Chambers v. Huggins

• Decision Date: 20 March 1986
• Docket Number: No. B14-85-323-CV,B14-85-323-CV
• Citation: 709 S.W.2d 219
• Parties: John P. CHAMBERS, et ux, Appellants, v. William O. HUGGINS, et al., Appellees. (14th Dist.)
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 219

709 S.W.2d 219

John P. CHAMBERS, et ux, Appellants, v. William O. HUGGINS, et al., Appellees.

No. B14-85-323-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas,

Houston (14th Dist.).

March 20, 1986.

Jeffrey H. Hubbard, Houston, for appellants.

Gerald J. Creighton, Jr., Conroe, for appellees.

Before PAUL PRESSLER, MURPHY and DRAUGHN, JJ.

OPINION

MURPHY, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment rendered in a declaratory judgment action. Appellants, as plaintiffs below, sued in trespass to try title and sought to have a deed reformed to reflect that they are the owners of one-half of the minerals under the deeded parcel as a retained reversionary interest. ¹ The trial court awarded summary judgment to appellees and ordered that appellants take nothing. In three points of error, appellants complain that the trial court erred: (1) in granting appellees' motion for summary judgment; (2) in improperly construing the deed in question; and (3) in rendering final judgment as to defendant below Sally Huggins. We affirm.

The record reveals that in 1973 John P. Chambers, as grantor, conveyed 807.64 acres of land located in Burleson County, Texas, to appellee William O. Huggins, III. The 1973 deed provided in pertinent part as follows:

THAT JOHN P. CHAMBERS, of the County of Harris, State of Texas, hereinafter called 'Grantor,' for and in consideration of the sum of Ten Dollars ($10) and other good and valuable considerations, in hand paid by William O. Huggins III, of County of Harris, State of Texas, hereinafter called 'Grantee', ... has GRANTED, SOLD and CONVEYED and by these presents does GRANT, SELL and CONVEY unto Grantee herein that certain tract or parcel of real property situated in Burleson County, Texas, and more particularly described on Exhibit 'A' attached hereto and made a part hereof for all purposes, together with one-half ( 1/2) of all minerals in, on, and under same. There is reserved herein, in favor of Grantor for a period of Ten (10) years, a non-participating three-fourths ( 3/4) of the usual one-eighth ( 1/8) royalty. At the end of Ten (10) years, said reservation is to revert to Grantee, his heirs and assigns. This conveyance is made and accepted subject to all and singular the restrictions, easements, reservations, conditions and covenants, if any, to the extent the same are validly existing and affect the herein described property as reflected by the Records of the County Clerk of Burleson County, Texas.

Exhibit "A" referred to above provides a description of the property and describes the 807.64 acre tract as follows:

... and being the same land conveyed to D.N. Chambers by Carolyn Giddings Rogers by Deed dated August 25, 1955,....

As noted in Exhibit A, appellants' predecessor in title, D.N. Chambers, originally acquired the 807.64 acre tract from Carolyn Giddings Rogers in a conveyance dated August 25, 1955. In that conveyance, Rogers expressly reserved a one-half mineral interest in the aforementioned property. The 1955 deed and reservation provided in pertinent part as follows:

From the above Grant there is hereby excepted and reserved unto Grantor aforesaid, her heirs and assigns ... an undivided one half ( 1/2) interest in fee in and to all minerals in, on, and/or under the above described tract of land ... upon the date of expiration of the aforesaid retained mineral interest, as determined under the terms hereof, said mineral interest shall immediately, without the necessity of any further written instrument, vest in and become the property of Grantee herein, his heirs and assigns.

There is no dispute that Rogers reserved an interest in one-half of the minerals under the tract, said interest not expiring until 1980. At issue, however, is whether or not the 1973 conveyance by appellants reserved one-half of the minerals as a reversionary interest, or whether Rogers' interest vested in appellees when the reservation expired in 1980.

In their First Amended Original Petition, appellants sought a declaratory judgment and requested that the trial court construe the deed as reserving the reversionary interest to one-half of the minerals previously retained by the expired Rogers reservation. Appellants alternatively sought to have the deed reformed to reflect their alleged one-half mineral ownership on the basis that either overreaching by appellee Huggins who is an attorney, or an accident or mistake had occurred in the drafting of the 1973 deed, resulting in an ambiguity as to whether appellants had reserved the one-half mineral reversionary interest.

