Broaddus v. Grout

• Decision Date: 24 September 1952
• Docket Number: No. 4813,4813
• Citation: Broaddus v. Grout, 253 S.W.2d 74 (Tex. Ct. App. 1952)
• Parties: BROADDUS et al. v. GROUT.
• Court: Texas Civil Court of Appeals

Page 74

253 S.W.2d 74

BROADDUS et al. v. GROUT.

No. 4813.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Beaumont.

Sept. 24, 1952.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 10, 1952.

Sam G. Croom, Houston, for appellants.

Strong, Moore, Strong & Nelson, Beaumont, for appellee.

WALKER, Justice.

This opinion is rendered on appellee's motion for rehearing and it is substituted for the opinion heretofore filed.

On June 11, 1937, H. A. Vaughn and wife, Lois Vaughn, conveyed to E. A. Grout by a general warranty deed an undivided interest in a tract of land, describing it in these words: '* * * our undivided interest amounting to a 1/7th, of the below described tract or parcel of land, as follows: Beginning at a stake in the west line of said 160 acre survey 172.8/11 varas from its northwest corner. Thence south with west line of said survey 86.4/11 varas to a stake in the west line of said survey from corner. Thence east 950 varas to east line of said survey, stake for corner. Thence north with said east line 86.4/11 varas to southeast corner of lot No. 2, thence west with said south line of lot No. 2,950 varas to place of beginning, containing 14.6/11 acres of land. Said land is undivided.'

The grantee, E. A. Grout, is the plaintiff and, in this court, the appellee. After this deed was made to him the grantors Lois and H. A. Vaughn were divorced; Lois Vaughn married Gorman T. Broaddus; and she and her present husband are the defendants and, in this court, the appellants.

On the date of the deed, the defendant Lois Vaughn Broaddus owned as a part of her separate estate a 1/7th undivided interest in Lot 3 of the Isaac Gore 160 acre survey in the O. C. Nelson League in Hardin County, Texas. She had acquired this interest by inheritance from her mother. The metes and bounds description of the 14 6/11ths acre tract, and of its position within the unnamed 160 acre tract which the deed to Grout contains is a correct description of Lot 3 in the Isaac Gore 160 acres; and the reference to Lot 2 and the details of the description of the 160 acre tract which are contained in the deed to Grout fit and apply to the Isaac Gore 160 acres. The cause was tried before the court and the judgment of the trial court recites several findings of fact. Among them is this: '* * * the defendant. Lois Vaughn Broaddus, at the time of executing the above described deed, owned an undivided 1/7th interest in a tract of land out of a 160 acre survey in Hardin County, Texas, containing 14 6/11ths acres of land, and lying south of a tract of land known as Lot No. 2, and having the identical metes and bounds description as contained in the above described deed of June 11, 1937, said tract of land owned by the defendant, Lois Vaughn Broaddus, at the time of executing said above described deed, being Lot No. 3 of the Isaac Gore 160 acre Survey in the O. C. Nelson League in Hardin County, Texas, and being the same land hereinafter described in this judgment by metes and bounds; and that at the time of the execution of said deed aforedecribed, the defendant, Lois Vaughn Broaddus, and her then husband, H. A. Vaughn, did not own an undivided 1/7th interest in any 14 6/11ths acre tract of land in any state in the Union other than the said Lot No. 3 out of the Isaac Gore 160 acre survey in the O. C. Nelson League in Hardin County, Texas, as more particularly hereinafter described by metes and bounds.'

The plaintiff Grout contends that the description in the deed is legally sufficient and that it applies to and conveys to him the 1/7th interest which Lois Vaughn had in lot 3 of the Isaac Gore 160 acres; and there is testimony that this was the very land which the parties intended the deed to convey.

The trial court sustained the plaintiff's contention and rendered judgment accordingly. In part, this judgment described the land as follows: 'All that certain tract, piece or parcel of land situated in the County of Hardin, State of Texas, and being part of the O. C. Nelson League and being a part of the Isaac Gore 160 acre survey and described by metes and bounds as follows:'.

From this judgment the defendants have appealed.

Opinion.

Defendants assign as error that the description in the deed to plaintiff, which is quoted above, is insufficient to convey any land, and that the trial court's judgment simply reforms the deed by adding necessary elements to the description and in so doing violates Article 1288, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St., 1925. These assignments are overruled on the following grounds:

(1) The sufficiency of the description in the deed to plaintiff is to be determined by considering all of the descriptive elements, including the reference to the grantors' ownership of the interest conveyed. The question raised concerns the certainty of designation and application, and a reference to a grantor's ownership may be enough to make the terms of a description presumptively certain and the evidence admissible under this reference may make the description actually certain in its application to the ground. See Morrison v. Dailey, Tex.Sup., 6 S.W. 426; Watson v. Baker, 71 Tex. 739, 9 S.W. 867; Curdy v. Stafford, 88 Tex. 120, 30 S.W. 551; Hermann v. Likens, 90 Tex. 448, 39 S.W. 282; Carpenter v. Smith, Tex.Com.App., 272 S.W. 128; Sanderson v. Sanderson, 130 Tex. 264, 109 S.W.2d 744; Pickett v. Bishop, Tex.Civ.App., 223 S.W.2d 222; Brainard v. Jordan, Tex.Civ.App., 60 S.W. 784; Hughes v. Adams, 55 Tex.Civ.App. 197, 119 S.W. 134; Spaulding v. Smith, Tex.Civ.App., 169 S.W. 627; Sorsby v. Thom, Tex.Civ.App., 122 S.W.2d 275; Ellett v. McMahan, Tex.Civ.App., 187 S.W.2d 253; Shook v. Parton, Tex.Civ.App., 211...