Matney v. Odom

• Decision Date: 28 April 1948
• Docket Number: No. A-1535.,A-1535.
• Citation: Matney v. Odom, 210 S.W.2d 980 (Tex. 1948)
• Parties: MATNEY v. ODOM.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

210 S.W.2d 980

MATNEY v. ODOM.

No. A-1535.

Supreme Court of Texas.

April 28, 1948.

Rehearing Denied June 2, 1948.

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

Suit by J. N. Matney against Arthur G. Odom, for specific performance. Judgment for defendants was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals, 207 S.W.2d 420, and plaintiff brings error.

Affirmed.

James & Tomlin and L. L. James, all of Tyler, for petitioner.

Jack Flock, Lasseter, Spruiell, Lowry, Potter & Lasater and Wilbert Lasater, all of Tyler, for respondent.

TAYLOR, Justice.

This is an action for specific performance of an option for the sale of four acres of land contained in a ten-year written lease executed in April, 1939, by Arthur G. Odom, as lessor, and J. N. Matney, as lessee. The court (the trial was without a jury) concluded, among other things, that the description of the land set out in the contract was insufficient to comply with the statute of frauds, art. 3995, R.C.S., and rendered judgment accordingly that plaintiff was not entitled to specific performance. The judgment was affirmed by the Texarkana Court of Civil Appeals, Chief Justice Hall dissenting. 207 S.W.2d 420.

The lease agreement provided an option on Matney's part to purchase the four acres after three years of occupancy as a tenant. The option clause reads: "At the expiration of three (3) years from the date of occupancy and the commencement of the payment of rent, tenant (Matney) shall have * * * the right to purchase said four (4) acres of land and improvements thereon, upon payment of the following price: Two thousand ($2,000) dollars for the four acres * * * together with the actual cost of the improvements, less a 4 per cent annual depreciation on the cost of the improvements and the erection of the buildings. This option to buy commences with the fourth year and continues during the remaining term of this lease."

The four acres is described in the following portion of the lease: "Landlord * * * does hereby lease, to tenant, four (4) acres out of the East end of a ten-acre block on the P. Chireno Survey about 2 miles East from the courthouse of the city of Tyler, Smith County, Texas, located on the North side of the Kilgore highway, * * * upon the following terms and conditions."

The primary question to be determined in this action is whether the description of the four acres set out in the lease contract meets the requirement of the statute of frauds, art. 3995, R.C.S. If the requirement was not met, the court of civil appeals, in the view we take of the case, is correct in approving the trial court's holding that the lessee was not entitled to enforce specific performance of the option provision of the lease. We have concluded upon final consideration of the case that the trial court's judgment was correctly approved.

The rule is well established that for a contract to convey land to be sufficient under the statute of frauds, art. 3995, R.C. S., "the description must be so definite and certain upon the face of the instrument itself, or in some other writing referred to, that the land can be identified with reasonable certainty." Greer v. Greer, 144 Tex. 528, 191 S.W.2d 848, 849; Smith v. Sorelle, 126 Tex. 353, 87 S.W.2d 703; Robertson v. Melton, 131 Tex. 325, 115 S.W.2d 624, 118 A.L.R. 1505; Pfeiffer v. Lindsay, 66 Tex. 123, 1 S.W. 264; Hanks v. Hamman, Tex. Com.App., 289 S.W. 993; Continental Supply Co. v. Missouri, K. & T. Ry. Co., Tex. Com.App., 268 S.W. 444; Id.Tex.Com.App., 269 S.W. 1040; Osborne v. Moore, 112 Tex. 361, 247 S.W. 498; Starkey v. Texas Farm Mortg. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 45 S.W.2d 999, (writ refused); Rosen v. Phelps, Tex. Civ.App., 160 S.W. 104, (writ refused); MacLane v. Smith, Tex.Civ.App., 198 S.W. 2d 493, (no writ of error history); 37 C.J.S. Statute of Frauds, § 184; 20 Tex.Jur. pp. 311-12; Thompson, Real Property (1940), Vol. 6, pp. 457-60.

