Waggoner v. Tinney

115 S.W. 1155, 102 Tex. 254, 1909 Tex. LEXIS 130
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 27, 1909
DocketNo. 1855.
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 115 S.W. 1155 (Waggoner v. Tinney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Waggoner v. Tinney, 115 S.W. 1155, 102 Tex. 254, 1909 Tex. LEXIS 130 (Tex. 1909).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Brown

delivered the opinion of the court.

W. T. Waggoner instituted this suit in the District Court of Baylor County against the defendant in error, to recover a tract of land claimed to be a part of the public school lands granted by the State of Texas to Young County, located in Baylor County, Waggoner claiming that Young County had conveyed the land to him. The case was tried before the judge, who filed conclusions of fact which give a detailed account of the transaction between the parties and from which we make the following condensed statement, showing the material facts upon the question here presented.

(1) The State of Texas granted to Young County two leagues of land for school purposes, located in Baylor County, for which a patent was issued to said Young County, and in which the land was described as follows.: “Beginning at the S. W. corner of survey No. 858 in the name of A. G. McNeil, a stake on the north bank of Big Wichita River, from which three cottonwoods bear west, and hack-berry brs. S. 68 degrees B. 170 vrs.; thence S. 30 degrees B. crossing the river at 1149 vrs. to a rock mound in prairie valley; thence S. 60 degrees W. crossing Church Creek at 440 varas, at 6990 varas a stake in the prairie; thence N. 30 degrees W. 5913 vrs. cross Big Wichita at 7153 vrs. a stake in valley near a bunch of Chittum trees, from which a Chittum ten inches in diameter bears N, 77 degrees W. 9 varas, and another Chittum four inches in diameter brs. S. 22; degrees W. 2% varas; thence N. 60 degrees B. 6990 varas to a stake in the prairie; thence S. 30 degrees B. 3316 vrs. place of beginning.”

(2) At the February term, 1890, of the Commissioners Court of Young County that court by order duly entered authorized R. H. Hollingsworth to subdivide the two leagues of land in Baylor County, granted to said Young County for school purposes, into tracts not less than 160 acres each and to sell the same according to the terms specified in the order. In pursuance of the order Hollingsworth subdivided the said two leagues of land into smaller tracts, one of which, was designated as subdivision No. 1, which is the land in controversy in this suit.

(3) On August 8, 1891, Hollingsworth sold subdivision No. 1 of the said land to. C. H. Prestridge for $82.00 cash, and the balance *257 of the purchase money, $738, secured by note due on or before twenty years from date, with interest, payable annually, at the rate of eight percent per annum, principal and interest payable at Graham, Texas. The note provided that in case the interest or principal should not be paid when due the county might at its option rescind the contract and recover possession of the land. Hollingsworth gave to Prestridge a bond for title in the name of Young County, the title to be made on the payment of the note and interest. The bond did not contain the provision authorizing the county to rescind the contract upon default in payment of interest or principal. In the bond the land was described as 205 acres, being subdivision Ho. 1 of the Young County school land giving metes and. bounds. The bond was duly recorded in Baylor County but the note was not recorded. Interest was paid upon the note up to and including the 8th day of August, 1894, since which time no interest has been paid.

(4) On August 9, 1893, C. H. Prestridge and wife, by quitclaim deed, conveyed the land in controversy to M. W. Ayres by the same description that was given in the bond to Prestridge. Ayres assumed the payment of the note to the county. This deed was duly recorded in Baylor County.

(5) On the 15th day of October, 1894, Lizzie A. DeWitt instituted suit in trespass to try title against Ayres in the District Court of Baylor County to recover the 205 acres of land conveyed to him by Prestridge, and which is the land here in controversy. She claimed that the land was a part of the McKinney & Williams survey. She was the owner of the land in the McKinney & Williams survey. Ayres pleaded his title and asked that Young County be made a party defendant to the suit which was done and the county answered by plea of not guilty. The venue of the case was changed to Wichita County and there tried in the District Court before a jury. The issue presented was whether the land was embraced in the grant of two leagues from the State of Texas to Young County for school purposes, which was an older grant than the McKinney & Williams survey. The jury found for defendant, in effect, that the land was within the two leagues granted to Young County, and judgment was entered that plaintiff, Lizzie A. DeWitt, take nothing by her suit and the defendant go hence without day and recover costs. The judgment was not recorded in Baylor County. Ho appeal was taken. Young County since that time has claimed the land as a part of its school land. Hp to the time Young County conveyed the land to Waggoner there was a controversy over that line of the- school lands and Young County always claimed the line run by Hollingsworth as.the true boundary.

(6-) On the 17th day of March, 1905, Ayres, by quitclaim deed, conveyed the land in controversy to Joseph Tinney, the defendant in error. The terms of the trade are unimportant so far as this case is concerned.

(7) On the 4th day of December, 1903, the Commissioners Court of Young County, by an order duly entered, accepted ■ an offer made by W- T. Waggoner to buy the two leagues of land in Baylor County, and said Commissioners Court authorized the county judge to make *258 a deed to Waggoner for $3.80 per acre. It was directed in the said order that the county judge “ascertain the acreage” of said land and make and deliver a general warranty deed to the said Waggoner upon his compliance with the terms of the order. The county judg'fe executed and delivered to Waggoner a deed for the two leagues of land by the same metes and bounds given in the patent, and it was stated in the deed that the two leagues contained 9693.8 acres of land, “being all of said survey” except a small part which had been recovered from Young County by another party, which did not embrace any of the land in controversy.

(8) The land in suit was not in fact embraced in the metes and bounds given in the patent to Young County, nor in the deed from Young County to Waggoner, but in making the survey of the land for division into smaller tracts Hollingsworth established the southeast corner of the two leagues of school land at a point designated as the beginning corner of the land sold to Prestridge and described in the bond given to him, which embraced the tract now in controversy. . • ' ■ • •

(9) The original and true southeast corner of the Young- County ■ school land was situated and located about 2000 varas west and- a little south of the point designated in the Prestridge bond for title, which corner, as established by Hollingsworth, was 1100 varas south of the southwest corner of the A. G. McNeil survey as found upon the - ground and as called for in the patent. To locate the southeast corner of the Young County survey, as claimed by Waggoner, would . give it an excess of acreage, but to locate it “at a more westerly point” would give its correct quantity.. ■ If located as claimed by the plaintiff in error and according to Hollingsworth’s survey it would conflict with and absorb three other surveys which are older than the school land survey.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
115 S.W. 1155, 102 Tex. 254, 1909 Tex. LEXIS 130, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waggoner-v-tinney-tex-1909.