Cravens v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 01 January 1877
• Citation: 48 Tex. 324
• Parties: WILLIAM CRAVENS v. M. J. WILSON ET AL.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

48 Tex. 324

WILLIAM CRAVENS

v.M. J. WILSON ET AL.

Supreme Court of Texas.

1877.

ERROR from Shelby. Tried below before the Hon. George Lane.

(Chief Justice ROBERTS and Associate Justice MOORE being disqualified, Tignal W. Jones and John C. Robertson were appointed special judges.)

This cause was before this court at a former term. (See 35 Tex., 52.)

M. J. Wilson, on the 31st day of October, 1870, brought an action of trespass to try title to a tract of land of about 900 acres, situated in Shelby county, Texas, a part of the Domingo Gonzales headright, against William Cravens. The case presented by M. J. Wilson's pleadings, is, substantially, that Cravens claimed the land under a deed from the sheriff of Shelby county, and that M. J. Wilson also claimed the land under a deed from the sheriff of said county; that both of them recovered judgments, in the District Court of Shelby county, against Benjamin Wilson, and had executions issued and levied on the land in controversy, but that the land was advertised and sold under Cravens' execution, and that Cravens bought the land at the sale; that Cravens bought the land at a grossly inadequate price, and that he was enabled to do so by the fraudulent conduct of Cravens and of the sheriff, who had conspired together to prevent the land from selling for as much as it was worth, and to enable Cravens to get it at a reduced price; that the acts indicating their fraudulent conspiracy were: that the sheriff, some ten days before the time appointed for the sale, caused the notices of the sale to be torn down, and informed the agent of M. J. Wilson that the land would not be sold; that on the day of sale he announced publicly, in the presence of Cravens, that the land would not be sold; that late in the day, after M. J. Wilson's agent, and others who had attended the place of sale for the purpose of bidding for the land, had gone home, he offered the land for sale, and that it was bought by Cravens.

The prayer of the petition was, that the sheriff's deed to Cravens be annulled and set aside, and that M. J. Wilson have judgment for the recovery of the land, with the writ of possession, and for the rents and profits, and for general relief.

William Cravens, in answer to the petition of M. J. Wilson, filed a general demurrer and the general denial; and by a special plea in response to M. J. Wilson's pleadings, and to a plea of intervention filed by Benjamin Wilson on the 12th of March, 1875, alleged that M. J. Wilson's judgment was founded on a spurious demand, by the connivance of William Wilson, and denied the truth of the statements in the plea of intervention.

The case made by the plea of intervention of Benjamin Wilson, was, substantially, that, as against Cravens, the intervenor was entitled to the land; that Cravens, in his suit against him, had caused an ancillary attachment to be issued and levied on 60,000 pounds of cotton in the seed that belonged to the intervenor, and had the same sold, and that the proceeds, if properly and honestly applied by the sheriff to Cravens' debt, would have been sufficient to satisfy it; but that Cravens and the sheriff, conspiring together to cheat and defraud the intervenor, misrepresented the amount that the cotton brought at the sale, and pretending that it did not sell for enough to satisfy Cravens' debt, caused the execution to be issued and levied on the land in controversy, which was the property of the intervenor, and caused the same to be sold and bought in by Cravens, when they both knew that the proceeds of the sale of the cotton were amply sufficient to satisfy Cravens' debt; that Cravens was enabled to purchase the land at the sheriff's sale at the grossly inadequate price of $300,--when it was worth, at the time, $5,000,--by the fraudulent conduct of Cravens and the sheriff, in causing the notices of the sale of the land to be torn down previous to the sale, and by the announcement of the sheriff on the day of sale, with the connivance of Cravens, publicly and in his presence, that the land would not be sold, and by the sheriff offering it for sale late in the day, when the intervenor's agent, and others who had gone to the place of sale for the purpose of bidding for the land, had gone home, and thereby enabling Cravens to buy it for greatly less than its value.

The prayer of the plea of intervention was, that the sheriff's deed to Cravens be set aside, and for general relief.

