Webb v. Webb

184 S.W.2d 153, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 983
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 10, 1944
DocketNo. 2482.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 184 S.W.2d 153 (Webb v. Webb) 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
Webb v. Webb, 184 S.W.2d 153, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 983 (Tex. Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

GRISSOM, Justice.

This is an interpleader suit brought by the Citizens State Bank of Knox City, Texas, as a disinterested stake holder, against Ray Webb, the surviving son of Hugh Webb, deceased, and Elizabeth Webb, his - surviving wife. The purpose of the suit was to have the court decide which of said defendants was entitled to a deposit of $8,005.65 in said bank in the name of E. Webb. The trial was to the court. The court awarded said deposit, less attorney’s fees allowed the bank, to Elizabeth Webb. Ray Webb has appealed.

Elizabeth and Hugh Webb were married in 1911. Hugh Webb died, intestate, on July 22, 1943. They had no children. Appellant, Ray Webb, is the only child of Hugh Webb. Ray Webb was about forty years of age at the time of his father’s death. Elizabeth Webb had seen her husband’s son only one time prior to her husband’s death. Ray Webb had never lived with them, never visited them, and her husband never spoke of him. Hugh and Elizabeth Webb purchased a farm in Has-kell County with community funds. Shortly prior to Hugh Webb’s death, this farm was sold through the Farm Security Administration. The sale was closed through Hon. W. P. Ratliff, an attorney at Haskell, *154 who obtained three checks aggregating the amount of the deposit in question. On July 15, 1943, Mr. and Mrs. Webb went from their home in Knox City to the home of Otto Lawson in Vernon. Hugh Webb was sick. Mrs. Lawson was the niece of Mrs. Webb. The Webbs executed their deed to the Haskell County farm on July 15, before they left their home for Vernon. On Monday morning, July 19, 1943, Mr. Webb called his wife and said to her in the presence of Mrs. Lawson: “Dutch, I am uneasy about the check for the farm; I want you to have that money for the farm.”

Mrs. Webb replied: “All right, Dude, we will fix that when we get home.” Mr. Webb said: “No, I want it fixed now. You go and call Mr. Ratliff and see if he has sent that check, and if he says he has, call the bank and tell them to go get the checks and deposit them, don’t forget, deposit them to ‘E. Webb’.”

Mr. Webb further said: “I want you to have that money, Dutch; I am giving it to you.”

Mrs. Webb replied: “All right, Dude, if that is what you want, I will take it and take care of it.”

The foregoing is the testimony of Mrs. Lawson. Mrs. Webb testified that she had carried a bank account with the plaintiff bank at Knox City for several years before her husband’s death in the name of E. Webb; that E. was the initial for Elizabeth, that E. Webb and Elizabeth Webb were the samé person. The testimony of Mrs. Webb, *Mrs. Lawson, and Mr. Ratliff further shows that on Monday, July 19, Mrs. Webb called Mr. Ratliff at Haskell over the telephone, as her husband had instructed, and inquired about the checks given in payment for the farm; that Mrs. Webb told Mr. Ratliff that she wanted to get the checks; that she was informed that he had mailed the checks to Hugh Webb at Knox City on July 16. Mr. Ratliff suggested that she call the banker and ask him to get the checks out of the post office; that Mrs. Webb than called Mr. Averitt of the Citizens State Bank of Knox City, Texas. She told him the checks were in the post office and, as instructed by her husband, asked him to get the checks and deposit them to the credit of E. Webb. Mr. Averitt evidently did as he was instructed, because said three checks were deposited to the credit of E. Webb in said bank on that day. The following morning, July 20, Hugh Webb expressed uneasiness about the checks and instructed his wife to again call Mr. Aver-itt and see if he had obtained the checks and deposited them to the credit of E. Webb. Hugh Webb said to his wife: “I am still uneasy; I don’t know whether they got that check out of the bank or not. You go and call Joe Averitt and see if he got that check and deposited it to E. Webb.” When she started out the door, he added: "Be sure and see if he de- ' posited it to E. Webb.” Mrs. Webb called the bank again on that day. There was testimony that Mr. Webb seemed better “after he got that off his mind”. The following day Mr. Webb was carried to a hospital, where he died on July 22. A statement rendered by the telephone company shows Mrs. Webb’s calls to Haskell and Knox City on July 19 and another call to Knox City on July 20. Mrs. Webb qualified as community administratrix. She filed an inventory of the community estate. It did not list the $8,005.65 evidenced by the deposit made to the credit of E. Webb in the Citizens State Bank on July 19.

Mrs. Lawson testified, on cross-examination, that on July 19 Elizabeth Webb cashed a check at Perkins-Timberlake, that she did not see the check when it was written, that she later saw the check “in her statement when it came back from the bank”, that the check was signed “E. Webb, by wife”. There was no further testimony casting any light on this check. Ray Webb introduced deposit slips issued by the Citizens. State Bank of Knox City, Texas, showing the following deposits to- the credit of E. Webb:

5-19-43, $500.00, with the notation “Note due 7-1-43 bears interest from date”.

7-14-43, 1 bull $138.18, 21 cattle $1270.89, making a total of $1409.07.

6-14 — 43, $500.00, with the notation “Note due 7-14 — 43 bears interest from date”.

7-10-1943, shows a loan of $500.00, a charge of $1.00, and a net deposit of $499.00.

7-20-1943, defense bond sold, $76.00, gas tax refund, $65.84, total $141.84.

Ray Webb pleaded that the community estate of Elizabeth and Hugh Webb owed certain debts, including “three notes for $500.00 each due Citizens State Bank, Knox City, Texas”. It was stipulated on the trial that the indebtedness alleged in *155 the answer of Ray Webb constituted debts of the community estate and were properly chargeable thereto. It was further agreed that there was a community estate “other than the funds involved in this cause” more than sufficient to discharge the community debts set forth in the answer of Ray Webb, and that Mrs. Elizabeth Webb had been and was at the time of the trial paying said debts out of the community estate, and that all of said debts “have been paid out of community funds other than the funds involved in this controversy”.

There are no findings of fact and conclusions of law in the record. However, the judgment recites that “Hugh Webb, prior to his death, gave and delivered to his wife, the said Mrs. Elizabeth Webb, all of the proceeds of the sale of, said farm, same being the said sum of $8,005.65; that the said Mrs. Elizabeth Webb accepted said sum of $8,005.65 prior to her said husband’s death, and that a valid gift of the same was made to her, and that the said sum of $8,005.65, was and is the separate property and estate of the said Mrs. Elizabeth Webb, and is not a part of the community estate of the said Mrs. Elizabeth Webb and her deceased husband, Hugh Webb, and that the defendant and cross-defendant, Ray Webb, has no interest therein whatsoever, and is not entitled to any portion of the same.”

We will not stop to consider whether said recital in the judgment has the effect of findings of fact and conclusions of law. In the absence of said recital, this court would have been required to presume that the trial court so found, in support of the judgment rendered. Therefore, a determination of the question suggested becomes immaterial.

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Bluebook (online)
184 S.W.2d 153, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 983, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webb-v-webb-texapp-1944.