Paul v. Houston Oil Co. of Texas

• Decision Date: 01 April 1948
• Docket Number: No. 2769.,2769.
• Citation: 211 S.W.2d 345
• Parties: PAUL et al. v. HOUSTON OIL CO. OF TEXAS et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 345

211 S.W.2d 345

PAUL et al. v. HOUSTON OIL CO. OF TEXAS et al.

No. 2769.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Waco.

April 1, 1948.

Rehearing Denied April 29, 1948.

Appeal from District Court, San Patricio County; W. G. Gale, Judge.

Suit by Dwight H. Paul and others against the Houston Oil Company of Texas and others in trespass to try title to land and for accounting for rents and oil and gas produced therefrom or to recover damages, plus value of minerals produced, and establish a trust. From a judgment of dismissal, plaintiffs appeal.

Affirmed.

Sidney P. Chandler, of Austin, Birkhead, Beckmann, Stanard, Vance & Wood, of San Antonio, and W. Glendon Roberts, of Bandera, for appellants.

Blades, Chiles, Moore & Kennerly, L. E. Frazier, Jr., and Fred W. Moore, all of Houston, W. B. Moss, of Sinton, Kleberg, Eckhardt, Mobley & Roberts, and Keys, Holt & Head, all of Corpus Christi, Perkins & Floyd, of Alice, and Paul A. McDermott, of Fort Worth, for appellees.

TIREY, Justice.

This is a suit in trespass to try title to 113.27 acres of land in San Patricio county and for an accounting for rents and for oil and gas produced from the land. In the alternative plaintiffs sue for damages in the sum of $1,500,000, plus the value of the produced minerals, and to establish a trust. George H. Paul claimed a one-half interest in the matters involved; the other one-half is claimed by his sons, Dwight H. Paul and Maurice H. Paul.

The original suit (No. 5630 and the cause on appeal) was one for partition filed (February 2, 1942) by Dwight H. Paul and Maurice H. Paul, in which they alleged that they owned an undivided one-half interest in the above tract and defendants therein named owned the other undivided one-half interest (stating the interest of each), and plaintiffs asked for a partition and an accounting.

The pleadings of all the parties exceed 900 pages. After the pleadings had been amended many times and various counter-claims and cross-actions filed, the court entered an order of severance (dated November 21, 1945 but filed February 23, 1946), which provided in part:

"* * * that any and all other allegations in other parts of said pleadings of plaintiffs and cross-plaintiff, which pertain to their said action for accounting and their suit pertaining to other lands than those originally sued for in this action, are hereby stricken and shall not be considered by this court in this case, at the cost of plaintiffs and cross-plaintiff and this suit shall be limited to a suit for the title and possession of * * * (113.27 acres), or any part thereof, and the rents and revenues therefrom, including the minerals produced from said land and any waste, or damage incurred by virtue of any wrongful and unlawful possession, ouster from, occupancy of, or use of said lands, to which action of the court plaintiffs and cross-plaintiff then and there in open court excepted."

The Pauls excepted to the order of the court but did replead. On the 9th of May 1947, the court sustained many exceptions urged by defendants to the pleadings of the Pauls and granted the motion of defendants to dismiss plaintiffs' cause of action because plaintiffs had elected not to amend, and plaintiffs have appealed.

The first question that presents itself is: (1) Did the trial court err in ordering a severance of the counter-claims filed by the Pauls wherein they answered the cross-action and counter-claim filed against George H. Paul by the defendants Houston Oil Company of Texas and the Corpus Christi National Bank and limiting the Pauls' relief in this suit to such claims as they may establish to the 113.27 acre tract; and (2) did the trial court err in his order dated May 9, 1947 and entered June 2, 1947, in which the court found in effect that the Pauls had wholly failed to comply with his order of severance, and further found that the plaintiffs had plead their title specially and that such pleadings, including the plaintiffs' exhibits, show that plaintiffs do not have good title to the land in controversy and dismissed plaintiffs' cause of action. The finding of the court to the effect that plaintiffs had plead their title specially and that the same shows that plaintiffs do not have good title to the land in controversy is a conclusion of law. We think the foregoing points are controlling on this appeal.

