Volpe v. Benavides

359 S.W.2d 136, 17 Oil & Gas Rep. 567, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2618
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 1, 1962
DocketNo. 3723
StatusPublished

This text of 359 S.W.2d 136 (Volpe v. Benavides) 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
Volpe v. Benavides, 359 S.W.2d 136, 17 Oil & Gas Rep. 567, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2618 (Tex. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

GRISSOM, Chief Justice.

Servando Benavides, Sr., and his wife, Maria Volpe de Benavides, owned large tracts of land in Texas and Mexico. She died intestate in 1919. In 1921 one of their sons, Manuel Benavides Volpe, sued his father, brothers and sisters for a partition of said community estate in Texas, alleging he was entitled to l/£th of his mother’s ½ of said community estate. All defendants answered and, likewise, prayed for partition. Two of the S brothers and sisters were minors. They answered through their guardian ad litem alleging that each owned a i/sth. interest in said property, adopted the plaintiff’s pleadings and prayed, as did all the parties, for a partition.

On March 23, 1923, the court rendered the first partition judgment which contained the following recitals:

“Second: That all of the personal property is susceptible of partition, and the whole of the real property of said estate is susceptible of partition as to .the surface thereof, but the Court finds that it would be inequitable at this time to partition the oil, gas and mineral rights in and under said lands, for the reason that a great deal of explorations of said lands and adjoining lands for oil and gas is now being done, and it is impossible at this time to determine what would be a fair, equitable and just partition of the oil, gas and mineral rights under said lands, and the Court finds that all parties to this suit, including the Guardian Ad Litem 'for the minors, have agreed that the oil, gas and mineral rights and the leases, .royalties and rentals therefrom shall be kept intact and administered together for a ' period of five years from this date, and placed in the hands of’ a Trustee, * * * to * * * manage and handle said oil, gas arid mineral rights and all rents and royalties therefrom, and supervise the renting and collection of rentals and royalties therefrom, and to pay over each ninety days to the parties entitled thereto under this decree, their pro-rata share as hereinafter fixed. The said Trustee to have no power to sell royalties unless. empowered to do so by this Court, upon application made for said purpose, and said Trustee * * * at any and all times to render to the beneficiaries of said trust statements as to all receipts and disbursements; the said Trustee to have full power to execute all documents and instruments necessary or convenient to lease and assign said oil, gas and mineral rights, and to make contracts with reference to royalties and rentals, therefrom, as fully as the owners of said oil, gas and mineral rights could do themselves * *

It contained a finding that Servando Bena-vides, Sr., was entitled to 'i/2 and the five children were each entitled to a ¼oth of said community estate and that plaintiff had made a contract with some lawyers to convey to them %oth of the real estate set aside to him.

“Ninth: It is therefore, Ordered, adjudged and Decreed by the Court that the above described lands, excluding the oil, gas and mineral rights therein and under, and all said personal property be, and. the same is hereby ordered and directed partitioned and distributed in the above shares among the plaintiff and defendants herein, as follows, to-wit: to Servando Benavides, one-half part and interest; to Manuel Benavides Volpe one-tenth part and interest, and out of which said share there shall be .set. aside in severalty, in equal shares, tó A. C. Hamilton and S. T. Phelps, one-tenth of the realty set aside to said Manuel Benavides Volpe, and one-fourth of all personal property set aside to said Manuel Benavides Volpe; to' Angelina B. de Longoria, one-tenth [138]*138part and interest; to Servando B. Volpe one-tenth part and interest; to Carlos B. Volpe one-tenth part and interest; and to Maria B. Volpe one-tenth part and interest.
“Tenth: It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed by the Court that the oil, gas and mineral rights, in upon and under all said lands, belonging to said community estate, shall be kept and held together for a period of five years from this date, unless sooner terminated by an order of this court, and the care, management, control and handling- of said oil, gas and mineral rights in, upon and under said lands, are hereby placed in the hands of Sam W. Brown, Trustee * *

It provided that the trustee should have no power to sell royalty unless specially authorized by the court upon application for that purpose. It provided in Paragraph 10 that the trust in said minerals should exist for five years, but it contained a significant provision that at the expiration of the trust the minerals “shall revert to and become a part of the fee of the lands for which a partition is * * * ordered, and be owned by the parties who have the respective title and possession of said lands at the termination of this trust.” It provided that if at the expiration of the five year term of the trust conditions as to exploration for oil justified it, the trust might be extended for three years “when such trust shall terminate and title to the said oil, gas and mineral rights shall vest in the then owners of the fee simple title to said lands.” Commissioners to make partition of the land and personal property were then appointed. In their report they divided the land into six shares, one half of which was allotted to the father, as Share 6, and the other half was allotted as Shares 1 to 5, to the five children, respectively. The minerals were not specifically mentioned in said report.

On June 30, 1923, final judgment was rendered in the partition suit. It adopted the report of the commissioners, and contained the following provision:

“It is further ordered by the court that the title shall be, and is hereby vested in each party, to whom a share has been allotted, to such shares or portion of such property as is set apart to him or her by such commissioners in said report as against each of the other parties of this suit, his or her heirs, executors, administrators or assigns, as fully and effectually as the deed of such party or parties could vest the same, and this decree shall have the same force and effect as a full warranty deed of conveyance from such other parties and each of them.”

Said second 1923 partition judgment recited that the preliminary decree placed the minerals in the hands of a trustee and fixed the share of the proceeds to which each party was entitled, but failed to declare the interest of plaintiff’s attorneys in the minerals but that they were entitled to ⅛⅛ of the minerals held by said trustee for plaintiff. The court then, significantly, decreed that said attorneys were vested with, subject to the terms of said trust, ⅛⅛ of plaintiff’s minerals and entitled to receive one-fourth of the proceeds from his minerals during the existence of the trust and that “at the expiration of said trust said interest shall be limited to the lands herein set aside and partitioned to the said Manuel Benavides Volpe.”

In July, 1923, said attorneys reconveyed to the plaintiff. After a description of the land, the deed recited that it was the intention of the grantors to convey to Manuel Benavides Volpe all the right, title and interest in the minerals set apart to them by said judgment and to authorize the trustee to make all payments to appellant to which they were entitled during the existence of the trust and that “at the expiration thereof, the said Manuel Benavides Volpe shall have all lands which he may own at that time free from any right, title or interest of [139]*139the grantors, in and to the mineral rights thereunder.”

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Bluebook (online)
359 S.W.2d 136, 17 Oil & Gas Rep. 567, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2618, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/volpe-v-benavides-texapp-1962.