Tuke v. Feagin

181 S.W. 805, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1249
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 20, 1915
DocketNo. 7082.
StatusPublished

This text of 181 S.W. 805 (Tuke v. Feagin) 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
Tuke v. Feagin, 181 S.W. 805, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1249 (Tex. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

LANE, J.

This is an appeal from an order of the district court of Angelina county dissolving a temporary injunction theretofore granted by said court. Said appeal will be more fully comprehended by making a full statement of the events leading up to the granting and dissolution of said injunction. *806 We will therefore make such statement as is necessary to accomplish the object in view, as follows: W. J. Patterson, one of the defendants in the suit of Williams et al. v. Cameron Lumber Company et al., hereinafter referred to as suit No. 2790, pending in said district court, in an effort to sell appellant, Tuke, 1,157 acres of land, a part of the Caleb Holloway survey, in Angelina county, Tex., patented to said Holloway by the state of Texas on the 3d day of May, 1873, agreed to deliver a complete abstract of the title to the land to Tuke; and thereafter he did deliver an abstract of title to the land to Tuke, but said abstract began with the state of Texas as the sovereignty Of the soil, and did not show that there was on record in the Deed Records of Angelina county a certified copy of a Mexican grant of date March, 1802, by which practically all the land involved was granted to one Lucobiehe. Tuke had no notice or knowledge of the existence of said Lucobiehe grant, and from the abstract so furnished he believed that Patterson had good title to the land, and, so believing, agreed to purchase the same from Patterson; that thereupon, on the 19th day of February, 1912, said W. J. Patterson, in consideration of the sum of $15,000, made, executed, and delivered to Tuke a warranty deed conveying to him the land involved in this controversy. The consideration for said conveyance was paid as follows: $10,000 paid; one note for $2,000 payable on the 15th day of April, 1913; two notes for $875 each, payable respectively April 15, 1914, and April 15, 1915; and two notes for $625 each, payable respectively on the 15th day of April, 1914, and the 15th day of April, 1915 — being numbered respectively 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and bearing 8 per cent, interest per annum from date until paid, interest payable annually. All notes provided for payment of the usual attorney’s fee of 10 per cent., and also provided that a failure to pay any one of said series of notes when due, at the option of the holder of any one of said notes due and unpaid, all of said notes might be declared due and payable. Prior to the 15th day of April, 1914, before the principal of either of notes Nos. 4 and 5, for $625 each, became due, appellee A. P. Feagin, for a valuable consideration, without actual knowledge of the existence of the said Luc'obiche grant, or of any failure or threatened failure of the consideration for the execution of said notes by said Tuke, and before Williams and others filed their suit, purchased and became the owner of said notes Nos. 4 and 5. At the time of such purchase of said notes by Feagin the annual interest of about $100 was due. After the purchase of notes 4 and 5 by Feagin J. B. Williams and others who claim under the said Lucobiehe grant, to wit, on the 8th day of October, 1914, filed their suit No. 2790, here-inbefore mentioned, against W. J. Patterson, appellant, T. G. Tuke, and others, for the recovery of the title and possession of the greater portion of the land sold by Patterson to Tuke. On the 15th day of June, 1915, Tuke filed his answer and cross-bill in said suit No. 2790, alleging that he purchased 1,-157 acres of the land sued for by Williams and others by warranty deed from W. J. Patterson, setting out in detail the consideration paid by him to Patterson and the execution and delivery of said notes, and, as against both Patterson and Feagin, who held his unpaid notes, he pleaded failure of consideration and had Feagin made a party to said cause No. 2790, and later, upon his prayer, both Patterson and Feagin were restrained and enjoined by the court from prosecuting their suits which they filed to recover upon the said notes held by them respectively. At the next term of said district court, after said temporary injunction had been entered, A. P. Feagin, who had been made party defendant to cause No. 2790, and who had been temporarily enjoined by the court from prosecuting his suit for collection of notes Nos. 4 and 5 held by him, and interest due thereon, filed a motion to dissolve said temporary injunction in so far as it affected him (Feag-in). Upon a full hearing upon said motion the trial court dissolved said temporary injunction in so far only as it affected or related to appellee, Feagin. From the order of the court dissolving said injunction, T. G. Tuke has appealed.

Appellant’s first five propositions may be and are here condensed and considered together, as follows:

Appellee Feagin is not an innocent purchaser for value, before maturity and without notice, of the two notes held by him, and secured by a vendor’s lien reserved in the deed from Patterson to Tuke, and the dissolution of the temporary injunction, as against Feagin, by the district court was error:

(1) Because a third person cannot be an innocent purchaser of a vendor’s lien note where the vendor of the land has given a warranty of the title to the land by which said note is secured.

(2) Where a note carries on its face express reference to a duty, obligation, or condition as part of the consideration for such note, one cannot be an innocent purchaser without notice of such note, so far as such duty, obligation, or condition is concerned.

(3) Express notice is not indispensable. The test of notice is: Were there sufficient circumstances upon the face of the note to put one upon inquiry as to the outstanding obligation to warrant and defend the title to the land for which the note was given in part payment?

(4) When an obligation, duty, or condition exists as a consideration of a note, and this fact is apparent, or is suggested, from its face, and indorsee or assignee thereof takes it cum onera, and must make good the obligation, duty, or condition before he can claim the benefits of the note, suit cannot be brought on such a note, while there is a fail *807 ure to completely perform the obligation, duty, or condition.

[1] As applied to this case, the contention of appellant, in a condensed form, is that Patterson sold him the land involved and warranted the title to same, that in part consideration for the land appellant esecuted and delivered to Patterson the two notes held by Peagin, that said notes show on their face that they were given in part payment for the land sold by Patterson to appellant how being sued for by Williams and others in said cause No. 2790, and that the vendor’s lien was retained on the land to secure them, ap-pellee, Peagin, cannot be an innocent purchaser of said notes without notice, that the right of the holder to enforce payment depended on the warranty of Patterson to defend the title to the land sold by him to appellant, Tuke, and, having such knowledge, he is not an innocent purchaser, and that appellant can plead such defenses against Peagin as could have been pleaded against Patterson were the notes still held by Patterson, and therefore the court erred in dissolving the injunction formerly granted. This contention is not tenable. The undisputed evidence shows that Peagin purchased notes 4 and 5 for value before maturity of the principal of said notes, and that, if Patterson had breached his warranty, Peagin had no actual knowledge of such breach at the time of his purchase.

In the case of Gannon v.

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Bluebook (online)
181 S.W. 805, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tuke-v-feagin-texapp-1915.