Singleton v. Southwestern Settlement & Development Corp.

• Decision Date: 26 March 1959
• Docket Number: No. 6135,6135
• Parties: Ernest SINGLETON, Appellant, v. SOUTHWESTERN SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, Appellee.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 677

322 S.W.2d 677

Ernest SINGLETON, Appellant, v. SOUTHWESTERN SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION, Appellee.

No. 6135.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Beaumont.

March 26, 1959.

Houston Thompson, Silsbee, for appellant.

B. F. Whitworth, Jasper, for appellee.

ANDERSON, Chief Justice.

This is a suit in trespass to try title which involves 22.83 acres of land in Hardin County, a part of the L. de Leslie League, Abstract 35. It was instituted on January 13, 1956, by Southwestern Settlement and Development Corporation against Ernest Singleton, the appellant. Having acquired Southwestern's title, East Texas Pulp and Paper Company, with leave of the court, substituted itself as plaintiff during pendency of the suit and is now the appellee. Defendant Singleton answered by general denial, plea of not guilty, and a special plea of title by adverse possession under the ten-year statute of limitation, Article 5510, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes. By supplemental petition, the plaintiff pleaded, in substance, that by written instrument dated December 1, 1944, its predecessor in title, Southwestern Settlement and Development Corporation, contracted to sell the land in controversy to one Tyre Singleton, the defendant's brother; that said Tyre Singleton failed to make the payments called for by the contract; that notice of cancellation of the contract was given as therein provided; that final cancellation of the contract was effected; that the entry by defendant on the land in controversy was with permission of his brother Tyre Singleton; and that the possession of defendant prior to cancellation of the contract was not adverse possession. The cause was submitted to a jury on special issues, all of which were answered favorably to the plaintiff. The defendant made motion for judgment despite the verdict, but the motion was overruled. Judgment awarding the plaintiff title to and possession of the land was then rendered upon the verdict. His motion for a new trial having been overruled, the defendant appealed.

Appellant concedes that appellee proved itself the holder of record legal title to the land, but contends that equitable title to the land was conclusively shown to be in Tyre Singleton by virtue of the aforementioned contract and that appellee should therefore have been denied judgment. The contention is overruled. The evidence did not, in our opinion, prove Tyre Singleton to be the holder of equitable title; but assuming the contrary to be true, the record legal title, even if only held by appellee in trust for Tyre Singleton, was sufficient in the circumstances to support the judgment, since appellant does not purport to hold under his brother. Goode v. Jasper, 71 Tex. 48, 9 S.W. 132; 41-A Tex.Jur. 529--Trespass to Try Title, sec. 15.

Had findings favorable to appellant been made in response to the limitation issues, the evidence would perhaps support them, but we cannot concede that appellant conclusively proved a limitation title, or even that the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence clearly required that the limitation issues be answered in his favor. His claim that for more than ten years he kept the land fenced, the while pasturing livestock upon it, was not unopposed; but if possession and use for the requisite period of time are assumed, the jury was still at liberty under the evidence to conclude that the possession had not been adverse....