The facts, or so much of them as are material, under the issues in the case, were substantially as follows: It was agreed by the parties to the suit, that there was a regular chain of title from the government down to Benjamin Wilson, the intervenor. On the 14th day of March, 1868, M. J. Wilson obtained judgment, in the District Court of Shelby county, Texas, against Benjamin Wilson, for the sum of $1,731.07, debt and damages, and for the costs of the suit. Execution was issued on this judgment on the 2d day of April, 1868, and levied by the sheriff of Shelby county on the 29th of August, 1868, among other things, on about 900 acres of land in Shelby county, the Domingo Gonzales headright, as the property of Benjamin Wilson, subject to an execution in favor of William Cravens. An alias execution was issued on M. J. Wilson's judgment on the 20th of April, 1870, levied on the Domingo Gonzales headright of 900 acres, and the land sold pursuant to notice on the 7th of June, 1870, by the sheriff. At that sale, M. J. Wilson bid off the land at $260, and took a deed from the sheriff therefor, bearing date the 7th of June, 1870, which was duly acknowledged and recorded.

William Cravens obtained judgment, in the District Court of Shelby county, against Benjamin Wilson, on the 1st of October, 1866, for the sum of $2,886.58, debt and damages, and for the costs of suit, and foreclosing a lien by attachment, which he had caused to be levied on 60,000 pounds of cotton in the seed, as estimated by the sheriff, as the property of Benjamin Wilson. Execution was issued on this judgment on the 23d day of March, 1868, and levied by the sheriff of Shelby county on the Domingo Gonzales headright of 900 acres, and on several other tracts of land, and on 28,000 pounds of seed cotton, as the property of Benjamin Wilson. The execution was levied on the cotton on the 1st of April, 1868, subject to an execution previously levied thereon in favor of one E. H. Hearn, and on the land on the 15th of April, 1868. The cotton was sold on the 14th of April, 1868, and $173.96 of the proceeds applied to the Hearn execution, and the balance ($719.64) credited on the execution of Cravens. On the 2d day of June, 1868, the 900 acres of the Domingo Gonzales headright were sold, and bid off by Cravens at $360, and a deed therefor duly executed to him by the sheriff on the day of sale, which was duly acknowledged and recorded.

The attachment mentioned as having been levied on the 60,000 pounds of seed cotton was ancillary to the suit of William Cravens against Benjamin Wilson, and was issued on the 29th of March, 1866, and levied on the cotton in a house on Wilson's premises, near his dwelling-house, on the 30th of March, 1866. The sheriff, when he levied the attachment on the cotton, nailed up the door of the house in which he found it, and left the cotton in the care of Benjamin Wilson, the defendant in the attachment, not being able to procure wagons to haul it away; and forbade any one from interfering with the cotton. He never had anything to do with it himself, nor gave any one else permission to interfere with it in any way. When the cotton was sold, under Cravens' execution, the sheriff found that the door of the cotton-house had been broken open, and a large portion of the cotton removed.

It was in evidence, that 1,500 pounds of cotton will make a bale of lint cotton, weighing 450 pounds; that cotton was worth, in Shelby county, in 1866, from eighteen to twenty cents per pound, and that it sold, between 1866 and 1868, in Shelby county, as high as fifty cents per pound.

One Dr. Joseph H. Trent, as the agent of M. J. Wilson and Benjamin Wilson, went to the sheriff of Shelby county, to see him in reference to the sale of the Domingo Gonzales tract of 900 acres of land, (which had been advertised to be sold on the 2d day of June, 1866,) some ten days previous to the sale, and was informed by the sheriff, as he says, that this tract of land would not be sold, and was requested by the sheriff to tear down the notices of the sale. This witness states that he tore down the notice of the sale posted at Hamilton, in Shelby county, and that on the 2d of June, 1866, the time appointed for the sale, he went to Center; heard the sheriff announce that the sales were closed for that day; that the sheriff told him the hour for judicial sales had passed; that he saw Cravens at Center on that day, but had no conversation with him, and did not hear him say anything about the sale; that he did not go to Center on that day prepared to purchase the land, as he did not expect it would be sold, from what the sheriff had previously said to him on the subject; that the land was not sold while he was in Center, and that he did not leave for his home until after two o'clock in the evening; that he is the nephew of Benjamin Wilson, and the cousin of M. J. Wilson.

One G. P. Rains states that he tore down the notice of the sale of the Domingo Gonzales land, which was on his storedoor in Hamilton, in Shelby county, having been informed by Dr. Trent that the sheriff had requested him to tell him that he wished it done, and that there would be no sale; that this was on Sunday previous to the sale; that it prevented him from attending the sale; that he had intended to go to the sale, and make the land bring a thousand dollars; that he thinks the land was worth fifteen hundred dollars, but does not say it would bring that under the hammer; that the people in his neighborhood were prevented from...