Hudspeth v. Hudspeth

• Court: Texas Court of Appeals
• Writing for the Court: Before CADENA; CANTU; TIJERINA
• Citation: Hudspeth v. Hudspeth, 673 S.W.2d 248 (Tex. App. 1984)
• Decision Date: 18 April 1984
• Docket Number: No. 04-83-00005-CV,04-83-00005-CV
• Parties: Claude B. HUDSPETH, III, Mary Hudspeth Cronin and Roy Hudspeth, Appellants, v. Inez HUDSPETH, Appellee.

Page 248

673 S.W.2d 248

Claude B. HUDSPETH, III, Mary Hudspeth Cronin and Roy Hudspeth, Appellants, v. Inez HUDSPETH, Appellee.

No. 04-83-00005-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas San Antonio.

April 18, 1984.

Rehearing Denied May 24, 1984.

Bruce Robertson, Jr., San Antonio, for appellants.

Craig Porter, San Angelo, for appellee.

Before CADENA, C.J., and CANTU, and TIJERINA, JJ.

CANTU, Justice.

This is an appeal from the granting of summary judgment based on the affirmative defense of res judicata. Appellants also complain of the court's failure to grant their motion for partial summary judgment based solely upon the applicability of res judicata.

The plaintiffs/appellants are the only children of their deceased father, Claude B. Hudspeth, Jr. and the remaindermen under his will. Inez Hudspeth is the defendant/appellee and the surviving spouse/life tenant under the will.

Claude B. Hudspeth, Jr., died testate in 1948 and was survived by his wife, Inez Hudspeth and three minor children from a prior marriage. His last will and testament was admitted to probate by the county court of Val Verde County. By the terms of the will the surviving widow received a life estate in his real property with remainder to his three minor children. The decedent's estate included a ranch of approximately 16,359 acres in Val Verde and Crockett counties which had been his separate property.

Appellants filed the instant trespass to try title lawsuit in 1982 to quiet their title to the minerals in the ranch property and to recover bonuses, royalties and delay rentals received by appellee in the past as a result of the production and severance of oil and gas from the land. Appellants made no contention that they were entitled to present enjoyment.

Appellee answered alleging, among other defenses, res judicata. She then filed her motion for summary judgment predicated solely upon res judicata. Attached to her motion were the petition, answer, and judgment of the trial court in the 1950 case upon which appellee's motion relies. Appellants filed a supplemental petition and responded to the motion for summary judgment with their own motion for partial summary judgment supported by affidavit. The trial court granted appellee's motion and this appeal is predicated solely upon the propriety of this ruling.

Essentially, appellants' latter lawsuit sought a judicial determination that they, as remaindermen under their father's will, own his lands and the minerals thereunder, subject only to the appellee's rights as life tenant to receive the rents, revenues and income derived from the land. Appellants also sought to prevent waste of their mineral interest by appellee's conversion of the bonuses, royalties and delay rentals being realized from the production and severance of oil and gas from the land.

The will of Claude B. Hudspeth, Jr., provided in part:

I also give to said Inez Hudspeth all rents, revenues and income of every kind and character derived from the real estate belonging to me at the time of my death during the span of her natural life or until her marriage.

In 1950, appellants filed suit against appellee to cause an accounting of the properties constituting their late father's estate, seeking construction of the will, to determine widow's election and seeking continuation of child support payments as well as other relief not pertinent to this appeal.

Appellee answered by specially excepting to appellants' allegations and by denying that appellants were entitled to any present rights in the property of the estate of Claude B. Hudspeth, Jr. Appellee also denied there existed a present need to construe the will, a need to make a widow's election, a duty to furnish support to the appellants and the need to furnish an accounting.

On December 27, 1950, a bench trial was had upon the pleadings and the answer on file. The judgment entered found, in pertinent part:

(1) Under the terms of the will the appellants were given no interest of present enjoyment in the property of the estate or the income therefrom until the death or remarriage of appellee.

(2) Trusts created by the will for the use and benefit of the minors (appellants) do not become operative until the death or remarriage of the appellee.

(3) By the terms of the will there was devised and bequeathed to appellee, among other things, all rents, revenues and income of every kind and character from the real estate belonging to Claude B. Hudspeth, Jr. for the term of her natural life, or until her marriage; also, all personal property and the right to execute grazing leases as well as oil and gas leases.

