Strayhorn v. Jones

• Decision Date: 05 March 1956
• Docket Number: No. 6432,6432
• Citation: 289 S.W.2d 321
• Parties: J. R. STRAYHORN et al., Appellants, v. Ruth Leggett JONES et al., Appellees.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 321

289 S.W.2d 321

J. R. STRAYHORN et al., Appellants, v. Ruth Leggett JONES et al., Appellees.

No. 6432.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Amarillo.

March 5, 1956.

Rehearing Denied April 16, 1956.

McMahon, Springer, Smart & Walter, Sayles & Sayles, Abilene, Adkins, Folley, McConnell & Hankins, Amarillo, Lester Whipple, Robert Hausser, Josephine F. Verain, San Antonio, John Ben Shepperd, Atty. Gen., J. A. Amis, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., and A. T. Mullins, Austin, for appellants.

Wagstaff, Harwell, Alvis & Pope, Childers & Childers, Abilene, Vinson, Elkins, Weems & Searls, Tarlton Morrow, Ben H. Rice, III, Fountain, Cox & Gaines, Willard B. Wagner, Williams, Lee & Kennerly, Willard B. Wagner, Jr., Andrews, Kurth, Campbell & Bradley, W. M. Streetman, Richard F. Burns, Houston, Robert H. Dedman, Shank, Dedman & Payne, Dallas, Harry R. Dippel, Fort Worth, Stubbeman, McRae & Sealy, W. B. Browder, Midland, Ratliff, Conner & Walker, Spur, Morris G. Watson, Roby, for appellees.

MARTIN, Justice.

This cause of action was a suit in trespass to try title as filed by appellees. The lands, and minerals thereunder, in issue are located in Sections One, Three and Five of the original John Rodman Survey in Kent County, Texas in what is commonly known as the Salt Creek Oil Field. Title to the three tracts in the Rodman Survey passed regularly to D. R. Kendall who conveyed the same to W. W. Barron who conveyed the land in Sections Three and Five, North and West of the Salt Fork of Brazos River to J. A. Price on August 1, 1924; the land in Sections Three and Five south of the river to A. Wood on November 29, 1924; the land in the South half of Section One west of the river to R. G. Maben, Jr., on February 26, 1925; and thereafter on April 5, 1932, under a fore closure of lien as against W. W. Barron by the Chicago Livestock Loan Company, a receiver's deed was executed to said company to Section Five and other lands east of the river which lands were later conveyed to Percy Jones as Independent Executor of the Morgan Jones Estate. J. A. Price conveyed to Stewart under whom Texas Gulf Producing Company holds as lessee; A. Wood's title has passed to Mrs. Maggie Wood, Horace Wood, Lamar Hunt and the Superior Oil Company. The Jones Estate title has passed in part into Continental Oil Company and General Crude Oil Company, lessees.

Appellee's cause of action against appellants, designated as Strayhorn and Springer herein, is a suit in trespass to try title as to Sections One, Three and Five but the title in issue is solely as to the river bed of the Salt Fork of Brazos River traversing such sections and minerals therein and to small strips and gores of land along each river bank and to a tract of land consisting of approximately 12.20 acres lying in Sections One and Three east of the river. The State of Texas as intervenor in the suit seeks to recover an alleged excess of acreage in the river bed as located in each of the three sections of land. It is the State's contention that in John Rodman's Surveys One, Three and Five there is an acreage in excess of the 640 acres patented in each section to the extent of at least 19.09 acres in Survey One, 18.88 acres in Survey Three and 19.32 acres in Survey Five. It is appellants' contention that they own by quitclaim deeds from W. W. Barron and the Chicago Livestock Loan Company all of the river bed of the Salt Fork of Brazos River and minerals therein as well as small strips and gores of land along each bank of the river bed and all that part of Sections One and Three east of the river. Appellants' reply brief in discussing the issues in this Court assumes appellants' complete ownership of the Salt Fork of Brazos River. However, ownership of title to the river bed and minerals therein is one of the principal issues to be adjudicated here.

Certain principles and issues concerning the overall litigation will be dispensed with prior to determination of the various issues as to the respective tracts. The names of all the litigants and their many contentions as expressed under their various points and counter-points will not be repeated here as such would unnecessarily lengthen the opinion without adding any legal value thereto. A map of Sections One, Three and Five of the John Rodman survey of thirteen sections is incorporated in this opinion to more fully clarify the lands in issue and such tracts will be referred to herein by section numbers and also by the names inserted thereon indicating ownership.

