Dahlberg v. Holden
| Decision Date | 21 February 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. A-2711,A-2711 |
| Citation | 238 S.W.2d 699,150 Tex. 179 |
| Parties | DAHLBERG et al. v. HOLDEN et al. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Vinson, Elkins & Weems, Tarlton Morrow and Rush H. Record, Houston, for petitioner, B. I. Dahlberg.
Neel, King & Rachal, Robert B. Wallace, and McCampbell, Wood & Kirkham, Corpus Christi, Black & Stayton, Austin, for petitioner, Steve Paul.
Allen Wood and Ward & Brown, Corpus Christi, Gordon Simpson, Dallas, for respondents.
This is an action in trespass to try title brought by respondents Nana Holden and Harriet Holden against petitioners B. I. Dahlberg and Steve Paul for the title and possession of a tract of land in Aransas County. The agreed common source of title is Harriet G. Fulton. To establish their title the plaintiffs (respondents) introduced a deed dated July 16, 1906, from Harriet G. Fulton to her three daughters, Harriet S. Holden, Lee C. Fulton, and Annie W. Holden, conveying the land in controversy and other lands. Plaintiffs then offered evidence establishing that Annie W. Holden died intestate on July 24, 1935, leaving as her only heirs three daughters, namely, the plaintiffs (respondents), Nana Holden and Harriet Holden and Mrs. Linda Mae Beaman. They also offered in evidence a deed from Mrs. Beaman dated March 30, 1936, conveying to them her interest in the property.
The defendants (petitioners) then offered in evidence a deed dated November 5, 1928, from Annie W. Holden to her three daughters, Nana Holden, Harriet Holden, and Linda Mae Beaman, and a deed of trust dated March 6, 1930, executed by Nana Holden and Harriet Holden to J. S. McCampbell, Trustee, for Manufacturers Acceptance Corporation. They then made proof that Dahlberg appointed W. H. Young substitute trustee, and that Young sold the land on March 6, 1936, to Dahlberg, who in turn sold to Steve Paul by deed dated October 31, 1936, in which deed he reserved a mineral interest.
The principal questions for decision by this court are: (1) The validity of the description as contained in the deed dated November 5, 1928, from Annie W. Holden to her three daughters, Nana Holden, Harriet Holden, and Linda Mae Beaman in so far as it relates to the property in suit. (2) The extent of recovery, if any, to which respondents are entitled, that is, whether they are entitled to the whole of the tract of land or only to an undivided one-third interest therein.
The trial court held that the challenged deed was valid; that the 1936 deed from Linda Mae Beaman and husband to Nana and Harriet Holden related back to March 7, 1930, the date of a previously executed but defectively acknowledged deed from the Beamans to Nana and Harriet Holden, so that the interest conveyed thereby was included in the deed of trust, with the result that the entire one-third interest in the property was encumbered by the deed of trust lien. That court further held, however, that the trustee's sale under the deed of trust was void for irregularities, and that Paul was an innocent purchaser from Dahlberg. Judgment was accordingly rendered that respondents recover full title as against Dahlberg, who had reserved a mineral interest in his deed to Paul, but that they take nothing as against the innocent purchaser Paul. The Court of Civil Appeals held that the 1928 deed to respondents and their sister, Mrs. Beaman, executed by their mother, Annie W. Holden, was void in so far as it relates to the land in suit because of its failure to describe the interests which grantor intended to convey. By its original opinion that court rendered judgment in favor of respondents for an undivided one-third interest in the land, but on rehearing enlarged its judgment to include the full title to the entire tract. 228 S.W.2d 889. The case is before us on applications for writs of error by both Dahlberg and Paul.
The description in the granting clause of the challenged deed executed by Annie W. Holden to her daughters, the respondents and Mrs. Beaman, is in this language: '* * * an undivided interest in all of all those certain tracts, pieces or parcels of land owned by me or to which I have any claim, demand or interest, situated in the Counties of Aransas and Webb, in the State of Texas, * * *.'
Following the habendum and general warranty there was inserted in the deed a descriptive paragraph reading as follows: 'Being an undivided interest in one-third of the same premises conveyed by Harriet G. Fulton to Hattie S. Holden, Lee C. Fulton and Annie W. Fulton by deed dated July 16th, 1906 recorded in Volume Y, page 545 of the Deed Records of San Patricio County, Texas, together with any property that may be in my name or come to me by inheritance from the said Harriet G. Fulton, above referred to, and from Elbridge Gerry Holden, my husband, now deceased, in the Counties of Aransas and Webb, State of Texas.'
The Court of Civil Appeals concluded that that deed conveyed no interest in the land in suit, and we have been unable to discover any reasonable ground on which to differ from that conclusion. If, to our minds, the language of the deed is reasonably susceptible of a construction which would identify any definite interest in the land in suit, we should give it that construction, for it is a rule universally recognized that if an instrument admits of two constructions, one of which would make it valid and the other invalid, the former must prevail. Curdy v. Stafford, 88 Tex. 120, 30 S.W. 551. But, as well expressed in 13 C.J., Contracts, Sec. 496, p. 535, 'While the courts should avoid, if possible, holding a contract void on the ground of uncertainty, they have no right to interpolate or to eliminate terms of material legal consequence in order to uphold it.'
Turning to an examination of the language of this deed it is the plain meaning of the language in the granting clause that an undefined interest less than that owned by the grantor is intended to be conveyed. If we were at liberty to substitute 'my' for 'an' so as to make the granting clause read: 'my undivided interest' instead of 'an undivided interest,' or to lift the phrase 'owned by me' from its position in the sentence and insert it after the phrase 'an undivided interest,' the description could be upheld, but we have no authority under the law to do so. We must construe this language as it is written and we have no right to alter it by interpolation or substitution. The granting clause, standing alone, conveyed no interest in the property in controversy. Carter v. Ewers, 133 Tex. 616, 131 S.W.2d 86, 123 A.L.R. 908, is direct authority for the conclusion just announced. The opinion in that case is a clear pronouncement of the law on this question and sets the matter at rest in this court.
We next consider whether the descriptive paragraph in the deed supplies the defect in the granting clause. For convenience, we copy that paragraph again. It reads as follows: 'Being an undivided interest in one-third of the same premises conveyed by Harriet G. Fulton to Hattie S. Holden, Lee C. Fulton and Annie W. Fulton by deed dated July 16th, 1906 recorded in Volume Y, page 545 of the Deed Records of San Patricio County, Texas, together with any property that may be in my name or come to me by inheritance from the said Harriet G. Fulton, above referred to, and from Elbridge Gerry Holden, my husband, now deceased, in the Counties of Aransas and Webb, State of Texas.'
The paragraph begins as does the granting clause with the language 'an undivided interest in.' To our minds the most reasonable construction to be given to the paragraph is that the phrase 'an undivided interest in' applies to all the property mentioned in the last part of the paragraph, but be that as it may, that phrase clearly and specifically refers to the land in suit. The granting clause purports to convey 'an undivided interest in all of all those certain tracts, pieces or parcels of land owned by me' in named counties. The descriptive paragraph specifically refers to the deed under which grantor acquired a one-third interest in the land in suit and reiterates that what was being conveyed was an undefined undivided interest in a one-third interest. The language in the first part of the descriptive paragraph does not cure the defect in the description in the granting clause, but, to the contrary, emphasizes the defect.
It is argued that by the use of the general clause 'together with any property that may be in my name' the grantor intended to enlarge upon the specific description preceding it. We cannot accept that interpretation. To do so would lead to the untenable conclusion that the grantor specifically conveyed in the granting clause an indefinite but lesser interest than that...
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