Greer v. Greer

• Decision Date: 16 January 1946
• Docket Number: No. A-654.,A-654.
• Citation: Greer v. Greer, 191 S.W.2d 848, 144 Tex. 528 (Tex. 1946)
• Parties: GREER v. GREER.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

191 S.W.2d 848

GREER v. GREER.

No. A-654.

Supreme Court of Texas.

January 16, 1946.

Rehearing Denied February 13, 1946.

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

Suit in trespass to try title by L. C. Greer against Rosetta Greer for an undivided one-half interest in a tract of land. Judgment for defendant was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals, 189 S.W.2d 104, and plaintiff brings error.

Both judgments below reversed and cause remanded.

Cecil Storey and Sam J. Dotson, both of Longview, for petitioner.

R. M. Mountcastle, of Muskogee, Okla., and Jones & Jones, of Mineola, for respondent.

BREWSTER, Justice.

This is a suit in trespass to try title brought by L. C. Greer, petitioner, against Rosetta Greer, respondent, in the district court of Wood County, Texas, to recover an undivided one-half interest in 70 acres of land lying in that county.

In her answer respondent alleged that in 1942 she sued petitioner in the district court of Muskogee County, Oklahoma, for a divorce and an adjudication of the title to the land involved in this suit; that petitioner appeared and answered; that the trial court decreed that the land was her separate property, which judgment was thereafter affirmed by the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 194 Okl. 181, 148 P.2d 156, and was therefore, res adjudicata of the issues in this suit. She attached as exhibits all pleadings in the Oklahoma suit, as well as the judgment of the trial court and the opinion rendered by the Supreme Court.

Petitioner excepted to all allegations regarding the Oklahoma judgment, contending that it is void because the courts of that state have no jurisdiction of lands in Texas and urging that the allegations "are immaterial to any issue in this case and are calculated to and will prejudice" the jury. On the same grounds he also moved to strike them.

The trial court instructed a verdict for respondent in deference to the Oklahoma judgment, holding that its adjudication "in substance that the land involved in this court had been purchased and paid for out of the separate funds of Rosetta Greer, and, in effect, that title to the land involved in this suit was held in the name of L. C. Greer in trust for the benefit of Rosetta Greer," is binding on the courts of Texas. The court of civil appeals approved that view. 189 S.W.2d 104. Writ of error was granted on the point in the application which complains of that holding. However, our decision will turn on another point.

The judgment roll in the Oklahoma suit reveals that the land in controversy there was described in all the pleadings as "70 acres of land in Wood County, Texas." In the judgment it was described as "70 acres of land in Wood County, Texas, described as follows, to-wit: 70 acres of land, more or less, out of the A. N. McKnight Survey, Patent No. 736, Volume 3, Abstract No. 400." (Italics ours.)

When the judgment roll was offered in this case petitioner objected to its introduction for the reason, among others,...