Maxwell v. Guyton

• Decision Date: 01 January 1857
• Citation: 20 Tex. 202
• Parties: WILLIAM MAXWELL AND OTHERS v. MORGAN AND GUYTON.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

20 Tex. 202

WILLIAM MAXWELL AND OTHERS

v.MORGAN AND GUYTON.

Supreme Court of Texas.

1857.

That the heirs of the mother's community interest have been advanced by, and have inherited from, the father, to the extent of the value of their inheritance from their mother, is a good defense to a suit by such heirs to recover their mother's community interest in property disposed of by the father after her decease; and see this case for testimony which was held to be sufficient to sustain a verdict for the defendant in such suit. 15 Tex. 519;28 Tex. 383.

Appeal from Washington. Tried below before the Hon. R. E. B. Baylor. The facts are stated in the opinion.

White, for appellants.

Lewis & Davis, for appellees.

HEMPHILL, CH. J.

This suit is by two daughters (joined by their husbands) of Amelia Stephenson, deceased, wife of James Stephenson, their father, to recover land claimed by them in the community right of their mother, and which after her death was sold by their father, who had also departed this life before the commencement of suit. There is some conflict of evidence, a variety of details, and an accumulation of conveyances, which tend to perplexity and confusion. But the main facts are, that the land sued for was purchased by Stephenson in 1835, during the life of his wife Amelia, by exchanging one quarter of his own headright league for this land, which was one quarter of a league of the headright of Isaac Jackson. Shortly afterwards, and before the death of his wife, he exchanged another portion of his headright for one quarter of a league belonging to Benjamin Babbit, situate in what is now known as Grimes county, to which Stephenson removed, and upon which he lived at the time of his death. His wife died in 1838; and one witness testifies that he sold a part of the land in suit in 1839 to one Hughes. No conveyance from this sale was offered in evidence; and the first conveyance of Stephenson to Morgan, one of the defendants, for 554 acres, was dated 5th January, 1847; a second conveyance, for another tract, to the same defendant, for 115 1/2 acres, was dated February 25th, 1849; and a third, for one hundred and ten acres, was dated February 15th, 1851. It was in proof that Morgan went into possession about 1844. The deed to the other defendant, Guyton, was for 289 acres, dated June 10th, 1851. There was no proof of possession by Guyton.

This suit was commenced 5th February, 1856.

Under the plea in defense, that the father of the plaintiffs had conveyed these lands with covenants of warranty, and that the plaintiffs had been advanced and had inherited property from his estate, exceeding in value their interests in the land claimed in this suit, it was shown that Stephenson at the death of his wife owned several tracts of land, one of which he afterwards sold; that he was not an energetic,...