Taylor v. Hollingsworth

169 S.W.2d 519
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 25, 1943
DocketNo. 11505
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 169 S.W.2d 519 (Taylor v. Hollingsworth) 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
Taylor v. Hollingsworth, 169 S.W.2d 519 (Tex. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinion

MONTEITH, Chief Justice.

This action was brought by appellants, Dorothy Lambert and T. R. Lambert, both by next friends, in trespass to try title for the recovery from appellee, L. R. Hollings-worth, of the title to and possession of 4,336.5 acres of land comprising the Eli Mercer League in Jackson County, Texas. T. R. Lambert died prior to the trial and the suit was thereafter prosecuted by Dorothy Lambert, individually and as his heir.

Appellants sought to have a trustee’s sale under a deed of trust executed by T. R. Lambert to secure the payment of a note for the sum of $25,980 set aside. Pleading in the alternative, they offered to do equity and pay any indebtedness that they might be lawfully adjudged to owe on the land in controversy. They specially pled that said note was barred by the four-year statute of limitations.

Appellee answered by general and special denials and a plea of not guilty. By cross-action he pled his title to the land in controversy, and limitations.

In a trial before the court without a jury judgment was rendered in favor of appel-lee and that appellants take nothing by their suit. At the request of appellants, the trial court prepared and caused to be filed his findings of fact and conclusions of law, to which ■ findings and conclusions they duly excepted.

Jourdan Campbell, the stipulated common source of title to the land in controversy, conveyed the property to the Jourdan Campbell Land Syndicate, Inc., a corporation for which a receiver was later appointed. By deed dated November 3, 1930, said land was sold by the Jourdan Campbell Land Syndicate, Inc., through this receiver, with the approval of the court, to T. R. Lambert. As part of the consideration therefor Lambert executed and delivered to the vendor one purchase money note, in which a vendor’s lien was expressly retained, for the amount of $25,980. This note was payable to the order of said receiver on or before two years after the date of the deed and bore interest at the rate of 7% per an-num. On the same date, T. R. Lambert executed and delivered to the receiver a deed of trust conveying said land to John H. Cunningham as trustee as additional security for said purchase money note. The receiver, in making his report of the sale of said 'land to the court, asked for and obtained permission to sell said note to secure sufficient cash to pay taxes and discharge other obligations against said land, and on the same date and as part of the same transaction, said receiver, with the approval of the court, transferred and as[521]*521signed the said Lambert note, with all the liens, rights, privileges and appurtenances pertaining thereto, to the Commercial Loan & Trust Company. By instrument dated September 30, 1931, the Commercial Loan & Trust Company transferred and assigned the note, with all liens and rights thereunder, to the Commercial National Bank of San Antonio, and thereafter, by instrument dated November 9, 1932, the Commercial National Bank transferred and assigned said note, and the liens and rights thereunder, to W. W. Moore, the agent of J. A. Hollingsworth, who thereafter, by instrument dated November 19, 1932, transferred and assigned the said note, and its liens and rights, to J. A. Hollingsworth.

By deed dated January 6, 1933, John H. Cunningham, as trustee under said deed of trust given by T. R. Lambert to secure the payment of said note, conveyed the land in controversy to J. A. Hollingsworth.

The trial court found that T. R. Lambert and Dorothy Lambert had failed to pay said note when it came due, or at any time, and that they had “made default and breach of the terms and conditions of the said deed and deed of trust”, and that said foreclosure and sale “and all proceedings thereunder were in all things regular and free of fraud or unfairness, and in no wise or manner trenched upon or interfered with any right or remedy of plaintiffs”, and that J. A. Hollingsworth thereby became the lawful owner of said land and premises free of any claim of appellants.

Thereafter, by deed dated April 14, 1933, J. A. Hollingsworth conveyed the property to the Navidad Cattle Corporation, who, by deed dated July 30, 1936, conveyed said land to appellee. By assignment dated August 4, 1936, J. A. Hollingsworth transferred and assigned any balance due upon the T. R. Lambert $25,980 note, together with the liens securing it, and all rights thereunder, to appellee.

By deed dated March 5, 1931, T. R. Lambert conveyed the land in controversy to his wife, Dorothy Lambert, as her separate property and estate, the deed reciting good and valuable considerations and the assumption by the said Dorothy Lambert of the payment of said note for the sum of $25,980. Thereafter, by deed dated June 10, 1931, Dorothy Lambert, joined by T. R. Lambert, conveyed said land to Mrs. Lambert’s daughter, Artie Taylor, and by deed of the same date Artie Taylor and husband, Edgar Taylor, conveyed said land to “T. R. Lambert and wife, Dorothy Lambert” for recited valuable considerations and the assumption of said $25,980 note.

On April 6, 1932, Dorothy Lambert was adjudged to be a person of unsound mind in the county court of Jackson County and she was thereafter committed to a State Hospital for the Insane in San Antonio, Texas. On July 19, 1932, her husband, T. R. Lambert, was duly appointed guardian of her person and estate by said court. He served as such guardian until the guardianship proceeding was closed by order of said court entered April 18, 1938.

By deed dated September 13, 1932, T. R. Lambert, individually and as guardian of the estate of Dorothy Lambert, N. C. M., conveyed the land in controversy to Mark V. Lambert, subject to said $25,980 note. The court found that this instrument conveyed any title had or claimed by T. R. Lambert in the land in controversy, but that it was void in so far as it attempted to convey the separate estate of Dorothy Lambert. Mark V. Lambert had disclaimed any interest in said property.

The court found that J. A. Hollingsworth took possession of said land, which was then in a rundown and neglected condition, in the latter part of 1932, and that appellee and his predecessors in title had been in open, adverse, continuous and undisputed possession by actual and visible appropriation of the property, commenced and continued under a claim of right inconsistent with a hostile claim of appellants, cultivating, using and enjoying the same in the manner to and for which it was suitable and to the full extent of its boundaries under fence, holding under deeds duly registered, since December., 1932, and that they had paid all taxes levied and assessed against said land in each and every year consecutively for the years 1932 to 1941, both inclusive, before they became delinquent, and without break.

The court further found that appellee and his predecessors in title had, during the time they were in possession of said property, made permanent and valuable improvements thereon to the value of $30,476.

The court found that, at the request of T. R. Lambert, J. A. Hollingsworth met him in Edna, Texas, in January, 1933, and sold him such personal property as he then had upon the ranch and that, at that time, Lambert “apparently voluntarily surrendered the [522]*522premises to J. A. Hollingsworth and accepted payment for this personal property.”

The court found, as a matter of law, that at all times after the execution of said vendor’s lien note by T. R.

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169 S.W.2d 519, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-hollingsworth-texapp-1943.