Laucheimer v. Saunders

• Decision Date: 12 October 1898
• Parties: LAUCHEIMER et al. v. SAUNDERS.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

47 S.W. 543

LAUCHEIMER et al. v. SAUNDERS.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

October 12, 1898.

Appeal from district court, Coryell county; J. S. Straughan, Judge.

Action by J. R. Saunders against M. H. Laucheimer & Sons. Judgment for plaintiff. Defendants appeal. Reversed.

This is an injunction suit brought by appellee to restrain appellants from causing an execution sale of a tract of land claimed by appellee as part of his homestead. After hearing the testimony, the court, trying the case without a jury, perpetuated the preliminary injunction, and the defendants have appealed. The testimony is as follows:

"The plaintiff, J. R. Saunders, being sworn, testified that he is the head of a family, said family consisting of himself, an unmarried daughter, and three minor sons; that in the year 1859 he purchased the tract of land upon which his present residence is situated; that said tract of land consists of about nine acres; that said land is now platted on the town plat of Gatesville as block No. 61; that he has continued to reside on said block of land from the time of the purchase, in 1859, down to the present; that the improvements on said land, when he bought it, were similar in quality to those that are on it now, the chief difference being in the quality of improvements, the present improvements being more valuable than those that were on the land when he bought it, but that when he bought this land there were on it a residence, cribs, horse and cow lots, garden, etc., as it has now; that it was fenced, as it is now, except that he has cut off, by a cross fence, one residence lot, on which he had a house built, and which is occupied by tenants, who worked his farm; that he and the owner of the lot immediately east of him opened up an alley between them for their own convenience; that where he now lives was the nucleus of the residence portion of the village of Gatesville; that there were several residences near him, two or three west of him, between him and the river, and three or four east of him, between him and the public square of Gatesville; that said land is bounded and abutted on the south by what is now Main street, but which was North street or a road, at the time of his purchase; that said land is bounded on the north by Stillhouse Branch, and that the north line of his fence is south of said Stillhouse Branch; that at the time, and two or three years before, he purchased this place, he was a merchant in the town of Gatesville, doing business in a rented house; that he has ever since pursued the business of merchandising; that he is now president of the City National Bank of Gatesville; that in 1859 the population of Gatesville was some 300 or 400 souls; that in December, 1868, he purchased the one hundred acres of land in controversy; that when he bought this 100 acres it was not all cleared and in cultivation, but that he has since had the balance of it cleared and put in cultivation; that it is bounded on the west by the Leon river, and on the south by Stillhouse Branch, which branch is now, and has been since the incorporation of the town of Gatesville, the corporation limit of said town in that direction; that the town of Gatesville was incorporated some time between the years 1870 and 1873; that said 100-acre farm is fenced off separate and apart from the block of land on which his residence is situated; that the south line of fence on said 100 acres is on the north bank of said Stillhouse Branch; that there is no house on said land now, but that at one time there was a tenant house on it; that, at the time of purchasing said 100 acres, he was doing a general merchandising business in a business house of his own; that said business house was on lot No. 5, in block 5, as platted on the plat of Gatesville, and that he has continued to do business in said house ever since he first occupied it until shortly before the levy herein; that he worked some on said farm in the years 1872 and 1873, but that his principal business at that time was merchandising; that he has always had said farm cultivated by tenants and hired labor; that he did not remember whether or not he favored the incorporation of the town of Gatesville at the time it was incorporated, but that he knew that he offered no objection or opposition to it; that he has always taken active interest in the affairs of the town, and has served several terms as alderman of same; that he has owned other farms in Coryell county, and that he received rents from them, just as he did from the 100 acres in controversy; that he never at any time lived on...