Wolfe v. Brown

340 S.W.2d 851, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 1790
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 17, 1960
Docket3814
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 340 S.W.2d 851 (Wolfe v. Brown) 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
Wolfe v. Brown, 340 S.W.2d 851, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 1790 (Tex. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

*852 TIREY, Justice.

Mrs. Nell Brown, joined by her husband, brought this suit (trial non-jury) against her former husband, Lelon H. Wolfe, for the specific performance of a written agreement to convey real etstate and for enforcement of a valid and subsisting judgment of a Court awarding such real estate to plaintiff in the District Court of Lea County, New Mexico, wherein she obtained a decree granting her a divorce and for partition and division of the community property of herself and her former husband. Owing to the fact that the settlement agreement involved the transfer of a tract of land of 170 acres in Hamilton County, Texas, plaintiffs made the Veterans’ Land Board of the State of Texas a party defendant, and the Attorney General answered in behalf of said Board. Pertinent to this discussion, plaintiff, in her petition, alleged the filing of the suit for divorce, and for partition of their community property, and the adjudication thereof in the District Court, Lea County, New Mexico, and particularly set out that in connection with said divorce proceedings that the parties, by written agreement dated October 28, 1959, executed a contract, and approved by their respective attorneys, wherein they entered into a full and complete property settlement which was a final and complete agreement between the parties as to their property; that said agreement was filed among the papers of the case and attached a copy of said settlement agreement to their petition, and the settlement agreement was made a part of the Court’s decree. The agreement provided that Mrs. Brown should take the following items :

“(a) All household furniture belonging to the parties;
“(b) The 1949 Ford automobile;
“(c) The equity of the parties in the 170-acre farm located near Hico, Texas.”

The contract further provided that Mrs. Brown is to assume the outstanding purchase price obligation against this farm and is to save second party harmless from any obligations thereon. The contract further provided that Wolfe is to receive as his separate property, free and clear of any claims by first party, the following items:

“(a) The equity of the parties in the 1960 Chevrolet automobile belonging to the parties;
“(b) Cash in the First National Bank, Hico, Texas, in the approximate amount of $100.00;
“(c) Retirement benefits accumulated by defendant with his employer in the approximate amount of $168.00;
“(d) The life insurance policy covering the life of the defendant by the American National Life Insurance Co.;
“(3) The parties hereto agree to make such deeds, assignments or other evidence of transfer as are necessary to effect the complete vesting of title of said property as above set forth.”

The contract further provided:

“The parties hereto agree that this contract may be made a part of any divorce decree granted to either party. * * * The parties hereto assert that they have made full disclosure each to the other of their community property and that they both had the advice of counsel before entering into this agreement.”

Plaintiff’s petition further averred that after the property settlement agreement was agreed to that she later obtained a divorce from her former husband, and that thereafter she fully performed her part of the property settlement agreement, and the decree of the Court, and that her former husband, defendant herein, received and accepted from her all of his right, title and interest in the property set apart to him in the agreement, and that the decree of the Court granting a divorce in New Mexico approved the property settlement and decreed accord *853 ingly. In the decree entered in the District Court in Hamilton County in this cause, we find substantially the following recital: The Court finds and concludes that the land and premises involved in this suit is the separate property of plaintiff, Nell Brown, and concludes that the facts and law are with Nell Brown, and that plaintiff, Nell Brown, joined by her husband, ’Kenneth Brown, should have judgment over and against the defendant, Lelon H. Wolfe, for specific performance of the decree of the District Court of Lea County, New Mexico, which decree adopted the property settlement agreement between the parties, which property settlement was fully set out in plaintiff’s original petition, and that defendant, Wolfe, be required and ordered by judgment of this Court to properly execute, sign, acknowledge and deliver to plaintiff, Nell Brown, an assignment of contract of Veterans’ Land Board contract of sale and purchase in accordance with Article 5421m, Vernon’s Ann. Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, and particularly Section 17 thereof, assigning to Mrs. Brown, her heirs, executors, administrators and assigns forever, all the right, title and interest of the defendant in his contract of sale and purchase with the Veterans’ Land Board of Texas, as the defendant had previously bound himself to do by virtue of the property settlement agreement, and as defendant, Wolfe, was bound to do by the judgment of the District Court of Lea County, New Mexico, and the Court further found that said judgment was entitled to full faith and credit in the State of Texas. The Court then decreed that the defendant, Lelon H. Wolfe within thirty days from and after “this 11th day of July, 1960,” convey to Nell Brown, all his right, title and interest in and to the land described in that certain contract of sale and purchase dated January 27, 1954, recorded in Vol. 166, Page 503, of the Deed Records of Hamilton County, Texas, “being the 167.7 acres of 1 and more or less out of the O. A. Cook Survey contracted to be purchased by the said Lelon H. Wolfe,” such conveyance to be subject to all of the rules and regulations of the Veterans’ Land Board of Texas and in accordance with the Article 5421m, Vernon’s Ann.Rev.Civ.St. of Texas.

The decree further provided that in the event said Wolfe failed or refused to sign, execute and deliver such assignment of contract conveying all his right, title and interest in the tract of land in question, and all improvements thereon, to Nell Brown, within thirty days from and after the 11th day of July, 1960, then and upon such failure or refusal of said Wolfe so to do as ordered, that in such event the “full and entirety” to the title of said land and improvements as it existed under said purchase contract, together with the rights of possession thereon, shall be “and the same is hereby divested out of the said defendant, Lelon H. Wolfe”, subject to the rules and regulations of the Veterans’ Land Board of the State of Texas, together with the full exclusive rights of possession thereof, same shall be, and the “same is hereby vested in said plaintiff, Nell Brown, and for which the said plaintiff, Nell Brown, may have her writs” as may be necessary to obtain relief. The land is described in the decree by metes and bounds.

Appellant assails the judgment on five points. Point three is to the effect that the trial court erred in rendering judgment for specific performance of a purported agreement to transfer land where the instrument sued on is insufficient under the provisions of Artiple 1288, R.C.S., 1925, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
340 S.W.2d 851, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 1790, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wolfe-v-brown-texapp-1960.