Jones v. Guy

• Decision Date: 23 October 1940
• Docket Number: No. 7661.,7661.
• Citation: Jones v. Guy, 143 S.W.2d 906, 135 Tex. 398 (Tex. 1940)
• Parties: JONES et al. v. GUY et al.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 906

143 S.W.2d 906

JONES et al. v. GUY et al.

No. 7661.

Supreme Court of Texas.

October 23, 1940.

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

Suit by Mrs. Beulah Guy and husband against W. W. Jones and others to recover an undivided one-half interest in certain land and for alleged conversion of certain personalty. To review a judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals, 132 S.W.2d 490, reversing a judgment for defendants and remanding the case to the trial court, defendants bring error.

Judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed.

C. B. Randell, of Sherman, T. J. Ramey and Vern D. Adamson, both of Sulphur Springs, and Hamlin Smithdeal, J. C. Muse, J. C. Muse, Jr., and Gamewell, O'Brien & Umphress, all of Dallas, for plaintiffs in error.

Grover Sellers, of Austin, and Turner, Rodgers, Winn & Sellers and Geo. S. Terry, all of Dallas, for defendants in error.

SLATTON, Commissioner.

Mrs. Beulah Guy and her husband brought this suit in the district court of Hopkins County to recover an undivided one-half interest in 33 tracts of land and for conversion of personal property against the executors and legatees named in the last will of Mrs. Susan Belle Pierce, deceased, who was the wife of J. K. Pierce, deceased. Her cause of action was in the nature of a statutory form of trespass to try title to land and for conversion of personal property. The theory of her recovery was upon an equitable estoppel which was alleged as follows, towit:

"That J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce, both deceased, in their lifetime took the plaintiff, Beulah Guy, from her natural father, George W. Brannon, when she was about three years of age, with the understanding and agreement between her natural father and the said J. K. Pierce or the said J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce that they would adopt said plaintiff and make her their adopted daughter; that said agreement was made by the father of the plaintiff for her benefit and in her behalf; that pursuant to said agreement and understanding, the natural father of plaintiff, Beulah Guy, delivered her to the said J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce, where she continued to live until she was grown and married; that the said J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce, at the time they took said plaintiff from her natural father, gave her the name of Beulah Pierce, and from thence on she was known as Beulah Pierce, and she was taught by them to call them `Mammy' and `Pappy' which she did until their death.

"It is further alleged that the said J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce held said plaintiff out to their friends as their daughter and as their adopted daughter, and on all occasions introduced her as their daughter and their adopted daughter. They fed, clothed and educated her, and she was known in the community at Sunday School, church and school by the name and only by the name of Beulah Pierce; that said plaintiff was kind and affectionate to the said J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce during all the time that she lived with them, waiting on them when they were sick and doing any and all kinds of work required of her by the said J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce, which work was such as was ordinarily required of children by their parents; that said plaintiff never at any time had any trouble with either the said J. K. Pierce or the said Susan Belle Pierce, but their relationship to said plaintiff was friendly and that of a mother and father toward her until their death long after this plaintiff was grown.

"It is further alleged that after the plaintiff, Beulah Guy, was grown and married to Professor O. L. Guy and after they had children of their own, their children called J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce `Grandma' and `Grandpa', and the said Susan Belle Pierce and J. K. Pierce called plaintiffs' children their grandchildren; that plaintiffs, after they were married, continued on good terms and friendly relations with J. K. Pierce and Susan Belle Pierce until their death; that only a short time prior to the death of J. K. Pierce he gave the plaintiff a home in the city of Sulphur Springs, Texas, on the express consideration of his love and affection for her and her children.

"It is further alleged that the said Susan Belle Pierce, who survived the said J. K. Pierce, continued to hold the plaintiff, Beulah Guy, out as their adopted daughter, and only a few years ago, in 1933, in relating her life history, stated that she and J. K. Pierce adopted the plaintiff, Beulah Guy, as their daughter."

W. W. Jones et al., as the executors and legatees named in the will of Mrs. Pierce, pleaded not guilty, the two, three, four, five and ten years' statutes of limitation, the statute of frauds and an estoppel against Mrs. Guy through her silence from the death of Mr. Pierce on August 1, 1918, until after the death of Mrs. Pierce on February 2, 1937.

A jury trial resulted in a directed verdict against Mrs. Guy, upon which a judgment was entered in favor of W. W. Jones et al. An appeal was perfected to the Court of Civil Appeals at Texarkana. That court reversed the judgment of the district court and remanded the cause for trial. 132 S.W.2d 490. This court granted writ of error.

