between the parties to this suit, there is but one issue for your determination, and that is: Did Y?. H. Funk and G. F. Banowsky, while the owners of section 6, Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé Railway Company and section 1209, D. & S. E. Railway Company, respectively, agree upon the boundary line between said surveys, as alleged in plaintiff’s petition? If you find from the evidence that while the said W. H. Funk was the owner and in possession of survey 6, Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé Railway Company and the said G. F. Banowsky was the owner and in possession of section 1209, D. & S. E. Railway Company, that they agreed upon a boundary line between said surveys as alleged in plaintiff’s petition, and you further find that, m pursuance of such agreement, if any you find was made, they erected and maintained their fence thereon, and that the fence was on said line, and the plaintiff or those under whom he claims were in possession of the lands on the east side thereof at the time defendant bought his land, then you will find for the plaintiff. To constitute an agreement, the minds of the parties must meet and there must be a mutual understanding. If you find from the evidence that, in constructing the fence between their respective possessions, the said Funk or Banowsky did not intend thereby to fix or locate the boundary line between them, or that said fence was built for temporary purposes, or until the true line could be ascertained, then I charge you that you should find for the defendant..
“If you find that a valid agreement was made between the said Funk and Banowsky as herein-above charged, and that such agreement was acted upon by the mutual construction of a fence on the line agreed upon, and that said fence was being maintained on the line at the time the defendant A. E. Bailey bought his land, then I charge you that said fence line, if any, was notice to the said A. E. Bailey of all rights claimed by the plaintiff and those under -whom he claims on the east side thereof, and that it is not necessary for the plaintiff to show further notice; I further charge you that, if you find an *231 agreement was made between the said Funk and Banowsky as charged in the first paragraph hereof, such agreement would be binding upon them and their assigns whether the line agreed upon between them, if any, was correct or not, and the true location of the correct line would not be material.”

Appellee presented to the court the following special charge, which was given:

“You are charged that, in order to constitute an agTeed boundary line between the owners of adjacent lands, the minds of both parties must meet as to the agreement, and in this case, if you believe from a prepondei’ance of the evidence that W. H. Funk and 6. F. Banowsky agreed that they would accept the line when they built the fence in the year 1905, as a permanent boundary between the surveys Nos. 1209, and 6, then you will find for the plaintiff. But if you find that said parties did not agree that said line upon which said fence was built was to be the permanent boundary line between said surveys, or that said fence was agreed to be built and maintained only until the true boundary line was discovered, then you will find for the defendant. And in this connection you are charged that the minds of both parties to a contract must meet and agree to the terms of the alleged contract. Therefore you are charged that both W. H. Funk and G. F. Ban-owsky must have agreed to establish a boundary line permanent in its nature, before plaintiff can recover in this case.”

Appellant’s first four propositions under this assignment are to the effect that, where the general charge of the court fully presents an issue to the jury, it is error to unduly emphasize the issue, and thereby give undue prominence to it by a special charge to the exclusion of other issues. That having clearly charged the jury that, if “the said Funk and Banowsky did not intend thereby (meaning by the construction of the fence) to fix or locate the boundary line between them, or that said fence was built for temporary purposes, and until a true line could be ascertained,” the jury should find for defendant, it was error to again specially reiterate the same proposition. That the special charge, in view of the general charge given, puts too much emphasis on and gives undue prominence to the word “permanent.” It is further insisted that the special charge is affirmatively wrong in substance, in that if the line was agreed upon as a boundary line, and a fence built thereon by the action of the both parties, said line became “permanent” as a matter of law, and it was not necessary that the parties affirmatively agree that it was permanent in order to make it so. The fifth proposition under the assignment is not germane to the assignment and cannot be considered.

[1 ] The evidence in this ease is too lengthy to quote in this opinion, and we refer to it in considering this assignment only for the purpose of disclosing the exact point at issue. In 1903 and prior to any of the facts pleaded in this case, W. H. Funk owned section No. 6, and G. F. Banowsky owned section No. 1209. The boundary line between these two sections was in dispute between the respective owners. At that time there was a fence on the ground between the surveys about 100 varas west of the boundary now claimed by appellant. Appellant’s contention is that while Funk and Banowsky were still the owners and in possession of said respective surveys, for the purpose of settling all differences and misunderstandings between them as to the correct and proper location of said boundary line between said two surveys, Funk and Banowsky agreed upon the line contended for by him in his petition as the west boundary line of section 6 and the east boundary line of section 1209, and that they thereupon, in furtherance of said agreement, removed the fence and established a boundary line fence between said two sections upon said location.

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Related

Englefield v. International & G. N. Ry Co.
159 S.W. 1033 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1913)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
181 S.W. 230, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/talley-v-bailey-texapp-1915.