Thomas v. Gordon

285 S.W.2d 829, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2305
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 31, 1955
DocketNo. 6546
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 285 S.W.2d 829 (Thomas v. Gordon) 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
Thomas v. Gordon, 285 S.W.2d 829, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2305 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

MARTIN, Justice.,

This is an appeal from a summary judgment granted on the pleadings filed in -the cause. On October 22, 1919, appellants executed an oil and gas lease to Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company for a five year primary term, and the “company agreeing to pay therefor the sum of $1 per acre annually in advance.’’ This payment was. treated by all parties as rental. , On the same date, appellants executed and delivered to W. K. Gordon, Sr., the father of appellee, a warranty deed as to a mineral interest. Such lease and deed as ¡executed and delivered, by appellants, as owners of the land and minerals in issue, are asserted to be the same type instruments as discussed and ruled'upon in the cause of Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co. v. Belcher, Tex.Civ.App., 265 S.W. 1081. Therefore, such cause will be discussed in detail hereinafter as the ruling therein is conclusive of the cause asserted in appellants’’ pleadings.

" An examination • of the deed in the Bel-cher' case, of the same type as- here in issue, [830]*830reveals the following language defining'the interest as conveyed in the deed:

“ ‘ * * * the grantee herein named shall be entitled to a proportion of one-half of all the benefits and royalties that would have accrued and become ' due to the lessors' named in said lease * * *.’ ”

The “lease” refers to an oil and gas lease executed prior to the execution of the deed. The quoted provision is a conveyance of one-half the royalty. Other provisions of the deed will be discussed ■ hereinafter wherein they pertain to the issue on appeal.

It is appellants’ theory that they executed an oil and gas lease as set forth above and that the deed they also executed, above briefly outlined, was intended to be a royalty deed as to one-half the royalty but that due to the fraud of the agents of W. K. Gordon, Sr., they were induced to execute such conveyance which was ' of one-half the minerals under the lands. Appellants further plead that by reason of such fraud, and because of the facts hereinafter detailed, the appellee, W. K. Gordon, Jr., as the sole heir of W. K. Gordon, Sr., holds in trust for appellants the additional rights as between the mineral deed as allegedly executed and the royalty deed as would have been executed but for the fraud practiced upon them. In reply, appellees assert the suit is merely one to reform a deed and is barred by limitation, laches and other elements. Various points of error by appellants, and counterpoints by appellee, present issues as to the correctness of the summary judgment entered by the trial court wherein appellants took nothing by their cause of action.

The alleged controlling element of appellants’ theory of a constructive trust is that at the time appellants executed the lease and the deed in issue here, one T. E. Belcher and wife executed a like lease and a like deed to that executed by appellants, and the deed was delivered to W. K. Gordon, Sr. Appellants further pleaded that upon discovery of the fraud of Gordon’s agents in procuring a mineral deed, suit was filed by appellants, by T. E. Belcher and by other parties who had executed like instruments. It is further pleaded that appellants and the opposing parties- to their suit agreed, by parol agreement, that the suit filed by T. E. Belcher would be tried and that appellants and the parties in their cause of action would abide by the final adjudication in the Belcher suit. ' Other litigants in a like position were alleged to have also agreed to abide by the final ruling in the. Belcher suit. ■ It is appellants’ further theory that in the cause of Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co. et al. v. Belcher, supra, the Court of Civil Appeals entered its judgment reforming the mineral deed by Belcher into a royalty deed and that under their parol agreement, entered into about 1921, appellants are now entitled to a judgment and like relief to that granted in the Belcher case. Appellants also plead in substance that they believed they had .received the same relief as granted in the Belcher case until the year 1952 when they attempted to lease the lands for oil and found that no judgment of reformation had ever been entered and that, appellee owned an interest of one-half the minerals under the lands.

It is apparent from appellants’ pleadings that they must rely upon a parol agreement entered into during the year 1921 providing that all parties to the suit as to the minerals under appellants’ lands would abide by the final judgment in the Belcher case disposing of a like issue. Since the case now on appeal was decided upon the pleadings, it will be assumed that the evidence as introduced would support the pleadings. Not a line of appellants’ pleadings alleges any fraud or any type of statement being made by the appellee’s predecessor in title, or by his agents to induce appellants to forego the enforcement of the alleged parol agreement following the final adjudication of the Belcher case on November 12, 1924. It will next be assumed that such parol agreement is not in contravention of the statute of frauds, or contrary to the rules of conveyancing. The cause as presented on appeal then resolves itself to the legal principle, under appellants’ theory, as to whether appellants [831]*831could wait for a period of 33 years to en- • force a parol agreement in the face of the statutes of limitation and without being guilty of laches. No citation of authority is required to sustain a ruling that appellants were guilty of laches and that a suit on their parol contract filed approximately 30 years after the asserted right of action accrued is barred by the statutes of limitation.

As viewed here, appellants’ cause must fail on even more fundamental elements than outlined above. An examination of the cause of Texas Pacific Coal & Oil Co. v. Belcher, supra, discloses the non-existence of a cause of action under appellants’ pleadings. The opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals in such cause recites in part as to the relief granted “ * * * and for the reformation of said deed as prayed for by defendant Belcher.” In the light of this statement, the opinion should be examined to determine Belcher’s rights as asserted by him in his pleadings in the cause on appeal as summarized by the Court:

“Belcher answered * * *, and expressly denied that he and his wife sold or transferred to said Gordon any part of the rental due, and alleged facts showing fraud on the part of the company’s agents Tom Collins, a real estate broker, and A. P. Young, an attorney at law, in inducing them to execute and deliver the deed so as to include the conveyance of one-half the rentals thereafter to be paid by the company to W. K. Gordon, * * *,”

Appellants also made Gordon a party and their pleadings reveal:

“ * * * they pray for judgment over against defendant Gordon by reason of such fraud on the part of his agents in the securing of said deed, making it to include the rentals.”

The above brief résumé of the pleadings of T. E. Belcher are conclusive as to the issue in' the Belcher case but it is also noted in the opinion of the Court of' Civil Appeals that W. K. Gordon, Sr., assigned error of the trial court “in permitting Belcher and wife to testify that prior to the execution of said deed Tom Collins did not say anything to him about the instrument conveying one-half the rentals, or that it conveyed anything except the one-half interest in the mineral rights.”

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Bluebook (online)
285 S.W.2d 829, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2305, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-gordon-texapp-1955.