Farmers' Life Ins. Co. v. Wolters

• Decision Date: 12 June 1924
• Docket Number: (No. 558-4078.)
• Citation: 263 S.W. 259
• Parties: FARMERS' LIFE INS. CO. v. WOLTERS et al.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 259

263 S.W. 259

FARMERS' LIFE INS. CO. v. WOLTERS et al.

(No. 558-4078.)

Commission of Appeals of Texas, Section A.

June 12, 1924.

Error to Court of Civil Appeals of First Supreme Judicial District.

Suit by the Farmers' Life Insurance Company against J. F. Wolters and another, executor and executrix of the will of Jonathan Lane, deceased, and others, in which Walter Lane intervened. Judgment for plaintiff was reversed and rendered in part and reversed and remanded in part by the Court of Civil Appeals (255 S. W. 666), and the plaintiff brings error. Judgment of Court of Civil Appeals reversed, and that of district court affirmed.

Bryan, Dyess & Colgin, of Houston, and W. W. Searcy, of Brenham, for plaintiff in error.

Wolters, Storey, Blanchard & Battaile, L. A. Adamson, and Green & Boyd, all of Houston, for defendants in error.

CHAPMAN, J.

On March 1, 1912, Jonathan Lane, of Harris county, Tex., executed in favor of the Continental Trust Company a deed of trust on certain land in Wharton county to secure the payment of a note for $10,000 due March 1, 1913. On June 1, 1913, Lane made a partial payment on the note, and on that date an indorsement in the handwriting of Lane was made on the back of the note, which indorsement is as follows:

"Time of payment of the balance of this note extended to March 1, 1914, June 1, 1913. Continental Trust Co., by J. H. Thompson, President."

No further payment was made on the note, and on May 27, 1916, Jonathan Lane died. On the first Tuesday in January, 1918, the land described in the deed of trust was sold under the terms of the deed of trust to satisfy the balance due on the note, and at the trustee's sale the land was bid in by the Farmers' Life Insurance Company, which, in the meantime, had become the owner of the note, and the trustee, in due time, made deed to the land to the Farmers' Life Insurance Company.

This suit was brought in one of the district courts of Harris county by the Farmers' Life Insurance Company against the executors of the estate of Jonathan Lane, deceased, to recover the title and possession of the tract of land above mentioned. The American Surety Company, the Texas Loan & Trust Company, and Guy Graham were made parties by reason of having filed abstracts of judgments against Jonathan Lane.

Walter Lane, the adopted son of Jonathan Lane, intervened in the suit, and claimed title to the land under a deed of conveyance to him executed by Jonathan Lane on the 25th day of August, 1911.

The questions of fact in the case were submitted by the trial court to the jury upon two special issues, one of which is as follows:

"Was the deed from Jonathan Lane to Walter Lane for the land in controversy executed and delivered to Walter Lane before March 1, 1912, with the intention on the part of Jonathan Lane to then and there pass and vest unconditional title to said property to Walter Lane?"

Judgment was by the trial court rendered in favor of plaintiff against all defendants. The Court of Civil Appeals of the First District reversed and rendered the case against plaintiff in the trial court, and as to the defendants in the trial court remanded the case for a disposition of the issues between them. Farmers' Life Insurance...