Henderson v. Stone
| Decision Date | 18 May 1936 |
| Docket Number | No. 4970.,4970. |
| Citation | 95 S.W.2d 772 |
| Parties | HENDERSON v. STONE et al. |
| Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Rusk County; R. T. Brown, Judge.
Suit by C. L. Henderson, guardian of Martha L. Payne, against Samp Stone and others. From a judgment for defendants, plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Frank C. Bolton, of Henderson, and Austin F. Anderson, of Fort Worth, for appellant.
T. A. Bath, of Henderson, Cary M. Abney, of Marshall, F. W. Fischer, of Tyler, Phillips, Trammell, Chizum, Estes & Edwards, of Fort Worth, Weeks, Hankerson & Potter, of Tyler, and Paul A. McDermott, of Fort Worth, for appellees.
C. L. Henderson as next friend and guardian of Martha L. Payne, a non compos mentis, hereinafter referred to simply as appellant, instituted this suit in trespass to try title in the district court of Rusk county against appellees, alleging that Martha L. Payne was the owner of a one-third undivided interest in a certain 50-acre tract of land, a part of the Prue H. R. survey in Rusk county, Tex. Appellant alleged that Martha L. Payne inherited her interest in the land in controversy from her great-grandfather, Jedidiah Blackwell, and that she was a tenant in common with appellee Samp Stone who owned a two-thirds undivided interest in said land, and his immediate and remote grantees and lessees. Appellant sought, in addition to title and possession of an undivided one-third interest in the land in controversy, an accounting from appellees for oil recovered and sold from said land. Appellees answered by general denial, plea of not guilty, and specially pleaded the three, four, five, ten and twenty-five years' statutes of limitation, and some of the appellees, lessees, and grantees of appellee Stone, pleaded improvements in good faith.
The record reveals that Jedidiah Blackwell purchased the land in controversy in 1852, and held the same until his death in 1874. By the will of Jedidiah Blackwell a certain 310-acre tract of land, of which the land in controversy is a part, was given to his wife, Nancy Blackwell, for her life, with remainder to his, Blackwell's, heirs. Jasper L. Blackwell, a son of Jedidiah Blackwell, was named in the will as executor and he qualified and acted as such, and on May 5, 1874, turned over to Nancy Blackwell, his mother, the 310 acres of land given to her by the will for life. On December 28, 1877, Nancy Blackwell conveyed this 310 acres to her son Jasper L. Blackwell, after which he claimed title to the land. Nancy Blackwell died in 1879. In 1889 Jasper L. Blackwell, upon application of heirs of Jedidiah Blackwell, filed his final account as executor in the county court of Rusk county and asked to be discharged. Quoting from the opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of Blackwell v. Blackwell, 86 Tex. 207, 24 S.W. 389, involving this estate: The executor appealed to the district court where his account was approved, the district court holding that the county court did not have authority to try the title to the land between the executor and the heirs. An appeal was taken to the Court of Civil Appeals and the judgment of the district court was there affirmed. 23 S.W. 31. The cause was then taken to the Supreme Court on writ of error and the judgments of the district court and of the Court of Civil Appeals were reversed and the cause remanded to the district court with instructions "to try the cause de novo, and to partition the lands among the heirs according to their several rights."
Martha L. Payne was the daughter of a deceased son of Jane Edge, deceased, who was a daughter of Jedidiah Blackwell.
On March 28, 1917, the property in controversy was conveyed to appellee Samp Stone by J. D. Edge and others. It is stated in the record that J. D. Edge is the same person as A. J. Edge. It appears further from the record that in 1911 Martha L. Payne was adjudged insane in Scott county, Ark., and since said date, with the exception of a few days in 1925, has been confined in an insane asylum at Little Rock, Ark.
This case was tried to a jury, and on motion of appellees the jury was instructed to return a verdict for them. Judgment was rendered accordingly for appellees, and appellant has appealed to this court.
Numerous assignments of error and propositions based thereon are brought forward, but we shall discuss those propositions only having to do with the effect of the judgment of partition and the order confirming the report of the commissioners of the district court of Rusk county made and entered in obedience to the mandate of the Supreme Court in the case of Blackwell v. Blackwell, supra. The opinion of the Supreme Court in that case enjoined upon the district court of Rusk county the duty of: (1) Determining who were the heirs of Jedidiah Blackwell entitled to inherit under his will and the proportionate part of his estate each heir was entitled to receive; and (2) the actual partition of said estate. The part of the judgment of partition dated August 11, 1894, pertinent here is:
The part of the report of the commissioners and the order approving same dated February 12, 1895, pertinent here is:
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O'Connor v. Delk
...is final and appealable. See White v. Mitchell, 60 Tex. 164; Waters Pierce Oil Co. v. State, 107 Tex. 1, 106 S.W. 326; Henderson v. Stone, Tex.Civ.App., 95 S.W.2d 772; 3 A Tex.Jur. 135, sec. 97. Since the district court in Ellis County had jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter ......