King Ranch, Inc. v. Chapman

• Decision Date: 28 August 2003
• Docket Number: No. 01-0430.,01-0430.
• Citation: 118 S.W.3d 742
• Parties: KING RANCH, INC., et al. v. William Warren CHAPMAN, III, et al.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

118 S.W.3d 742

KING RANCH, INC., et al. v. William Warren CHAPMAN, III, et al.

No. 01-0430.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued April 2, 2003.

Decided August 28, 2003.

Rehearing Denied November 21, 2003.

Howard P. Newton, San Antonio, James H. Robichaux, Corpus Christi, Matthews & Branscomb, P.C., Mary Taylor Henderson, Office of the Attorney General, Leon Vadim Komkov, Baskin Bennett & Komkov, Carroll G. Martin, Scott Douglass & McConnico, Austin, Keith R. Verges, Mark T. Davenport, Figari Davenport & Graves, LLP, Dallas, Robert R. Sykes, The Law Office of Robert R. Sykes, Midland, J.W. Cooper, Jr., Cooper & Cooper, J.A. (Tony) Canales, Canales & Simonson, P.C., Russell H. McMains, Law Offices of Russell H. McMains, Corpus Christi, J. Scott Carothers, Andrews & Kurth, Gerri M. Fore, Exxon Company, U.S.A., John B. Thomas, Laura B. Rowe, Hicks Thomas & Lilienstern, LLP, Jess H. Hall, Jr., Stacy Lee Williams, Roland Garcia, Jr., Locke Liddell & Sapp LLP, Karen L. Chisholm, Zummo & Mitchell, L.L.P., Houston, Rick Foster, Porter Rogers Dahlman & Gordon, San Antonio, Mike A. Hatchell, Molly H. Hatchell, Hatchell P.C., Tyler, Edward J. Schroeder, The Law Office of Edward J. Schroeder, San Antonio, for petitioners.

John Blaise Gsanger, William R. Edwards, The Edwards Law Firm, L.L.P., Craig S. Smith, Law Office of Craig S. Smith, Michael G. Terry, Hartline Dacus Barger Dreyer & Kern, LLP, Donald B. Edwards, The Law Office of Donald B. Edwards, Corpus Christi, for respondent.

Justice JEFFERSON delivered the opinion of the Court.

Various heirs of Major William Warren Chapman and his wife, Helen Chapman, seek title to an undivided one-half interest in 15,449.4 acres of property, much of it contained within the storied King Ranch in South Texas. The Chapman heirs allege that, in the late 1800s, their forebears' lawyer conspired with Captain Richard King to deprive the Chapman heirs of rightful title to the property. Seeking to avoid an 1883 agreed judgment, they have filed a bill of review and a trespass to try title action. For the reasons set forth below, we reject their claims.

I Factual Background

A. The Property

Roughly one hundred fifty years ago, the State of Texas issued a patent to the heirs of Juan Mendiola, conveying to them three-and-one-half leagues of land totaling 15,449.4 acres located in Nueces County. These lands were known as the Rincon de Santa Gertrudis. Today, the Rincon includes portions of the King Ranch, the City of Kingsville, and the Kingsville Naval Air Station.

In 1853, the Mendiola heirs transferred their interest in the Rincon to Captain Richard King. Later that year, King conveyed a one-half interest to Gideon Lewis. Three years later, in 1856, King conveyed half of his remaining half interest (i.e. a one-fourth interest) to Major William Warren Chapman, who is the Chapman heirs' ancestor and the source of the title they claim. Lewis died later that year. Hamilton Bee, his administrator, sold the Lewis interest in the Rincon back to King and Chapman jointly for $1,575, for which King gave his individual promissory note. Bee executed a deed accordingly (the "Lewis deed"). At that point, King and Chapman each owned a one-half undivided interest in the property, although the Lewis deed was not recorded until 1904.

B. Cause No. 1279

Major Chapman died testate in 1859, leaving his estate to his wife Helen. Twenty years later, in 1879, she sued King in trespass to try title. The suit, filed in the 25th district court of Nueces County, Texas and bearing Cause No. 1279, sought an undivided one-half interest in the Rincon as well as title to a separate 240 acre property. Helen Chapman alleged that King, her co-tenant, had ejected her from the Rincon on January 1, 1877. Mrs. Chapman was represented by two law firms: M. Campbell & Givens and Lackey & Stayton.¹ By 1881, attorney Robert Kleberg had joined the Lackey & Stayton firm and participated in the representation of Mrs. Chapman.