The Honorable Court of Civil Appeals, acting under well-settled rules with regard to evidence in cases where a verdict has been directed by the trial court, quoted in its opinion evidence which if found to be true brings the case within the rule announced by this court in the case of Cubley v. Barbee, 123 Tex. 411, 73 S.W.2d 72. After mature consideration of the case on submission in this court we have concluded that the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals properly disposes of the case, and we adopt the following portion of the opinion as the opinion of this court :

"The facts of this case clearly fall within the rule which our Supreme Court in Cubley v. Barbee, 123 Tex. 411, 73 S.W.2d 72, 79, has declared to be the correct rule, namely:

"`It seems to us that the rule is correctly stated by the annotator in the notes to the case of In re Taggart's Estate [190 Cal. 493, 213 P. 504], 27 A.L.R. page 1365, where the writer states: "The cases considering the matter are in substantial harmony in sustaining an estoppel in pais to preclude adoptive parents and their privies from asserting the invalidity of adoption proceedings, or, at least, the status of the adopted child, when, by performance upon the part of the child, the adoptive parents have received all the benefits and privileges accruing from such performance, and they by their representations induced such performance under the belief of the existence of the status of adopted child." Holloway v. Jones (Mo.Sup.) 246 S.W. 587; Young v. McClannahan, 187 Iowa 1184, 175 N.W. 26; Fiske v. Lawton, 124 Minn. 85, 144 N.W. 455; Jones v. Leeds, 41 Ind.App. 164, 83 N.E. 526; Anderson v. Blakesly, 155 Iowa 430, 136 N. W. 210; Barney v. Hutchinson, 25 N.M. 82, 177 P. 890; In re Reichel, 148 Minn. 433, 182 N.W. 517, 16 A.L.R. 1016; Milligan v. McLaughlin, 94 Neb. 171, 142 N. W. 675, 46 L.R.A.,N.S., 1134; Wolf's Appeal (Pa.) 13 A. 760, 10 Sadler 139; In re Williams' Estate, 102 Cal. 70, 36 P. 407, 41 Am.St.Rep. 163; In re McKeag's Estate, 141 Cal. 403, 74 P. 1039, 99 Am.St.Rep. 80; (note to) Carlin v. Bacon, 69 A.L.R. 17; Tuttle v. Winchell, 104 Neb. 750, 178 N.W. 755, 11 A.L.R 814; Horton v. Troll, 183 Mo.App. 677, 167 S.W. 1081; Thomas v. Maloney, 142 Mo.App. 193, 126 S.W. 522.'

"Appellees, in substance, contend that the above quoted rule granting relief through the equitable remedy of estoppel has no application and the relief can not be granted except in cases where it is shown that the adoptive parent has executed and acknowledged a deed of adoption, but has failed to record it. The testimony in the Cubley case shows that the adoptive parent had there executed and acknowledged an instrument as part of the agreement under which the child was taken, which the Court of Civil Appeals, Barbee v. Cubley, 25 S.W.2d 689, construed as being testamentary in character, and concerning which instrument the Supreme Court held that the adoptive parent by her acts and representations was estopped to deny that it was a deed of adoption. But the doctrine of equity upon which decision in the Cubley case was based does not rest upon execution of the adoption deed. It rests upon the adoptive parent having received the benefits of the relation fully performed by the child. The language of the rule itself as declared in the Cubley case, as well as the authorities there cited from which the rule is drawn, clearly shows that exercise of the equitable power of the court to grant relief to the child, against the fraud of the adoptive parents' neglect or design in failing to do that which he in equity was obligated to do, is not dependent or conditioned upon such adoptive parents having executed but failed to file an instrument of adoption. The first case cited by the court in support of the rule declared in the Cubley case is Holloway v. Jones, Mo.Sup., 246 S.W. 587, in which the relief was granted though the adoptive parent `never executed the deed of adoption.' The following statement of that case, and excerpt from the opinion, clearly illustrates the error of appellees' contention in the present case:

"`In Holloway v. Jones, 246 S.W. 587, 590, the Supreme Court of Missouri sustained the rights of a person taken, while an infant, into the family of McHaney and wife, under a promise on the part of the latter to adopt it. We shall not state the facts, as the case is available. It is sufficient to say that the child performed all the duties of a child to its adopting parents. The latter, however never executed the deed of adoption. The suit was between the child after the deaths of the McHaneys and a collateral relative. The Supreme Court sustained the claim of the child. The adoption statutes of Missouri were quite similar to our own. * * *

"`"In all ...