Kleinecke v. Woodward

• Decision Date: 01 January 1874
• Citation: Kleinecke v. Woodward, 42 Tex. 311 (Tex. 1874)
• Parties: H. A. L. KLEINECKE v. W. H. WOODWARD.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

42 Tex. 311

H. A. L. KLEINECKE

v.W. H. WOODWARD.

Supreme Court of Texas.

1874.

APPEAL from Calhoun. Tried below before the Hon. T. C. Barden.

Walter Merriman, for appellants.

GOULD, J.

Appellants, as heirs at law of their deceased father, August Kleinecke, brought this suit, in August, 1854, against Woodward, as the purchaser at an administration sale, made by Henry Wilson, administrator of their father's estate, of a German emigration 640 acre land certificate, claiming that the administration and sale were void. The averments of the petition are: that Wilson's application for letters, which was filed by defendant or his attorney, showed no reason for administration; that as a matter of fact no claims against the estate were allowed or approved, or known to exist; and from these facts is inferred the nullity of the administration and of all proceedings thereunder. It was further averred that the petition of the administrator for the sale of the land certificate was not accompanied by any statement in writing of the estimated expenses of administration or of the claims against the estate, was not verified by affidavit, and that the only reason given therein for the sale was that the certificate constituted the only effects of the estate; that it was worthless unless patented; and that the estate had no other means of paying the fees for patenting or the expenses of administration. Combination between defendant and Wilson, and that defendant caused said sale and administration for the purpose of procuring title to said certificate for a nominal price, were also alleged as a ground for having the sale annulled, in order that the claim on the plaintiff's title to the land, patented in the name of the heirs of August Kleinecke, might be revoked.

The defendant, besides a general denial and limitation, plead that the action was in the nature of a Bill of Review, and was not commenced within two years from the date of the proceedings.

By an amendment, plaintiffs set up their minority at the time of sale, alleging their respective ages to be thirty-eight and forty at the date of the amendment, and stating that they knew nothing of the existence of the certificate or of the patent until 1874.

Exceptions to defendant's plea of limitation were sustained, and a jury being waived and the cause submitted to the court, the evidence was heard and judgment rendered in favor of defendant.

The evidence shows the facts as to the contents of the petition for letters and sale to be as stated by plaintiffs; that the certificate was appraised at one hundred dollars; was sold for cash and bought by defendant for twenty-five dollars. This twenty-five dollars was absorbed in the expenses of administration. No claims of any kind appear to have been presented against the estate, and after the approval of the sale, which was had at the July term, 1854, no further proceedings appear to have been had.

On the other hand it was proved that the administrator, Wilson, who died in 1867, was the brother-in-law of plaintiffs, and stood high as a man of honesty and integrity. The clerk of the court at the time of the sale testified that the sale was made after due notice and with perfect fairness, and that certificates of the land were then worth twenty or twenty-five dollars. The defendant on the stand denied all collusion between himself and the administrator for the sale of the certificate, and stated that he purchased it at public sale in perfect good faith and gave its full value. It appeared also that August Kleinecke died in 1851.

The administration was had under the Probate Law of ...