Adams v. Abbott, A-3703

• Decision Date: 10 December 1952
• Docket Number: No. A-3703,A-3703
• Parties: ADAMS v. ABBOTT et al.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 78

254 S.W.2d 78

151 Tex. 601

ADAMS v. ABBOTT et al.

No. A-3703.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Dec. 10, 1952.

McKool, McDaniel & Bader, Dallas, for petitioner.

Roland Boyd and Paul Worden, McKinney, for respondents.

HICKMAN, Chief Justice.

This is an action brought by respondents, Clyde B. Abbott and Maurice Montgomery, against petitioner, Mrs. Rheby B. Adams in trespass to try title and for specific performance of an alleged contract for the sale by petitioner to respondent Abbott of a farm in Collin County. Mrs. Adams entered her appearance by filing an answer consisting of a plea of not guilty and a general denial. The alleged contract was evidenced by an exchange of letters between Montgomery, Mrs. Adams, and Worley Smith, Secretary-Treasurer of McKinney National Farm Loan Association. The remedy of specific performance was denied by the trial court and judgment was rendered accordingly that respondents take nothing by their suit. That judgment was reversed by the Court of Civil Appeals and judgment decreeing specific performance was rendered in favor of respondents. 248 S.W.2d 514.

In their original petition the respondents, as plaintiffs, declared upon three letters passing between Montgomery and Mrs. Adams. Those letters are copied in full in the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals. By trial amendment they alleged that other and different correspondence passed between the parties and between Mrs. Adams and Worley Smith and copied those various letters in their pleadings. When all of the letters are considered together they disclose these elements of a completed contract. The transaction had its inception in a letter written by Mrs. Adams, a resident of Russellville, Kentucky, but formerly a resident of Collin County, Texas, to respondent Maurice Montgomery, a farmer residing in Collin County and a friend of Mrs. Adams. In that letter she requested him to assist her 'in the sale of my little farm out there.' Her offer was to take $3,000.00 cash 'and it can be any one's property.' In his reply to that letter Montgomery submitted a counteroffer of $2,500.00 cash made by an unidentified bidder (respondent Abbott). The letter disclosed that Montgomery was not negotiating for himself but for an unnamed person. We quote from that letter:

'Now I have 10 days on this bid. This is the only cash prospect I have to date. In case you are interested I will guarantee your money. I believe you know I don't want a pennie from eather party. I would recommend you McKinney Federal Land Bank agent closing any deal when made.'

That counteroffer was promptly accepted in a letter from Mrs. Adams addressed to Montgomery, in which she wrote:

'I will take the twenty-five hundred dollars for it, that you said the prospect offered you, and I hope he is still interested in it. I have the abstract in my possession here, for the 44 odd acres, but the Federal Land Bank has the other fifty acres abstract in their hands, as that is the parcel of land, I still owe, something UNDER one hundred dollars on. When you write me, to do so, I will mail the abstract and all papers I have, to the Federal Land Bank, and write them to Act as my agent in this matter.'

That correspondence constituted a definite counteroffer of $2,500.00 in cash by an unidentified party and an unqualified acceptance of the offer by Mrs. Adams. By other correspondence copied or referred to in the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals it is disclosed that the subject matter of the sale was 'my farm in Collin County, Texas,' and that it was near Farmersville. There is evidence in the record that Mrs. Adams owned no land in Texas other than the Collin County farm. In other letters written by Mrs. Adams reference was made to the land as being in three parcels. Quoting from one of her letters:

'There are three parcels of land in the place * * * the first original fifty acres and two parts, (of the Standford heirs'), of 22. something in each of the two. All are recorded in McKinney in Rheby Barnes Adams' name * * * had them changed that way, after Orville died.'

We judicially know that McKinney is the county seat of Collin County, and the statement that 'All are recorded in McKinney' is tantamount to a statement that they are recorded in the deed records of Collin County. We agree with the conclusion of the Court of Civil Appeals (248 S.W.2d 520), that 'these writings were amply sufficient in description of the particular land sought to be conveyed; definitely furnishing numerous keys by which it might be identified with certainty'. Pickett v. Bishop, 148 Tex. 207, 223 S.W.2d 222; Sanderson v. Sanderson, 130 Tex. 264, 109 S.W.2d 744; Wilson v. Fisher, 144 Tex. 53, 188 S.W.2d 150; City of Abilene v. Sayles, Tex.Com.App., 295 S.W. 578.

Petitioner bases her contention that the description is insufficient primarily upon the ground that only the three letters declared upon in respondents' original petition may be considered by the court. We cannot adopt that view. All the letters referred to in the trial amendment passed between the parties or between Mrs. Adams and Worley Smith, her representative, for the purpose of closing the transaction, and all dealt with the same subject, namely, the sale of the farm to an unidentified purchaser. A memorandum is required by the statute of frauds, not for the...