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

All Jones interests will be referred to as Jones Estate. The rulings hereinafter made by the Court with reference to title to the lands in issue will constitute a disposition of all points and counter-points.

The jury issues, insofar as any points of appellants may question the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the same, are found to be sustained by the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence in the cause. Appellees in the cause must recover on the strength of their own title and not upon any weakness in the title of the appellant. The parties stipulated that the Salt Fork of Brazos River traversing the lands in issue is a statutory navigable stream.

Appellant's first and major contention is that various rulings made in litigation concerning whether the State of Texas or the Town of Refugio owned title to the river bed of the Mission River, as a matter of law, vested title to the bed of the Salt Fork of Brazos River and minerals therein in W. W. Barron as an assignee of the patentee or awardee of the lands here in issue. None of the briefs filed by appellants reveal any reason why W. W. Barron was selected by appellants to become vested with title to such river bed of the Salt Fork of Brazos River as the assignee of the patentee instead of some assignee of the patentee who was either prior or subsequent to W. W. Barron in the chain of title other than the fact that appellants obtained a quitclaim deed from W. W. Barron. Such contention of appellants wholly overlooks the fact that they are likewise claiming the lands and minerals in issue under a quitclaim deed from Chicago Livestock Loan Company. The cases cited by appellants in support of their theory above stated, that the river bed and minerals therein had become vested in W. W. Barron as a matter of law, of which cases Heard v. Town of Refugio, 129 Tex. 349, 103 S.W.2d 728 by the Supreme Court is the most illustrative, do not vest title to the river bed or minerals therein in W. W. Barron as asserted by appellants. Nor do such cases assert any legal principle that vests title to the river bed or minerals therein in the Chicago Livestock Loan Company under the facts here in issue.

An examination of the above cited case as principally relied upon by appellants, Heard v. Town of Refugio, supra, reveals that the controversy in such cause was principally between the State of Texas and the Town of Refugio. Since appellants assert that the above cause vests title to the river bed and the minerals therein, it is not revealed in their appellate briefs how appellants escape the ruling made by the Supreme Court in said opinion, 103 S.W.2d 734 (7):

'The Small Bill became effective March 3, 1929. The deeds by which the Town of Refugio in the years 1848 to 1852 conveyed the farm lots adjoining the river to those under whom plaintiffs in error hold conveyed no part of the bed of the river, because the river bed was then owned by the state. Since the Small Bill was enacted less than ten years ago, plaintiffs in error have not acquired by adverse possession the title that may have passed to the Town of Refugio under that law.'

It is beyond controversy in the cause here in issue that at the time appellants acquired their quitclaim deeds in 1948 and 1950, under which they claim title to the lands in controversy, the Small Bill had been enacted more than ten years and the lands here in issue in possession of the respective appellees for periods of time ranging from approximately twelve to twenty-five years. But, the controversy in the Refugio case principally concerns the rights of town in a navigable stream within its boundaries as contra to the rights of the State in such stream. Nor is a limitation period required to vest title to the river bed or minerals therein under the Small Bill. The ruling in the decisions concerning the Town of Refugio do not constitute a ruling upon the rights of the individuals here in issue.

This Court reviewed in detail the theory of the gradient boundary in Johnson v Phillips Petroleum Co., Tex.Civ.App., 257 S.W.2d 813, and a repetition of such theory in this opinion is unnecessary. The great weight and preponderance of the evidence supports the jury finding that the Salt Fork of Brazos River lies on the ground as shown by the survey of Colonel Stiles and Will Rounds as shown in Plaintiff's Exhibit No. 74. On this issue, it is noted that appellants assert that appellees failed to tie their gradient boundary to Sections One, Three and Five of the John Rodman Survey. There is no merit to this contention as it is a reasonable assumption that appellants will concede that the gradient boundary which they sought to establish by their surveyor, Simpson, was adequately tied to Sections One, Three and Five of the John Rodman Survey. Appellants admit in their brief:

'There is a vertical distance of 9/10ths of one foot between Rounds' gradient boundary and Simpson's gradient boundary, Simpson's being 9/10ths of one foot higher than Rounds'.'

Thus it is readily apparent from appellants' own brief that if their gradient boundary as allegedly established by Simpson is adequately tied into Sections One, Three and Five, John Rodman Survey, then Rounds' gradient boundary is likewise tied into such sections as established by appellants' own admission.

As to all the lands in issue, including the river bed, it is here ruled that the Small Bill...