Viduarri v. Bruni

179 S.W.2d 818, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 687
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 5, 1944
DocketNo. 11372.
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 179 S.W.2d 818 (Viduarri v. Bruni) 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
Viduarri v. Bruni, 179 S.W.2d 818, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 687 (Tex. Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

NORVELL, Justice.

This is the second appeal in this case. The opinions of the Supreme Court and this Court upon the former appeal are reported in 140 Tex. 138, 166 S.W.2d 81, and 154 S.W.2d 498, respectively, and we refer to them for a more detailed statement of the case. Upon this appeal, the Bruni claimants are again the appellees while Lucio Viduarri and others are the appellants. The judgment of the trial court awarded to. appellees the title and possession of eleven tracts of land situated in the Corralitos and Dolores subdivisions of the Borrego Grant, situated in Webb and Zapata Counties.

It was conceded by appellants in the court below that the appellees possessed a record title to a nine-tenths undivided interest in the lands here involved. The ap-pellees contended that they were entitled to judgment for all of the lands sued for, including the undivided one-tenth interest claimed by appellants under the ten-year statute of limitations, Art. 5510, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.Stats. Appellees also asserted that they were entitled to judgment under the doctrine of presumed grant or deed. Issues upon both of these theories of recovery were submitted to the jury and answered favorably to appellees.

Many of appellants’ points assert that the evidence is insufficient in law and in fact to support certain of the jury’s findings. It is contended that the record of the evidence differs from that of the former trial and appellants particularly call our attention to certain statements of parties or their predecessors in title which were not in evidence upon the first trial of the case. These statements consist of certain testimony of A. M. Bruni and Mrs. C. H. Bruni, his widow, given in connection with trials of lawsuits in 1913, 191.8 and 1936, affecting lands in the Bor-rego grant. We have examined this evidence, as well as the alleged admissions of A. H. Bruni, son of A. M. Bruni, and J, C. Martin, son-in-law of A. M. Bruni, both of whom were executors and trustees named in the will of A. M. Bruni, deceased. None of these statements are such as would preclude a recovery by appellees as a matter of law, but simply presented matters for the jury to weigh in connection with the other evidence in the case bearing upon the issues submitted to it.

It seems to us that the evidence upon this trial is substantially the same as that *820 adduced at the former trial, and we again hold that the case was one for the jury. Appellants’ points Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 16 are overruled.

We are also of the opinion that appellants’ points fail to disclose that the trial judge committed reversible error in his rulings relating to the exclusion of evidence or by his rulings in connection with objections made to the argument of appellees’ counsel before the jury.

Appellants sought to introduce in evidence a list of deeds and title instruments which appeared in the brief of ap-pellees filed in this Court upon the former appeal. It seems, however, that all instruments mentioned in the list were introduced in evidence upon the trial. We fail to see how or wherein this list prepared by appellees’ attorneys adds to or mitigates against appellants’ argument that A. M. Bruni, or those claiming under him, recognized an outstanding superior claim of title, as opposed to appellees’ contention that Bruni and the Bruni claimants, after 1901, procured these deeds, etc., in an effort to “buy peace.” We don’t think this list prepared for the purpose of presenting an argument or contention in this Court can properly be construed as an admission, and are also of the opinion that appellants were not prejudiced by the trial judge’s ruling.

Appellees’ counsel in commenting upon certain evidence of the testimony of A. M. Bruni, given in a prior case involving lands in the Borrego grant, pointed out that appellants had offered only a part of Bruni’s testimony. The trial court in ruling upon an objection by appellants instructed the jury that appellants could only intrpduce that part of Bruni’s testimony which could be construed as an admission against interest. Appellants then requested the court to instruct the jury that appellees could have introduced any part of Bruni’s testimony given at former trials in explanation of the part thereof introduced by appellants had they desired to do so. This instruction the trial court refused to give. We think this additional instruction was unnecessary and the trial court was correct in its ruling. Appellants’ points Nos. 2, 3 and 13 are overruled.

By their point No. 12, appellants assert that the trial court erred in failing to quash the jury panel. In support thereof appellants have brought forward in the transcript a lengthy bill of exceptions, which we have carefully considered. The jury panel was chosen from a wheel in accordance with the provisions of Article 2094 et seq., Vernon’s Ann.Stats. In the bill of exceptions the trial court certified that “the committee that drew 100 members from the wheel to constitute the jury panel for the trial of this case was composed of R. W. Carrejo, Deputy Sheriff of J. C. Martin, Sheriff, who is a party to the suit (Carrejo not being a party to the suit), Bias Garcia, a Deputy District Clerk (the District Clerk being J. C. Martin, Jr., a son of the Sheriff, the District Clerk not being a party to the suit), and myself, the District Judge and that the jury panel was regularly drawn in conformity with the statute, that the names appearing on the jury panel were those drawn out of the wheel and that the members of the jury panel who appeared in court were members of the panel as drawn from the wheel.”

The bill further recited that “upon the hearing of the motion to quash the jury panel, the Court inquired of defendants’ attorneys if they contended in their motion, or if they had any evidence to offer to show, that there had been' any corruption in connection with the jury panel or effort to tamper with it, and they said no, they made no such contention.”

The bill of exceptions negatives the existence of any actual prejudice to appellants. The trial court excused numerous members of the panel upon suggestions of appellants, and it does not appear that appellants were forced to take an objectionable juror. The sole question therefore presented is whether or not a jury selected from a jury panel taken from a wheel in accordance with applicable statutory provisions is disqualified to sit in a case in which the sheriff of the county is a party. The selection of names from the wheel in accordance with the statutory directions is largely mechanical, and there is no contention that the statutory safeguards were not fully complied with in this case. The statute does not provide for an alternative method of selection of a jury panel for cases in which the sheriff is a party. We therefore conclude that neither the jury panel nor the petit jury selected from the panel were disqualified to sit in this case. The bill fails to disclose a reversible error. Appellants’ twelfth point is overruled.

In addition to the contention that the evidence is insufficient to support the judgment (hereinabove disposed of), appellants *821 contend that the judgment can not be supported by the ten-year statute of limitations for two additional reasons.

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Bluebook (online)
179 S.W.2d 818, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 687, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/viduarri-v-bruni-texapp-1944.