Chandler v. Welborn

• Decision Date: 23 September 1955
• Docket Number: No. 3193,3193
• Citation: 282 S.W.2d 940
• Parties: Myrtle Mae CHANDLER, Appellant, v. R. C. WELBORN et al., Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 940

282 S.W.2d 940

Myrtle Mae CHANDLER, Appellant, v. R. C. WELBORN et al., Appellees.

No. 3193.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Eastland.

Sept. 23, 1955.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 21, 1955.

Hawkins & Dean, Breckenridge, for appellant.

Bradbury, Tippen & Brown, Abilene, for appellees.

GRISSOM, Chief Justice.

On May 7, 1951, Myrtle Mae Chandler, Florence Irion and W. J. Cunningham, Jr., filed suit against R. C. Welborn and W. J. Cunningham, Sr., in trespass to try title to Lots 4 and 5, Block 155, in the City of Abilene. On May 21, 1951, said defendants answered. On May 24, 1951, Hendrick Memorial Hospital filed a petition in intervention against all parties, both plaintiffs and defendants. It alleged that on November 20, 1950, W. J. Cunningham, Sr. was admitted to said hospital and had remained there since and owed it $1,573.20; that he had no property other than said lots; that on April 6, 1951, he purported to convey them to plaintiffs, who were his children and are his heirs at law, but that said deed was executed while he was insane. It prayed that said deed be cancelled, a receiver appointed and its lien established.

Senator W. J. Cunningham, Sr., died September 3, 1952. In 1953 J. S. Warlick intervened. He alleged he had an interest in the controversy because Senator Cunningham was indebted to him for services as a nurse in the amount of $753 and that said deed was executed while he was insane.

On January 14, 1954, plaintiff answered the pleas of intervention. They alleged the lots conveyed to them by the deed which intervenors sought to set aside constituted the homestead of Senator Cunningham and wife and was their community property when Mrs. Cunningham died on August 4, 1947; that it was the Senator's homestead when he executed the deed of April 6, 1951; that Mrs. Cunningham died intestate and plaintiffs inherited her one-half interest, subject to the homestead rights of the Senator; that, because said land was the Senator's homestead when he executed the deed, his one-half interest was owned by them freed of all claims of his creditors.

Thereafter, said hospital filed an amended petition alleging it was a creditor of Senator Cunningham by reason of the services rendered to him from November 20, 1950 until his death on September 3, 1952; that the reasonable value thereof was $6,870.40 and that when the deed was executed he owed it $1,320.70. All intervenors adopted and made a part of their petitions against the grantees in the deed the cross action of one of the original defendants, R. C. Welborn. Mrs. Welborn alleged in her cross action that plaintiffs' suit in trespass to try title to the lots described in said deed was originally brought against her and W. J. Cunningham, Sr.; that he died on September 3, 1952; that plaintiffs were the children and heirs at law of Senator Cunningham and that she was a sister. She alleged she nursed and cared for the Senator during his illness; that she was a creditor; that she had rendered service to him, paid his medical bills and paid for other necessities; that, as a creditor, she was interested in said suit and had a right to maintain a suit to cancel said deed, which was executed while he was insane, for which she prayed. Her cross action for cancellation of the deed was against all the grantees in said deed.

Dr. C. L. Prichard intervened, alleging he was a creditor and had filed his claim with the administratrix and it had been rejected. He, also, adopted the cross action of Mrs. Welborn and prayed that the deed be cancelled.

By separate pleadings, intervenors later alleged they were creditors of Senator Cunningham, deceased, and sued Mrs. Chandler as administratrix. They alleged they presented their claims to said administratrix and that they had been rejected. All the grantees in the deed had answered the petitions of the intervenors. Mrs. Chandler, as administratrix, filed separate answers to each of the intervenors' separate petitions filed against her as administratrix, adopting therein the prior answers of all the children and grantees, wherein they defended on the ground that the Senator was sane when he executed the deed and that the lots were his homestead when he executed the deed and that, therefore, they owned his interest, freed of all claims of intervenors.

