McKnight v. McKnight

• Decision Date: 19 January 1910
• Parties: McKNIGHT v. McKNIGHT.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

124 S.W. 734

McKNIGHT v. McKNIGHT.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

January 19, 1910.

Error from District Court, Bexar County; Arthur W. Seeligson, Judge.

Action by R. A. McKnight against John McKnight and another, in which Mrs. Cornelia Mitchell intervened. There was a judgment denying relief, and plaintiff brings error, making John McKnight defendant in error. Dismissed.

Salliway & McAskill, for plaintiff in error. Geo. R. Gillette, for defendant in error.

NEILL, J.

This suit was brought by plaintiff in error, hereinafter called plaintiff, against John McKnight and his wife, Mary E. McKnight, in the ordinary form of an action of trespass to try title to certain lots of land situated in the city of San Antonio, Tex., designated as lots Nos. 50, 51, and 52 in block 14, city block No. 1,600, on the corner of Cooper and Gevers streets, and are further designated in plaintiff's petition as the "same lots sold and conveyed by Mrs. Alice E. Moore and A. J. Moore, her husband, to Mrs. Sarah E. McKnight on December 31, 1900, by deed recorded in volume 226, page 355, of the Records of Deeds of Bexar County," which deed is alleged to be the common source of title under which plaintiffs and defendants claim title to the property.

Mrs. Cornelia Mitchell intervened in the case, and in her petition of intervention alleged that she is the legal and equitable owner and holder of the land described in plaintiff's petition; that such land was the separate property of the estate of Mrs. Sarah E. McKnight, who died intestate, leaving as her only heir her son, R. A. McKnight, the plaintiff in this suit; that thereafter intervener acquired by purchase at execution sale all the right, title, and interest of said R. A. McKnight to said land, and that defendants, nor either of them, have any right, title, or interest whatever in the land; that on November 1, 1907, intervener agreed to sell all the land to plaintiff for the sum of $625 and costs of sheriff's sale, amounting to $25 or $30; that she ratifies and confirms said agreement, adopts the pleadings of plaintiff, and joins in his prayer for the recovery of the land, etc. The defendants pleaded not guilty to both plaintiff's and intervener's petitions.

The case was submitted for trial to the court, without a jury, which, on conclusions of fact and law found by the trial judge, on April 15, 1908, rendered the following judgment: "Now at this day coming on to be heard the above entitled and numbered cause, and the plaintiff appearing in person and by counsel, and the intervener appearing by her counsel of record, and the defendants also appearing by their counsel of record, and in person of John McKnight, and a jury having been waived and the matters at issue, as well of fact as of law, having been submitted to the court, and the court having heard the evidence and argument of counsel and being fully advised in the premises, being of the opinion that the property in controversy was the community homestead of defendant John McKnight, and his deceased first wife, Sarah E. McKnight, and that the plaintiff, R. A. McKnight, as her sole heir took upon her decease an...