Texas & New Orleans Railroad v. Haynes

44 Tex. Civ. App. 272
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 21, 1906
StatusPublished

This text of 44 Tex. Civ. App. 272 (Texas & New Orleans Railroad v. Haynes) 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
Texas & New Orleans Railroad v. Haynes, 44 Tex. Civ. App. 272 (Tex. Ct. App. 1906).

Opinion

JAMES, Chibe Justice.

Appellant sued in trespass to try title for section 9 patented to the T. & N. O. R. R. Co. and for certain damages, the defendants being Samuel Haynes, C. E. Slade, J. A. Rat-cliff and H. M. Ratcliff. Judgment was in favor of plaintiff against all defendants except H. M. Ratcliff who had disclaimed as to all the survey except the M. W. % thereof. As to this particular quarter the judgment was for him upon the ground of the ten years statute. From this plaintiff has appealed.

The judge filed his conclusions of law and fact. One of the assignments of error is that these conclusions are not separate and distinct from each other, so that no one can ascertain from them what are conclusions of law and what are conclusions of fact. Appellant joined in the request for the filing of conclusions and made no objection to their form in that court. Appellant was apparently then satisfied with their form, and ought not to be heard here on this technical objection. But there is no mistaking from them what the judge’s findings -were, both as to the facts and as to the law.

As to the quarter of the section awarded to H. M. Ratcliff (which is the only part of the judgment properly before us for revision, no appeal being prosecuted by the other defendants, and appellant not having any ground to appeal from the rest of the judgment) the findings were in substance as follows:

“That H. M. Ratcliff had resided on the M. W. quarter of the section for more than ten years after plaintiff’s cause of action accrued and before the filing of this 'suit openly using, cultivating and enjoying the same, claiming the same adversely and having continuous and peaceable possession thereof, and that having made out a case entitling him to the 160 acres claimed by him under his plea of ten years limitation, I find in his favor.

“That the other defendants, J. A. Ratcliff and Samuel Haynes gave written acknowledgment of tenancy to ‘The Texas & Mew Orleans Railway Company.’ These acknowledgments of tenancy were undisputed, and were dated May 11, 1897, and were in like form, one executed by J. A. Ratcliff and the other by Samuel Haynes. We here copy one:

[275]*275
I, J. A. Batcliif of Jasper County, Texas, do hereby acknowledge that the Texas and Hew Orleans Bailway Company is the owner of section number nine (9) as shown by the map of Jasper County, lying about 2Vo miles nearly northwest of the southeast comer of Jasper County, Texas, on which section number 9 said Batcliif has about five acres in cultivation and a dwelling house and other improvements, now occupied by said Batcliif, which he holds as a tenant of said railway company, and said Batcliif hereby agrees to surrender possession of said land and premises upon ten (10) days notice from said railway company, or its assigns.
Witness my hand this the 11th day of May, 1897, in the presence of following witness:
(Signed) J. A. Bateliff.
Witness:
L. D. Scarborough,
H. M. Smith,
V. J. Withers,
E. H. Carter.”

The findings show that J. A. Batcliif was upon the S. E. quarter, and Samuel Haynes upon the H. E. quarter of the section.

The court further found that there was no pleading nor testimony to show that the Texas and Hew Orleans Bailroad Company (which was plaintiff’s corporate title) and the Texas & Hew Orleans Bailway Company (the name mentioned in the acknowledgments of tenancy), are the same person or corporation, and that the names are not idem sonans, but that E. H. Carter who took the acknowledgment of tenancy was the land agent of the Texas & Hew Orleans Bailroad Company, and was representing said road at the time, and that the instrument (instruments) were delivered by Carter to plaintiff’s attorneys.

The court further states as a conclusion that the acknowledgments given to a third party with whom the plaintiff does not connect title, estopped the parties making them (J. A. Bateliff and-Samuel Haynes) from claiming title as against or holding adversely to the true owner, and upon that ground alone rendered judgment against the defendants last mentioned.

If the trial judge was right in the conclusion that the acknowledgments of tenancy of J. A. Batcliif and Samuel Haynes were to a third person and not to the owner (plaintiff), then he was probably right in rendering judgment for H. H. Bateliff. The reason of this would be that they would not, in that case, have been the tenants of plaintiff, and there would have been no such entry or possession of the owner, as would restrict H. H. Ratcliff’s plea of limitations to the land he actually occupied. It is consistent with the court findings that this was the reason for the judgment in favor of Bateliff, and we have to deal with the case upon that theory.

We think the question was one of identity merely, and was capable of being met by proof at the trial, without the necessity of special pleading of misnomer. J. M. Cobb v. Bettie Bryan, decision by this court, [276]*276not yet reported. We think also that the evidence stated by the court in the conclusion and other testimony, all of which was uncontradicted, admitted of no other finding than that the declarations of tenancy were to plaintiff.

It may be, however, that the court concluded that the actual possession of H.

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Bluebook (online)
44 Tex. Civ. App. 272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-new-orleans-railroad-v-haynes-texapp-1906.