Younger v. McCoy

53 S.W.2d 165
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 3, 1932
DocketNo. 2228.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 53 S.W.2d 165 (Younger v. McCoy) 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
Younger v. McCoy, 53 S.W.2d 165 (Tex. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

WALKER, C. J.

Under orders of the county court of Liberty county, Adlawyer Baldwin, as guardian of her minor children, Thresa Jane, Leanna, Sarah Lee, and Frederick Antoine, on the 1st day of February, 1922, sold to J. I. Younger of Harris county the undivided one-half interest of her minor children in a certain tract of 71 ½ acres of land in Liberty county. After the execution of this deed, Thresa Jane married Arthur McCoy, on the 22d day of September, 1927, and Leanna married Emory Smith on the 3d day of May, 1928. On the 17th day of September, 1929, Thresa Jane and Leanna, joined by their husbands, under the provisions of article 932, R. S. 1925, filed their petition herein in the district court of Liberty county, praying for certiorari to the county court of Liberty county for the purpose of revising and halving set aside their guardian’s deed, as above described. This petition was presented to the Honorable Thos. B. Coe, district judge of Liberty county, on the 17th day of September, 1929, who promptly indorsed his fiat thereon, ordering that the writ of certiorari be issued as prayed for, upon the execution of a bond in the sum of $200. The bond was duly executed, the writ issued, and service and return had thereon on the 19th of September, 1929. The defendants named in the petition were J. I. Younger and his grantees of the 71 ½ acres of land. Defendant J. I. Younger, having sold all his interest in the land, filed a disclaimer. The other defendants answered on the 4th day of February, 1930, and the 22d day of October, 1930. At the July term, 1931, Judge Coe certified his disqualification because of his relationship to one of the parties to the suit. On July 16, 1931, at the same term of court, Judge Ewing Boyd, sitting as district judge of Liberty county under exchange of benches with Judge Coe, assumed jurisdiction of this case and entered his order ratifying and confirming all orders made therein by Judge Coe and all other proceedings had in the case, including approval of the bond upon which the writ was issued. From the facts just stated, it appears that the order made by Judge Coe was within the two-year period provided by article 932, and it also appears that Judge Boyd’s order of confirmation was made and entered much more than two years after the disabilities of the minors Thresa Jane and Leanna had been removed by their marriage. On the 16th day of July the defendants filed their written motion to dismiss this proceeding on the ground that it was not filed and prosecuted within the two-year period provided by article 932, *166 making the specific point that Judge Boyd did not have the power to ratify and confirm •Judge Coo’s orders after the expiration of the period of two years provided by article 932. This motion was in all things overruled. Thereupon the. case proceeded to trial to a jury. After all the evidence was in and after the court had refused the motion of defendants for an instructed verdict and had granted plaintiffs’ motion for an instructed verdict, with consent of all parties, the court discharged the jury and entered judgment in plaintiffs’ favor for cancellation of the guardian’s deed. This judgment was entered as if the case had been tried to the court without a jury, and on motion of defendants the trial court- filed his conclusions of fact and law in support of his judgment. Prom that order the defendants have duly prosecuted their appeal to this court.

Opinion.

The court did not err in overruling defendants’ motion to dismisss this proceeding on the ground that the order of Judge Ewing Boyd, ratifying and confirming the previous orders made by Judge Coe, was void. As Judge Coe was disqualified herein, of course, all, orders made by him were absolutely void. But Judge Boyd had the power, as a matter of original jurisdiction, to make all the orders in issue and therefore, under Comstock v. Lomax (Tex. Civ. App.) 135 S. W. 185, to ratify and confirm Judge Coe’s orders.

Appellants do not deny the power of the district judge to enter an order of confirmation where the previous orders were made by a disqualified judge, as was Judge Coe iu this case, but their insistence is that the order of confirmation and ratification must he made within the two-year period provided by article 932, or within a reasonable time after the expiration of that two years. We think the facts of this case support the conclusion that petitioners acted with all due diligence in the prosecution of their ease after the disqualification of Judge Coe was entered. We say -this because the record shows affirmatively that the disqualification was entered at the July term, 1931, and a short while thereafter, and at the same term of court, the petitioners prosecuted their suit to judgment.

Appellees base their prayer for certio-rari upon allegations of the following facts, which we take from appellants’ brief:.

“(a) That no necessity existed for the sale for that the application for sale shows that the minors then had on hand personal property which could have been sold and also had on hand money.
“(b) That the allegations in the application for order of sale that said property sought to be sold was not calculated to have any rea- ' sonable increase in value and was non-revenue -bearing were false, and that said property was in fact revenue bearing and was calculated to have a reasonable increase in value.
“(c) That the application for order of sale stated that the minors’ interest in said lands was undivided but that the order of sale directing the sale of the minors’ interest did not specify what the interest of said minors in said land was and that such interest of the minors in said land was not set out in the report of sale or in the confirmation of sale.
“(d) That the probate court approved the report of sale without inquiry to whether the sale was fairly made or not.
“(e) That there was no competition between bidders and no opportunity given persons other than the purchaser named in said proceedings to purchase at- said sale and no offer was made to others of such property in order to obtain a more advantageous price than was offered by the said alleged purchaser.
“(f) That the purchaser named in the, report of sale and confirmation thereof in fact paid no consideration for the property.
“(g) That the purchaser was guilty of fraud in that he and those associated with him prepared the instruments in connection with said sale; that the guardian was told to sign them and did sign them where it was indicated she should sign; that the guardian did not understand and was never told that she was making a deed as guardian of the minors; and that she was told by the purchaser that the guardian’s deed was merely a ratification of a former .deed executed by her individually.
“(h) That the consideration recited in the report of sale, confirmation of sale and in the guardian’s deed was grossly inadequate; that property purported to be sold was at the time of the reasonable worth and value of four times the sale price recited in the deed.”

It thus appears that all the allegations for relief against the guardian’s deed are of matters not appearing on the face of the record in probate, but are aliunde of the record, except paragraph (c). Against these allegations appellants, as subvendees under J. I.

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Bluebook (online)
53 S.W.2d 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/younger-v-mccoy-texapp-1932.