Turner v. Sawyer

271 S.W.2d 119, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2061
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 4, 1954
Docket3093
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 271 S.W.2d 119 (Turner v. Sawyer) 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
Turner v. Sawyer, 271 S.W.2d 119, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2061 (Tex. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

GRISSOM, Chief Justice.

On January 1, 1929, Hill Sawyer and wife executed a warranty deed conveying to J. C. Turner a tract of land described as follows:

“ * * * in Stonewall County, Texas, being eighty acres of land out of the North part of the W. A. Chambers Survey, Patent No. 361, Vol. 25 said patent dated April 26th 1893, recorded in Book 1 page No. 59 Patent Records of Stonewall County, Texas, to which Patent reference is hereby made for all purposes. Said eighty acres of land is described by metes and bounds as follows:
“Beginning at the South East corner of the Martindale Survey No. Four;
*121 “Thence West 309.5 ' and 211 vrs North to an iron pin ,for beginning Corner ;
“Thence North 519 varas to corner ■on north line of said Chambers Surrey;
•“Thence West 205.5 varas to a stake ■for corner;
“Thence South 119 varas to a stake •for corner;
■ “Thence West 863 varas to the North ■west corner of said Chambers Survey;
“Thence South 400 varas to a stake for corner;
“Thence East 1068 varas to the place ■of beginning containing 80 acres of land out of said W. A. Chambers, Preemption Survey.
It being understood between the parties hereto that there is reserved unto J. D. Hazelwood, his heirs and assigns by a prior deed, the oils, gas and minerals in and under 50 acres out of the N.W. Corner of the 160 acres of the W. A. Chambers survey, said 50 acres to be in form of a square out of the said N W Corner of said survey.”

The consideration recited included five vendor’s lien notes for $200 each, due on ■or before the first day of January of each year thereafter to and including 1934. Turner died January 15, 1929. At the time of the purchase and at his death he was married to Dollie Turner and said land was community property. On September 18, 1933, “Mrs. Dollie Turner” filed in the ■County Court of Stonewall County a petition for appointment as administratrix of -the community estate belonging to her and J. C. Turner, deceased. Said petition recited that her husband died on January 15, 1929, which was more than four years before the filing thereof. She alleged Turner left surviving him, besides said petitioner, several children, including two minors, “who reside with the petitioner temporarily in Stonewall County, Texas * * *;” that there was a community estate between J. C. Turner, deceased, and petitioner; ■ that, at his death, Turner had no fixed place of residence but the “bulk of his property was, and is, situated in Stonewall County, Texas.” She was appointed and executed a bond, which was approved. She and the appraisers filed an inventory which showed that the only property of said community estate was 80 acres out of the W. A. Chambers Survey in Stonewall County; that it was valued at $550; that there were outstanding vendor’s lien notes against the 80 acres amounting to approximately $500 and that it was the same land as that described in a deed from Hill Sawyer and' wife to J. C: Turner, recorded in Volume 59, at pages 39 and 40, of the Deed Records of Stonewall County. (Said deed from Hill Sawyer and wife to Turner was there recorded.)

On April 16, 1945, “Mrs. Dollie .Turner, Individually and as Community Adminis-tratrix of the Estate of Joe C. Turner, deceased,” executed a warranty deed to A. R. Sawyer in which the land therein conveyed was described in the same manner as in the deed from Hill Sawyer and wife to J. C. Turner, except it did not include a. reference to the 50 acres of minerals reserved by J. D. Hazelwood in the form of a square out of the northwest corner of the 160 acre W. A. Chambers Survey. As a part of the consideration recited, Sawyer assumed a debt to the Federal Land Bank Commissioner then amounting to $153, which was the unpaid balance of the community debt still owing on the purchase price of the land Turner bought from Hill Sawyer and wife, said debt and lien having been extended by Mrs. Turner by instruments executed by her individually and as community administratrix.

Sawyer and J. D. Hazelwood executed an oil and gas lease on the 80 acres describing the land as it was described in the deed to Sawyer, except that the fir-st call for locating its beginning corner was for the northeast, instead of the southeast, corner of Martindale No. 4. Mrs. Turner, joined by her present husband, Clayton Hatch, and the children of J. C. and Dollie Turner, filed suit in trespass to try title *122 against Sawyer and others, claiming under Sawyer. At the close of the evidence, both plaintiffs and defendants presented motions for an instructed verdict. Defendants’ motion was sustained, a verdict was so instructed, judgment was rendered that plaintiffs take nothing and they have appealed.

In defendants’ motion for peremptory instruction they contended, among other things, that (1) plaintiffs’ attack on the order of the probate court appointing Mrs. Turner administratrix was a collateral attack; (2) that the evidence showed that the interest of all plaintiffs in the 80 acres vested in A. R. Sawyer through Mrs. Turner’s warranty deed to him; (3) that, regardless of the validity of Mrs. Turner’s appointment, as the surviving wife of J. C. Turner, she had the power to sell and convey community property for the purpose of paying community debts; (4) that it was conclusively shown that the sale was made to pay community debts and all plaintiffs were bound by said deed; (5) that Mrs. Turner’s purported marriage to Mans-ford was void and when she executed the deed to Sawyer she was not under' disability of coverture and when Mrs. Turner executed said deed she recited therein that she was a widow and therefore she was es-topped to deny that she was then a widow, or that said deed conveyed her interest..

It is admitted by all that J. D. Hazelwood owns the minerals in SO acres in the form of a square out of the northwest corner of the 80 acres in controversy and his title need not hereafter be referred to.

Plaintiffs, by motion for peremptory instruction, contended, among other things, that the deed from Mrs. Turner to A. R. Sawyer was not sufficient as a deed of conveyance because of the call for the southeast, instead of the northeast, corner of the Martindale Survey, in locating the beginning, or southeast, corner of the 80 acres in controversy, and that said deed did not convey any right, title or interest in said land; that the uncontradicted testimony of A. R. Sawyer, under whom the other defendants claim, showed that the beginning point of the land in controversy as it was described in Mrs. Turner’s deed was 309.5 varas west and 211 varas north of the southeast corner of the Martindale No. 4 and that such a beginning point would place the 80 acres in the Martindale, not the Chambers, Survey; that any title of defendants must come from plaintiffs through Mrs. Turner’s deed, which was void for the following reasons: (a) It did not convey Mrs.

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Bluebook (online)
271 S.W.2d 119, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/turner-v-sawyer-texapp-1954.