Texas Co. v. Dunlap

41 S.W.2d 42
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJuly 22, 1931
DocketNo. 1238-5619
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 41 S.W.2d 42 (Texas Co. v. Dunlap) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas Co. v. Dunlap, 41 S.W.2d 42 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1931).

Opinion

LEDDY,' J.

We adopt from the opinion [21 S.W.(2d) 707] of the Court of Civil Appeals the following statement of the case:

“Appellee instituted this suit to recover from appellants, the Texas Company, Texas Pipe Line Company, and the Kirby Petroleum Company, judgment for $40,000, the alleged value of oil which he claimed said defendants had extracted from certain land owned by him. Said appellants, by cross-action, brought in a number of defendants, asking in event they were cast in the suit, for judgment over against said cross-defendants. The cause was tried to the court, and resulted in. judgment being entered for plaintiff against the Texas Company and the Kirby Petroleum Company for the admitted value of the oil extracted from said land, less the .amount that had been -paid to the parties who drilled the well, and less the 1/32 of the royalty *tha.t had been paid to F. D. Wright, and adjusting the equities between the defendants.
[43]*43“The facts are undisputed. E. D. Wright was the common source of title to the property in controversy, being two lots located in the town* of Wortham, upon which a large producing oil well was drilled, and which had produced the oil in controversy. In 1921, IP. D. Wright conveyed said land to Daniel Dunlap, retaining a vendor’s lien to secure two notes for $150 each. In October, 1922, F. D. Wright filed suit against Daniel Dunlap on the last of said two $150 notes, and asked for a foreclosure of the vendor’s lien. Dunlap was cited by publication, and on May 30,1923, judgment was rendered in favor of E. D. Wright for his debt, together with a foreclosure of the vendor’s lien. In October, 1923, the sheriff, under an order of sale issued on said judgment, sold the land to E. D. Wright, the plaintiff in said judgment. On October 15, 1923, E. D. Wright conveyed said property to Robert Jefferson. Robert Jefferson and his successors in title sold the mineral leases and royalties to the various parties named as cross-defendants, and they in turn conveyed the mineral estate, less certain portions of the royalty, to the defendants against whom judgment was rendered. Mike Koury and associates drilled the oil well, for which they were to and did receive a certain portion of the oil. No controversy was made by appel-lee with reference to the contract as made, and no recovery was had for the oil which was given to Mike Koury and his associates.
“In February, 1925, Daniel Dunlap filed a bill of review in the nature of a motion for new trial under article 2236 of the Revised Statutes, seeking to set aside the judgment of foreclosure which had been rendered against him on May 30, 1923, and contemporaneous therewith he filed a lis pendens notice, and by letter notified each of the-original defendants sued in this cause of said motion. At the time said motion was filed, a very small quantity of oil, if any, had been extracted from said land. Appellee’s motion to set the judgment aside was denied by the trial court, and 'on appeal the judgment of the trial court refusing to grant a new trial was by this court reversed. Dunlap v. Wright (Tex. Civ. App.) 280 S. W. 276. Thereafter, on February 16, 1928, the trial court granted appellee’s motion for rehearing, and set aside the judgment in the case of Wright v. Dunlap, which it had originally rendered on May 30, 1923. Erom said order or judgment no appeal was taken.
“While the bill of review or motion for new trial was pending in the cause of Wright v. Dunlap, in the Seventy-Seventh district court, appellee Dunlap, on March 23, 1927, filed this suit in the Eighty-Seventh district court to recover the value of the oil that had been extracted from said land, claiming that he was the'owner of said land, and entitled to the oil, or the value thereof. Appellants filed pleas in abatement in this suit, asking that same be abated or that it be put on the retired docket until the • court had finally acted upon appellee’s bill of review or motion for new trial in the Wright v. Dunlap Case. Without any formal order being made, it appears this case was not tried until after the Seventy-Seventh district court had granted appellee’s motion for ■ rehearing in the Wright v. Dunlap Case.”

It is insisted by plaintiffs in error that they were innocent purchasers for value of the mineral estate, because they purchased the same after the original judgment in said cause had been rendered and prior to the filing of the motion for new trial, and further, that since they were not made parties to the proceedings for a new trial in said cause, the subsequent order setting aside the judgment and granting a new trial was not binding üpon them.

The identical questions above presented were considered and determined adversely to plaintiffs in error’s contention by the Court of Civil Appeals in the case of Glaze v. Johnson; 27 Tex. Civ. App. 116, 65 S.W. 662. Article 2236, R. S. 1925, was there construed as having no application where the plaintiff in judgment is the purchaser at his own execution sale. It was determined that, where the plaintiff in judgment purchases at the execution sale and subsequently conveys the property to others for value, the granting of a motion for a new trial and setting aside the judgment puts an end to the title so acquired, and this regardless of whether the persons claiming title under the execution sale were made parties to the proceedings for a new trial in the original cause. The rule is otherwise, where a third party purchases at the execution sale. The title thus acquired is not affected by the subsequent granting of a motion for new trial.

After this construction had been placed upon article 2236 by the Court of Civil Appeals, with the approval of the Supreme Court by the denial of an application for writ of error, this article was re-enacted in the codifications of 1911 and 1925 without any substantial modification being- made therein. Under such circumstances, it will be presumed that the Legislature in re-enacting the statute intended to adopt the judicial construction theretofore given it. Cruzan v. Walker (Tex. Sup.) 26 S.W.(2d) 908; Cargill & Dennis v. Kountze Bros., 86 Tex. 400, 22 S. W. 1015, 25 S. W. 13, 24 L. R. A. 183, 40 Am. St. Rep. 853; Country Club v. State of Texas, 110 Tex. 49, 214 S. W. 296, 5 A. L. R. 1185.

Plaintiffs in error very frankly concede that the identical contention made by them as to a proper construction of article 2236 was overruled in Glaze v. Johnson. They insist, however, that the subsequent [44]*44enactment of the lis pendens statute materially affects the decision of the question now raised by them. It is "asserted that inasmuch as no lis pendens notice was filed hy the defendant in the ease in which he was cited by publication, as required by articles 6641 and 6642, the title emanating from the sale under execution was a good and valid one.

'It is rather difficult to understand just how the existence of the lis pendens statute can be of any aid to plaintiffs in error. Articles 6641 and 6642 of this act exclude from its protection all persons purchasing with actual or constructive notice of the lien. City National Bank v. Craig, 113 Tex. 375, 257 S. W. 210; Holford v. Patterson, 113 Tex. 410, 257 S. W. 213; Ater v. Knight (Tex. Civ. App.) 218 S. W. 648, 651 (writ refused); Paddock v. Williamson (Tex. Civ. App.) 9 S.W.(2d) 452 (writ refused).

In Ater v.

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41 S.W.2d 42, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-co-v-dunlap-texcommnapp-1931.