Green v. Texas Gulf Sulphur Company, 24854.
| Decision Date | 19 June 1968 |
| Docket Number | No. 24854.,24854. |
| Citation | 393 F.2d 67 |
| Parties | Eura Mae Higginbotham GREEN et al., Appellants, v. The TEXAS GULF SULPHUR COMPANY et al., Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Richard H. Cocke, Houston, Tex., E. B. Votaw, Vidor, Tex., Andrew A. Wassick, Virginia R. Wassick, Sizer Chambliss, Chattanooga, Tenn., Stephen C. Burg, Beaumont, Tex., for appellants.
Fred A. Lange and W. B. Edwards, Jesse J. Lee, Houston, Tex., George A. Weller, Ewell Strong, Beaumont, Tex., W. Forrest Smith, Dallas, Tex., William S. Clarke, Houston, Tex., Major T. Bell, John P. Blair, Beaumont, Tex., Joseph C. Brown, John C. Snodgrass, Houston, Tex., William E. Cureton, Waco, Tex., Alan D. Feld, Dallas, Tex., Thomas H. Lee, Houston, Tex., George A. Kampmann, San Antonio, Tex., Ben M. Harrison, Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, Tex., James W. Lee, Houston, Tex., Samuel C. Lipscomb, Beaumont, Tex., Benjamin R. Powel, Galveston, Tex., J. C. Hardy, J. L. LyBrand, Beaumont, Tex., Crawford
C. Martin, Atty. Gen. of Texas, George M. Cowden, First Asst. Atty. Gen., A. J. Carubbi, Jr., Staff Legal Asst. Atty. Gen., Houghton Brownlee, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, Tex., for appellees.
Before JONES, WISDOM and THORNBERRY, Circuit Judges.
Rehearing En Banc Denied June 19, 1968.
This diversity suit is the third in a trilogy concerning the ownership of the Humphries survey. See Humphries v. Texas Gulf Sulphur Company, 5 Cir., 1968, 393 F.2d 69; Beasley v. McFaddin, 5 Cir. 1968, 393 F.2d 68. The heirs in this case claim only a mineral interest. They urge first that a tax deed in 1850 vested title in the State of Texas and second that if they could have the tax deed set aside, they would be entitled to the minerals rather than appellees. Appellants joined the Commissioner of the General Land Office and sought a declaratory judgment that the tax deed was invalid. The State of Texas moved to dismiss the Commissioner on the ground of sovereign immunity, and the final judgment of the district court so ordered. The heirs attack this dismissal, contending that the suit could not properly be determined without consideration of the tax deed. Following his opinion in the Humphries and Beasley cases the trial judge granted appellees' summary judgment without commenting on the validity of the tax deed.
If the tax deed simply vested title in the State of Texas, the well-settled doctrine that a party in a trespass-to-try-title action must recover on the strength of his own title, not the weakness of his opponents', would preclude appellants' recovery. Thus their only relevant...
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