Appellees answered by a general denial and then brought a counterclaim seeking a declaratory judgment construing the deed as reserving only a 3/4th of 1/8th royalty for a ten year term. Appellees thereafter duly filed a motion for summary judgment, and through their motion, exhibits, depositions, and brief in support of their motion demonstrated that: (1) the deed was clear, unequivocal and unambiguous and as a matter of law reserved only a 3/4th of 1/8th royalty interest for a ten year term; (2) appellants' petition had alleged only conclusions of law on their allegation of "overreaching" and "material mistake," and as such failed to state a cause of action with genuine factual support in either the pleadings, depositions and affidavits or records on file in the cause. Appellees alleged, therefore, that there was no admissible proof in the record to create a genuine issue of material fact to support appellants' claim for reformation.

Appellants responded to the motion for summary judgment by contending that: (1) appellees failed to establish that a page of the deed was not substituted after execution; (2) the intent of the deed was to convey only one-half of the minerals; and (3) appellants failed to demonstrate in their motion for summary judgment that a mutual mistake did not occur in drafting the deed. No affidavits or other competent summary judgment proof was supplied by appellants other than the above stated allegations in their response.

It was based on these circumstances before the court that the trial judge ruled that there were no genuine issues of any material fact, and that the deed should be construed as a matter of law as conveying the expired reserved interest to appellees.

Turning first to appellants' second point of error, they complain that the trial court erred in construing the deed as a matter of law and in concluding that appellants failed to reserve the reversionary estate in the expired Rogers' mineral interest. Appellants contend that the deed conveys only the real property described together with "one-half ( 1/2) of all minerals" and that this demonstrates that appellants intended to convey only one-half of the mineral estate. They argue, therefore, that even though the deed may not expressly state that they reserved the reversionary estate, the same was intended by their express conveyance of only one-half of the minerals to appellees.

It has long been established that the question of whether an instrument is ambiguous is a question of law. Davis v. Andrews, 361 S.W.2d 419, 424 (Tex.Civ.App.--Dallas 1962, writ ref'd n.r.e.). Furthermore, once an instrument is determined to be unambiguous, its construction is also a question of law and not one of fact. Davis, supra, at 424. Rules of construction require that: (1) where there is no ambiguity, a deed will be enforced as written even if it does not express the original intention of the parties; (2) the intention of the parties must be ascertained from the entire instrument, and not isolated portions thereof; (3) deeds are construed to confer the greatest estate that their terms will permit; (4) grants are liberally, exceptions strictly, construed against the grantor; (5) deeds capable of two constructions are construed to convey to the grantee the largest estate possible; (6) it is presumed that all promises and agreements were merged into and fully expressed by the written instrument; and (7) an unambiguous written document will be enforced as written and cannot be varied or contradicted by parol testimony unless it is clearly alleged and proved that its execution was procured by fraud, accident or mistake. Davis, supra, at 423-24.

It is clear that the deed in question does not expressly state that grantor Chambers reserved the reversionary interest in one-half of the mineral estate under the deeded parcel. Appellants' argument, however, appears to be that it was reserved by implication since it was not expressly conveyed to appellees. The law is clear, however, that a reservation of minerals must be made by clear language and courts do not favor reservations by implication. Sharp v. Fowler, 151 Tex. 490, 252 S.W.2d 153, 154 (Tex.1952). A reversionary estate passes with the grant of the surface rights unless the reversion is specifically reserved to the grantor. Ladd v. Du Bose, 344 S.W.2d 476 (Tex.Civ.App.--Amarillo 1961, no writ). In Ladd v. Du Bose, the deed in question stated that one-fourth of the mineral estate had already been sold to a third party, one-fourth was reserved to the grantor, and one-half was conveyed to the grantee. The one-fourth interest held by the third party was in fact a fifteen year term interest. The court held that when the fifteen year term expired, the one-fourth term interest passed to the grantee because it was not expressly reserved by the grantor. Similarly in Melton v. Davis, 443 S.W.2d 605 (Tex.Civ.App.--Tyler 1969, writ ref'd n.r.e.), a 92.5 acre parcel of land was conveyed save and except a 4.178 surface acre estate which was reserved for the State of Texas for a right-of-way. The effect of the exception was that the grantees were conveyed a surface estate of 88.3 acres. A dispute arose between the grantors and grantees as to the ownership of the minerals under the State's 4.178 surface estate. The trial court held in favor of the grantors after finding that the deed did not pass the mineral estate under the...