The lease contract describes the land in question as being in a ten-acre block on the north side of the Kilgore highway in the P. Chireno Survey about two miles East of the Smith County courthouse, and designates it as "four (4) acres out of the East end" of the block. (Emphasis ours). No other writing or means of identification is referred to in the lease, and it contains nothing indicating the shape of the block or the courses and lengths of its border lines or those of the four acres.

To locate the four acres with definiteness it is necessary first to fix the location of the piece of land of which it is a part, and then locate it (the four acres) by boundaries, or metes and bounds of some character "out of" the east end. If the shapes respectively of the two pieces of land had been stated and course and distances of boundary lines called, and the four acres had been designated "off of" instead of "out of" the larger piece, a less difficult question would be presented. However, under the established law of this state, the descriptive language used in this lease is vitally lacking in definiteness. Cases cited above. Additional cases are: Kellner v. Ramdohr, Tex.Civ. App., 207 S.W. 169, (no writ of error history); Tram Lumber Co. v. Hancock, 70 Tex. 312, 7 S.W. 724; White v. Glenn, Tex. Civ.App., 138 S.W.2d 914; (error dismissed, judgment corrected); Stovall v. Finney, Tex.Civ.App., 152 S.W.2d 887, (no writ of error history); Davis v. Dilbeck, Tex.Civ. App., 232 S.W. 927, (no writ of error history); Cammack v. Prather, Tex.Civ.App., 74 S.W. 354, (no writ of error history); Thompson, Real Property, supra; Tiffany, Real Property (3d Ed.), pp. 117-18; 117 A.L.R. 1073; 14 Tex.Jur. p. 995; 6 Tex.L. Rev. 242.

In Smith v. Sorelle the Supreme Court held insufficient a description describing the land as "100 acres out of Blocks 8 and 9 of the subdivision of Jose Maria Pineda Survey, which was patented to Adolphus Stern," the court saying: "This court has held that a deed purporting to convey land, which describes it only by quantity and as being part of a larger tract, with nothing whereby to identify what specific portion of the larger tract is intended to be conveyed, is void for uncertainty of description." (Emphasis ours.)

In Pfeiffer v. Lindsay a deed was held void by reason of the insufficiency of the following description: "Fifty acres of the J. M. Moss survey situated in Montague county, Texas, abstract No. 462, situated near the town of Burlington, in Montague County, Texas."

The foregoing description, it will be observed, contains nothing whereby the fifty acres of a named survey in a named county can be located unless aid by way of parol proof is first applied. No one, from reading the description, said the court, "could tell what was the shape of the 50 acres, * * *." [66 Tex. 123, 1 S.W. 265] Parol evidence was held inadmissible.

As stated in W. T. Carter & Bro. v. Ewers, 133 Tex. 616, 131 S.W.2d 86, 87, 123 A.L.R. 908, quoting from Hanks v. Hamman, supra: "The intention must be derived from the expressions from the terms of the deed itself. Otherwise, you would be conveying land by parol intention and violating the statute of frauds of this state." (Emphasis ours.)

In the Continental Supply Company case in which the description was [Com.App., 268 S.W. 445] "120 acres out of the W. A. Rhoades survey, abstract No. 858, and survey No. 84, situated in Eastland county, Texas," the court said: "(T)here must be a nucleus of description of the inclosed tract, around which extrinsic facts may be gathered from oral evidence such as locate the land. There must be something in the description to which oral evidence may be tied. Without such datum to begin with, proof of extrinsic facts is inadmissible. In the absence of such general though inaccurate description of the inclosed tract, to permit oral proof of location would be to pass the title to land by parol in violation of the statute."

Three letters, written nearly seven years subsequent to the execution of the lease, are relied upon by Dr. Matney as removing the ban of the statute of frauds. The first is Dr. Matney's letter to Odom reiterating his desire and ability to purchase the land and requesting a deed from Odom. The second is the reply letter written by Jack W. Flock, Odom's attorney. The third is the reply to Mr. Flock's letter, written by Dr. Matney's attorney, L. L. James. Matney contends that the letters, together with the written contract, identify the land. A perusal of the letters negatives this contention. In any event, the letters and the parol evidence concerning them...