Tanner v. Grisham

289 S.W. 146
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 12, 1926
DocketNo. 232. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 289 S.W. 146 (Tanner v. Grisham) 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
Tanner v. Grisham, 289 S.W. 146 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

LITTLER, J.

This suit was brought by R. C. Grisham, appellee herein, against the appellants, J. M. Tanner and wife, and one F. G. Hoffman. R. C. Grisham was plaintiff in the court below, and the appellants were defendants.. Plaintiff dismissed as to Hoffman, and the appellants are J. M. Tanner and wife, Myrtle A. Tanner.

Plaintiff alleges that: On September 12, 1922, J. M. Tanner became indebted to A. T. Culberson in the sum of $5,000, and took judgment against the said Tanner on October 8, 1923, in the sum of $5,456.25. Execution issued out of said judgment in favor of the *147 said Culberson, and was levied upon tbe property in controversy in tbe instant suit. That said property was sold on December 4, 1923, at a sheriff sale, and bought in by the plaintiff appellee for the sum of $600. That, after J. M. Tanner became indebted to A. T. Cul-berson, he made a purported deed to his wife, Myrtle A. Tanner, for a recited consideration of $10 on the 15th day of December, 1922. That on November 19, 1923, after the levy of the execution on the property involved in this suit, J. M. Tanner filed for record a designation of homestead on the property in question.

Plaintiff alleged that the deed from J. M. Tanner to his said wife was for the sole and only purpose of defrauding his creditors and placing said property beyond the reach of the said A. T. Culberson, and in truth and in fact no consideration was paid by Myrtle A. Tanner therefor, and with the same intent and fraudulent purpose the designation of homestead was made by the said J. M. Tanner.

Other allegations were made with reference to the rental value of the property, the liability of Hoffman therefor, but the same as to said Hoffman was dismissed.

Defendants appellants filed their original-answer, containing general demurrer, general denial, and further: That prior to December 15, 1922, the property whs the homestead of the defendants; that on the 15th day of December, 1922, J. M. Tanner, in good faith for value, sold the said property to his wife, Myrtle A. Tanner, as a separate estate, and that the said property is now her separate property, and the homestead of herself and family; that said deed was filed for record on December 16, 1922, and prior to the time that plaintiff purchased the property at the execution sale; and pleaded that the plaintiff was charged with knowledge of the deed so recorded to Myrtle A. Tanner; alleged that the sheriff’s deed to plaintiff was void because of the homestead and separate property rights of Myrtle'A. Tanner, and that it constitutes a cloud upon the title of Myrtle A. Tanner, which should be forever removed, and defendants appellants prayed 'for judgment that plaintiff take nothing; that the clouds be removed from the title of Myrtle A. Tanner by virtue of the claims of the plaintiff, and for cost of suit.

The case was tried before a jury upon special issues as follows:

Special Issue No. 1. Was the property involved in this suit the homestead of Myrtle A. Tanner and her husband on December 15, 1922? Answer “Yes” or “No.” Ans. “No.”

If you have answered the above question No. 1 “yes,” then you need not answer the following question, but, if you have answered “No,” then please answer;

Special Issue No. 2. Was it the intention of Myrtle A. Tanner and her husband at some future time to return to the same and live in it as their homestead? Answer “Yes” or “No.” Ans. “No.”

Special Issue No. 3. Had Myrtle A. Tanner and husband, on December 15, 1922, abandoned their intention, if they had any such intention, to return to Eastland, Tex., and live on the property as their home? Answer “Yes” or “No.” Ans. “No.”

The evidence showed that the deed was first made to A. T. Culberson, but the sheriff did not deliver same, for the reason that the cost had not been paid, and that R. C. Grisham, instead of A. T. Culberson, was the purchaser of said sale, and thereafter he changed the deed so as to cause it to read “R. C. Grisham,” and thereupon R. C. Gris-ham paid the cost, took up the deed, and the balance of the consideration was credited on the judgment.

The return on the execution shows that the land was sold to R. C. Grisham, and deed made to him. Upon the said verdict the court entered judgment decreeing the property to the plaintiff, R. C. Grisham, and canceling and holding -for naught the deed from J. M. Tanner and his wife, Myrtle A. Tanner, and also decreed cancellation of the designation of homestead made by J. M. Tanner, to which action of the court defendants in open court excepted, and' gave notice of appeal, and the cause is now before this court for review.

Appellant presents seventeen assignments of error; the first four complain of the action of the court in rendering judgment upon the verdict of the jury on account of the answers of special issues 2 and 3 being contradictory and irreconcilable. We do not believe there is any merit in these assignments after a close inspection of special issues 2 and 3.

It will be observed in special issue 2 the jury holds that it was not the intention of defendants to return to the property in East-land for the purpose of making same their homestead. In special issue No. 3 the jury holds that defendants had not abandoned their intention of returning to said property as homestead.

It is evident that, if they-had no intention to return, they had nothing to abandon, and the jury, in answering “No,” evidently meant but one thing in the light of the other questions answered, and that was to find that they had no intention in the first place, and therefore had nothing to abandon. This disposes of assignments 1, 2, 3, and’ 4.

The fifth assignment complains of the error of the court in charging the jury that they were authorized to take into consideration the acts of the defendant J. M. Tanner after December 15, 1922; the same being date of deed from J. M. Tanner to his wife, Myrtle A. Tanner. This, perhaps, would be error if the court had not in its charge instructed the jury that offers by the husband to sell the property or to rent same does not *148 constitute an abandonment of tbe homestead rights.

It appears from the record that all the acts of defendant after date of deed were to write letters to J. P. McWilliams, a real estate agent in Eastland, Tex., in which he offered to sell or rent the property in question; hence we conclude that the instruction complained of could not have misled the jury, and could not have influenced them in arriving at their verdict that said property was not the homestead of defendants, and that, if there was error in submitting the charge that the jury could take into consideration all the acts of defendant, it was cured by the further charge as above stated, especially coupling this with the fact that defendant J. M. Tanner, almost .a year after making the deed to his wife, designated said property as his homestead, and the further fact, as shown by the record, that J. M. Tanner was indebted to A. T. Culberson at the, time he deeded the property to his wife, the wife testifying that there was no consideration passed for the conveyance from her husband to her.

And again plaintiff alleged fraud in the transfer of said -property from J. M. Tanner to his wife, Myrtle A. Tanner, and asked for the cancellation of the deed.

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289 S.W. 146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tanner-v-grisham-texapp-1926.