King, represented by F.E. Macmanus and Pat. O'Doeharty, answered the suit and admitted that the Lewis estate had conveyed Lewis's interest in the Rincon to King and Chapman jointly. King asserted, however, that he acquired title by reason of his exclusive, adverse possession of the Rincon from as early as 1857 and that Major Chapman did not pay for his interest under either the deed between King and Chapman or the Lewis deed. King asserted that Major Chapman verbally and, later, in a letter, surrendered his interest under both deeds to King in forgiveness of his debt for the purchase price, but that the letter was lost when the Union raided the King Ranch during the Civil War. King alleged that he paid the Lewis estate for Chapman's interest, took exclusive possession of the Rincon, took various actions to confirm his title, and "cultivated, used and enjoyed" the land for the three five, ten, and twenty-year statutory periods under the adverse possession statutes then in effect. See Act approved Feb. 5, 1841, 5th Cong., R.S., §§ 15-17, 1841 Repub. Tex. Laws 163, 167-68, reprinted in 2 H.P.N. Gammel, The Laws of Texas 1822-1897, at 627, 631-32 (Austin, Gammel Book Co. 1898).

Helen, who by this time had moved to South Carolina, died in 1881 before the lawsuit concluded. She left her two children a life estate in her interest in the Rincon, and the remainder interest to her five grandchildren. Her will was probated in both South Carolina and Texas by John Rankin, a co-executor appointed by Mrs. Chapman.² Rankin was substituted as plaintiff in Cause No. 1279, but none of the heirs was named in or made a party to the case.

On April 7, 1883, four years after suit was filed and twenty-four years after Major Chapman's death, the parties settled Cause No. 1279, and the trial court rendered judgment accordingly. The April 7, 1883 judgment recited:

[The Chapman Estate] is entitled to recover one half of the land sued for by the plaintiff ... but that in consideration of the moneyed judgment herein after set out and rendered in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant Richard King—it is now here, by consent of all the parties hereto,—ordered adjudged and decreed by the Court—that all right title and interest of the said estate of Helen B. Chapman deceased in and to said grant originally made to Juan Mindeola [sic] be vested in Richard King the defendant herein, and that he be quieted in his possession of the said tract of land described in plaintiff's petition.... And it is now here further ordered adjudged and decreed that plaintiff do now have and recover from the defendant Richard King the sum of Five Thousand Eight Hundred and Eleven Dollars and Seventy Five Cents, $5,811.75 to be paid in four installments of one fourth (1/4) of said aggregate sum each said payments to be made respectively at the expiration of Six (6) months, Twelve (12) months, Eighteen (18) months and Twenty Four (24) months from this date on said aggregate sum at the rate of Ten (10) per centum until paid and should any default be made on the payments of said installments and the interest thereon accrued if any there be, then execution shall at once issue for the entire sum remaining unpaid of said whole amount, and it is further ordered that the defendant herein pay all costs in this behalf expended for which execution may issue.

The judgment also awarded the Chapman estate title to the 240 acre property. There was no appeal.

Sixteen days after the case settled, Kleberg wrote to Ellery Brayton, explaining the agreed judgment:

That the suit of Helen B. Chapman v. Richard King was disposed of at the last term of our district court which has just closed. John Rankin Executor was made party plaintiff in the suit and judgment was rendered by consent of parties as follows, it was considered by the court that half of the land sued for which was the half of 3½ leagues could be recovered by the plaintiff which would be 3874½ acres—also a tract of 240 acres and in consideration of a moneyed judgment for $5,811.75 against the Defendant Richard King—the title was vested to him to the 3874½ acres, and the title to the 240 acres was recovered in favor of the Estate of Helen B. Chapman thus giving Judgment in favor of the Estate for $5,811.75....

Helen Chapman's son, William B. Chapman, was dissatisfied. In a May 21, 1883 letter to Brayton, Chapman wrote:

I was opposed to allowing King to take judgment for the property. We only get paid for this one part (?) of it (¼). For the other part, it is thought that my father paid nothing. It is equally presumptive that neither did King.... I don't see why we could not have secured our title ... if anyone had taken any interest in the matter. I don't think anyone ever attempted to exercise (?) any evidence from [the administrator of the Lewis Estate].³

C. King and Kleberg

While Cause No. 1279 was pending, Kleberg's law firm represented King in unrelated matters. In a July 24, 1881 letter to his parents, Robert Kleberg wrote that "[King] asked us to attend to his legal business for him." The Lackey Stayton & Kleberg firm represented King in Sobrinos v. Chamberlain, 76 Tex. 624, 13 S.W. 634 (1890), and Domingue Rotge v. Richard King. The Sobrinos case, filed in September 1881, involved a claim against the administrator of the estate of Hiram Chamberlain by a creditor of the estate. The creditor, Jose Sobrinos, alleged that the administrator of the estate, Bland Chamberlain, inappropriately paid certain claims made by King, who was a co-defendant. On March 17, 1882, Lackey Stayton & Kleberg made its first appearance in the case, filing an answer on King's behalf. Rotge v. King, filed in August 1881, involved a dispute over ownership of cattle. Lackey, Stayton & Kleberg filed an answer on behalf of King in the Rotge case in March 1882. The parties do not contend that the subject matter of these two cases related in any way to Cause No. 1279.

In 1885, two years after entry of the consent judgment in Cau...