In considering these points we must examine first the pleadings of the parties on file on November 21, 1945. In so doing, we must look first to the second amended original petition of Dwight and Maurice Paul, filed January 24, 1945, which pleading tendered the issue of (1) title to an undivided one-half interest in and to the 113.27 acre tract of land; and (2) for an accounting of the rents and revenues, and in this connection they alleged substantially that their net one-half interest for the oil and gas was the sum of $350,000, as of the date they filed such pleading on January 24, 1945, for legal interest and for one-half of the market value of all the oil produced by defendants subsequent to the filing of this pleading. They also alleged that defendants owned no interest in the 113.27 acre tract of land, and that the other one-half interest was owned by their father, George H. Paul. These issues were raised by a formal action in trespass to try title.

Because the Houston Oil Company and the Bank brought George H. Paul into the case on their respective cross-actions and injected the claims of George H. Paul and the right of said Oil Company and Bank to assert their defensive claims to the counter-claims of George H. Paul and their defenses against the claims of Dwight and Maurice Paul, we look next to the issues tendered by their pleadings. The pleading of the Houston Oil Company filed May 9, 1945, and refiled November 21, 1945, tendered the following issues: It interposed a general denial to the pleadings of the Pauls and a plea of not guilty; that it had no notice of any claim of the Pauls until January, 1942, and that George H. Paul had ratified and confirmed the deed of Fred H. Smith to the Bank and that it was an innocent purchaser of the property; the issue of estoppel based upon the deed dated July 15, 1913, executed by Fred H. Smith, attorney-in-fact for George H. Paul, which deed Paul ratified and confirmed by deed dated November 20, 1923, and that Paul and his sons made no claim to the property and gave no notice of their claims to the defendant or anyone else from March 2, 1918 until 1942; that the Pauls acquiesced in defendant's development and use of said property and allowed defendant to drill wells and place valuable improvements thereon and greatly enhance its value by producing oil and gas therefrom without giving any notice of their claim to defendant; that George H. Paul knew that his agent, Fred H. Smith, had conveyed the property to the Bank and Paul knew he had no interest therein at the time he executed the deed of 1923; that Fred H. Smith and other agents of Paul in Texas had conveyed all of Paul's interest in said real estate to meet Paul's obligations existing in Texas and that Paul had abandoned said property and recognized the fact that for a period of thirty years he had had no title. It further tendered the defenses of laches, stale demand and our three, four, five, ten and twenty-five year statutes of limitation, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. Arts. 5507, 5509, 5519, 5523a, 5527; that all of the claims of Dwight and Maurice Paul and their father for an accounting was barred by Art. 5526, Vernon's Ann. Civ. Stats.; that at the time of the execution of the deed of November 1923, Paul was acting as survivor of the community estate of himself and wife and was possessed of real and personal property sufficient to vest in his children one-half of the community estate owned by their mother at the time of her death, and George H. Paul effected an equitable partition by executing said confirmation deed in 1923 to the Bank, which vested in the Bank a good and sufficient title to the property; that at the time George H. Paul was a co-tenant with his sons and said confirmation deed did not injure or damage his co-tenants in anywise because George H. Paul had in his hands as survivor of the community a sufficient amount of property constituting a part of the community estate of himself and deceased wife so that said children did get their proper share or interest which they had inherited from their mother; that the value of the property remaining in the hands of George H. Paul, after the execution of the deed in 1923, was far in excess of the value of the property conveyed by said deed and any other property conveyed or transferred by George H. Paul "out of the community estate of himself and wife subsequent to her death in 1918 but prior to the execution of said deed in 1923."

The defendant Corpus Christi National Bank in its fourth amended original answer filed November 8, 1945 and refiled November 21, 1945, pertinent to this discussion tendered substantially all of the defensive issues alleged by the pleading of the Houston Oil Company. The Bank's pleading tendered this additional issue: That the deed executed and delivered by Fred H. Smith to the Bank in 1913 and the confirmation deed made by George H. Paul in 1923 were executed and delivered for the purpose of paying a lawful balance due on a community debt in an amount in excess of $31,000, which debt originally represented a loan made to George H. Paul by the Bank; that the obligation was a charge against the properties of George H. Paul and his wife at the time of the execution and delivery of the deed in 1913 and at the time of the execution of the deed in 1923; and at the time George H. Paul executed said confirmation deed he was acting as survivor of the community, discharging a community obligation, and that the community estate received full value and consideration for the conveyance, and that by reason thereof said conveyance cannot be set aside or...