At the close of the evidence said administratrix moved for an instructed verdict on the following grounds: (1) that there were no pleadings asserting a cause of action within Articles 3996 and 3997 and, therefore, there was no cause of action alleged to set aside said deed; (2) there was no evidence of such a cause of action; (3) that defendant and intervenors were not entitled, as creditors, to set aside said deed because the Senator was insane; (4) intervenors were not entitled to set aside the deed without seeking some additional relief; (5) the evidence showed the lots constituted the homestead of the Senator when he executed the deed and, therefore, they were exempt from forced sale and, therefore, said deed could not be set aside by creditors; (6) intervenor's claims were barred by Article 3522; (7) it was conclusively shown the grantees took possession more than two years prior to the filing of their pleas in intervention and, if said deed should be set aside, intervenors' claims were barred by the two years' statute of limitation, Article 5526; (8) there was no 'legitimate' evidence that intervenors were creditors and (9) the grantees in said deed were indispensable parties and no judgment setting aside said deed could be rendered without their joinder. The last objection was also urged to the charge, that is, that neither the defendant, R. C. Welborn, nor any intervenor was entitled to set the deed aside because the grantees therein were not parties to the suit to set the deed aside. They further objected to the charge because neither the defendant Welborn nor any intervenor was such a creditor as was entitled under the law to set aside the deed on the ground of the Senator's insanity, because a mere creditor was not entitled to cancel a deed on account of the insanity of the grantor.

The court submitted only the issue of the grantor's mental capacity to execute the deed and a jury found he was then of unsound mind. The court rendered judgment that said children, the original plaintiffs in trespass to try title, recover title and possession of the land against the defendant R. C. Welborn, but that said deed be cancelled. The grantees in said deed, individually, and Mrs. Chandler, as administratrix, have appealed.

The pleadings and evidence are to the effect that the property described in said deed was all of the Senator's property. One of his children, Mrs. Chandler, was appointed administratrix. As administratrix, she could have sued to cancel the deed. But, she was a grantee therein as well as an heir. She testified in answer to interrogatories propounded by appellants that the Senator was sane when he executed the deed to her and her sister and brother. Appellees presented their claims to said administratrix and they were rejected. Intervenors' suits are, in essence, an attempt by unsecured creditors to cancel the deed of their debtor because he was insane when he executed it under such circumstances that, but for said deed, the property would have descended and vested in plaintiffs but subject to payment of intervenors' debts.

Appellants' first point is that the court erred in holding that an unsecured creditor could set aside a debtor's deed because the debtor was insane, or for any reason other than those stated in Articles 3996 and 3997. Articles 3996 provides that every conveyance made with intent to defraud creditors shall, as to creditors, be void. Article 3997 provides that every conveyance by a debtor, without a valuable consideration, shall be void as to prior creditors, unless the debtor then had other property sufficient to pay his debts.

Appellees also alleged the conveyance was made to defraud the creditors of W. J. Cunningham, Sr., and that he had abandoned his homestead, but judgment for the intervening creditors was based on the finding that he was insane when he executed the deed. Appellants contend Articles 3996 and 3997 state the only grounds for creditors to set aside the deed of a debtor, and that, since they did not bring themselves within said statutes, they cannot maintain a suit to cancel the deed. They cite as authority therefor John Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Morse, 132 Tex. 534, 124 S.W.2d 330, 332, and Ransom v. Ransom, Tex.Civ.App., 252 S.W.2d 212, 213, and quote from Judge Hickman's opinion in the Morse case as follows:

'The proposition is well settled in this state that, as between the parties to the transfer, a conveyance made in fraud of creditors passes title to the vendee, and is defeasible only at the instance of the creditors named in Articles 3996 and 3997, * * *.'

Appellants further contend that because Senator Cunningham executed the deed while the lots were his homestead his creditors could not, after his death, have it cancelled. Said statutes state the grounds on which a creditor must rely to set aside a deed executed by a debtorgrantor for the purpose of defrauding his creditors but they do not refer to the question presented here, that is, whether an unsecured creditor, after the death of the debtor, has such an interest in the debtor's homestead that they can maintain a suit to cancel a deed thereto, executed while insane, when, but for the deed, at the debtor-grantor's death, the homestead would have descended and vested in his heirs, subject to payment of his debts. The deed referred to in said statutes could not be cancelled by a grantor who executed it for the purpose of defrauding his creditors, nor by his heirs or legal representatives. But, if the Senator had regained his sanity he could have set aside a deed to his children executed while he was insane. A deed executed by an insane man may be...