Willis v. Sanger Bros.

40 S.W. 229, 15 Tex. Civ. App. 655, 1897 Tex. App. LEXIS 132
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 31, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 40 S.W. 229 (Willis v. Sanger Bros.) 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
Willis v. Sanger Bros., 40 S.W. 229, 15 Tex. Civ. App. 655, 1897 Tex. App. LEXIS 132 (Tex. Ct. App. 1897).

Opinion

NEILL, Associate Justice

Sanger Bros, brought this suit against Henry Loeb on the promissory note for $2986.10, and to foreclose the deed of trust, mentioned in our first conclusion of fact. Frank Willis, the appellant, Thomas Griffin, W. L. McDonald, and H. I. Phillips were joined with Loeb as defendants in the suit, it being alleged that they claimed an interest in the land inferior to the lien asserted by the plaintiffs. Defendants Griffin and Phillips filed disclaimers, alleging that they claimed no interest in the premises, and defendants Loeb and McDonald did not answer.

On December 2, 1895, the sole remaining defendant Frank Willis, appellant, filed his amended answer, consisting of the following: (1) General exception. (2) General denial. (3) Special denial, that the note sued on was given in renewal of the two former notes given by Loeb to plaintiffs, that said notes show by the writing of plaintiffs on their face, to-wit: “Paid by new note, December 20, 1893,” that same were paid by said last note, and plaintiffs are estopped from denying same, and that the lien in the deed of trust dated February 5, 1889, retained thereby to secure payment of the $1200 note, of even date therewith, had lapsed, become lost, and was not preserved, so as to secure said last note sued on herein. (4) That he is in possession, and is the legal and equitable owner of the' land in controversy in fee simple, and that his title is regular and superior to the alleged lien of plaintiffs. (5) That he purchased said' land on December 13, 1894, from W. L. McDonald, for $2000, evidenced by his eight promissory notes, for $250 each, payable annually to the order of W. L. McDonald, running from one to eight years after date, which notes were secured by a deed of trust given by Willis to H. I. Phillips, trustee, and that said McDonald on same day executed and delivered to him a warranty deed, conveying said land in controversy. (6) That McDonald purchased said land from S. W. S. Duncan, on May 22, 1894, for a valuable consideration, receiving a deed therefor in due form, said Duncan having purchased same for a valuable consideration at a constable’s sale thereof on August 2, 1893, under an execution issued on a valid judgment against said Loeb, receiving a deed in due form conveying to him all of Loeb’s title to said land. (7) That Willis, defendant, purchased, for a valuable consideration, said land at a constable’s sale thereof, on February 6, 1895, under an execution issued upon a valid judgment in the case of Philo Wilcox & Co. against Henry Loeb, *658 rendered in County Court of Dallas County on March 27, 1888, for 8410.80, which said judgment at date of said sale was not dormant, and said constable executed and delivered to said defendant a deed in due and legal form, conveying all the title said Loeb had in said land, and foreclosed the judgment lien secured by the proper filing, abstracting and indexing of an abstract of said judgment in the office of the clerk of the County Court of Dallas County, Texas, on September 26, 1888. (8) That on December 20, 1894, Loeb sold the land to defendant Willis and Thomas Griffin, taking in payment their ten vendor’s lien notes for $275 each, payable to the order of Henry Loeb from one to ten years thereafter, secured by deed of trust on said land, which notes Loeb indorsed and delivered to Sanger Bros, before maturity, in settlement and lieu of the old Loeb notes and trust deed herein sought to be enforced and foreclosed; that Loeb defrauded defendant Willis in selling said land to him at $1000 more than the price agreed on, and after all Loeb’s title had been divested by executor’s sale of said land; that plaintiffs either participated in or were th.- beneficiaries of said fraud. (9) That Henry Loeb failed in business about eight or nine years since, in Dallas, Texas, and is now, and ever since said time has been, hopelessly insolvent, there being several judgments unsatisfied of record against him in Dallas County; that he is a neighbor Jew and has been for many years an intimate personal friend of pláintiffs, all of whom are of the “household of Israel,” and that when Loeb executed said notes and deed of trust “he did not owe plaintiffs, Sanger Bros., a dollar on earth, but that all of said notes and deed of trust alleged in the petition were, and each, all and every one of them are and were, at said time alleged in said petition, executed for the sole object and purpose of defrauding said Loeb’s creditors and preventing and hindering them in the enforcement of the collection of their just debts, were wholly and are absolutely null and void when made and executed as aforesaid, and were made without consideration.” Said defendant prays for judgment canceling all said notes and trust deeds, as clouds on his title to said land, that he may go hence without day and recover his costs.

On April 27, 1896, plaintiffs filed, by way of reply to said answer, a supplemental petition, consisting of a gen eral exception, general denial, and special plea that the recording of the judgment of Philo Wilcox & Co. against Henry Loeb was ineffectual to create a lien on Loeb’s property, “for the reason that on or about June 15, 1888, execution was issued on said judgment and levied upon certain property of the said Loeb, and sale made thereunder on or about August 7, 1888, at which sale said property so levied upon sold for the sum of $60, which, after the payment of costs, put a creti.t upon said judgment of $44.15; that said credit was not shown in the abstract of said judgment thereafter made and attempted to be recorded in the office of the County Clerk of Dallas County, Texas.”

Said defendant filed a supplemental answer, by way of replication to *659 plaintiff’s supplemental petition, consisting of g.eneral and special exceptions, general denial, and special plea that the $60 bid at said execution sale of Loeb’s property was bid by J. W. Thompson, attorney for Philo Wilcox & Co., under a mistake of fact as to the condition of Loeb’s title thereto (it being then incumbered for twice its value); that it was a nominal bid, no money being paid by him or his client thereon.

Plaintiffs responded thereto by filing, on the same day, a second supplemental petition, consisting of a general exception and general denial. ■

The court overruled defendant’s exceptions to plaintiffs’ supplemental petition, to which defendant excepted; and sustained plaintiffs’ general exception to said defendant’s supplemental answer, to which he then excepted in open court.

Plaintiffs announced ready for trial, and said defendant announced not ready. Said defendant filed an application for a second continuance of the cause, which was overruled by the court, to which ruling said defendant excepted. ,

The case was tried before a jury, and verdict returned and judgment rendered in favor of Griffin and Phillips on their disclaimers, and in favor of appellees against Loeb for their debt, interest and attorney’s fees, amounting to $4103.90, and against Loeb, Willis and McDonald for a foreclosure of lien on the land described in the deed of trust to pay said indebtedness, and in favor of Willis for the cancellation of the ten notes made by him to Loeb for $275 each. From this judgment this appeal is prosecuted by Willis alone.

Conclusions of Fact.-—1.

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Bluebook (online)
40 S.W. 229, 15 Tex. Civ. App. 655, 1897 Tex. App. LEXIS 132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/willis-v-sanger-bros-texapp-1897.