Moreover, the judgment decreed that appellee be quieted in the use and enjoyment of the 16,359 acre tract of land for the term of her natural life, or until her marriage and that she was entitled to receive, among other things, all rents, revenues and income of every kind and character from said real estate ... for her natural life or until her marriage, including income from grazing leases and oil and gas leases.

In deciding whether or not there is a disputed material fact issue precluding summary judgment, evidence favorable to the appellants will be taken as true and every reasonable inference must be indulged in favor of the appellants and any doubts resolved in their favor.

Furthermore, appellee had the burden of showing that there was no genuine issue of material fact and that she was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. See Wilcox v. St. Mary's University of San Antonio, Inc., 531 S.W.2d 589, 592-93 (Tex.1975).

The principle of res judicata is applicable only when definite elements are shown to exist, namely, identity of parties, issues, subject matter, relief sought and cause of action. Franklin v. Rainey, 556 S.W.2d 583, 585 (Tex.Civ.App.--Dallas 1977, no writ); Lozano v. Patrician Movement, 483 S.W.2d 369, 371 (Tex.Civ.App.--San Antonio 1972, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

Appellee argues that the prior judgment precludes litigation because the instant case involves the same parties and the same subject matter previously adjudicated. However, no mention is made of the remaining elements; namely issues, relief sought and cause of action. See Franklin v. Rainey, supra.

Appellee's argument is based upon a mistaken belief that, in both lawsuits, appellants sought to quiet their title to their interest in the realty. In truth and in fact, however, appellants' prior lawsuit sought a declaration of their interests under their father's will whereas the instant lawsuit seeks to protect the interests thus acquired as a result of the will construction in the prior lawsuit.

At the time of the will construction, as at the time of the testator's death, no mineral production was in existence nor were mineral leases executed. Thus there was, at that time, no reason to charge appellee with wasting the corpus of the realty or to seek an accounting of the proceeds derived from production.

The controlling question before this Court is, therefore, whether title to the mineral estate was previously adjudicated in the earlier trial, and if so, whether through passage of time new facts have occurred which may alter the legal rights or relations of the parties.

In order to justify the conclusion that appellee was previously awarded all the interest in mineral production during her life estate, this Court would have to hold that an adjudication awarding appellee "all rents, revenues and income of every kind and character from the real estate ..." necessarily encompasses royalties, bonuses and delay rentals. Such a conclusion is, for the most part, not supported by the record. Neither the will, the prior judgment, nor the pleadings in the prior suit reflect that such was intended or even the subject of contention between the parties. See Davis v. First Nat. Bank of Waco, 139 Tex. 36, 161 S.W.2d 467, 471 (1942); Harrell v. Harrell, 428 S.W.2d 370 (Tex.Civ.App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1968, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

Judgments, like other written instruments, are to be construed as a whole toward the end of harmonizing and giving effect to all the court has written. What the court has adjudicated is to be determined from a fair reading of all the provisions of the judgment. Constance v. Constance, 544 S.W.2d 659, 660 (Tex.1976).

In determining whether a party to a suit is concluded by the decision of a question of fact or of law made in a former suit to which he or one through whom he holds title was a party, it is necessary not only to look to the terms of the judgment rendered in the former suit, but also to consider that judgment, its findings and recitals in the light of settled rules as to the principles of res judicata or conclusiveness of judgment. Davis v. First Nat. Bank of Waco, supra.

Appellee insists res judicata is still applicable because the question as to whether the bequest of income consisting of all rents, revenue and income of every kind and character from the real estate included royalties, bonuses and delay rentals from the oil and gas leases could have been litigated in the prior suit.

Much has been said about and much confusion cast upon the doctrine of res judicata because of the oft-quoted general rule that, "the judgment in the first suit precludes a second action by the parties and their privies not only on matters actually litigated, but also on causes of action or defenses which arise out of the same subject matter and which might have been litigated in the first suit."

The Supreme Court in Moore v. Snowball, 98 Tex. 16, 81 S.W. 5 (1904) was sensitive to the problem created from a naked reading of the foregoing general rule. In recognizing that the rule has oftentimes been abbreviated so as to be misleading, the court, quoting from City of Aurora v. West, 74 U.S. (7 Wall) 82, 19 L.Ed. 42 (1869), explained the statement to mean:

[T]hat a judgment is conclusive upon the issues tendered by the plaintiff's complaint. It may be that the plaintiff might have...