Thompson v. Crim, 2210-7257.

• Decision Date: 22 March 1939
• Docket Number: No. 2210-7257.,2210-7257.
• Citation: 126 S.W.2d 18
• Parties: THOMPSON et al. v. CRIM et al.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

126 S.W.2d 18

THOMPSON et al. v. CRIM et al.

No. 2210-7257.

Commission of Appeals of Texas, Section A.

March 22, 1939.

Error to Court of Civil Appeals of Sixth Supreme Judicial District.

Action by J. M. Crim, Sallie Bell Hammer, and others against Mrs. Maude Thompson and others. Judgment for the last-named plaintiff was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals, 103 S.W.2d 855, and defendants bring error.

Judgment of Court of Civil Appeals affirmed.

Ramey, Calhoun & Marsh, of Tyler, for plaintiffs in error.

R. T. Jones, of Henderson, and McEntire, James & Shank, of Tyler, for defendants in error.

GERMAN, Commissioner.

This suit was instituted in the District Court of Rusk County by a number of parties, including Mrs. Sallie Bell Hammer, joined by her husband. Mrs. Hammer is now the only plaintiff remaining in the suit, and she will be designated herein as plaintiff. She recovered in the district court an undivided 1/9 interest in a certain 81 acre tract of land in Rusk County, and the judgment of the trial court was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals. 103 S.W.2d 855.

When Mrs. Hammer was thirteen months of age her mother died. Her father had died a short time before. Upon the death of her mother she inherited the 1/9 interest in the 81 acres of land. Shortly thereafter L. B. Thompson qualified as guardian of plaintiff and several of her brothers and sisters. On May 4, 1916, in pursuance of orders theretofore obtained from the probate court, the guardian conveyed to W. B. Thompson the 81 acres of land, a part of which is in controversy here. The consideration for this conveyance was 77 acres of land conveyed to the guardian by W. B. Thompson in exchange, both tracts being valued at $1000 each. The deed by W. B. Thompson and wife to L. B. Thompson, guardian, contains the following recital:

"Know All Men by These Presents: That we, W. B. Thompson and wife Maude Thompson of the County of Rusk, State of Texas, for and in consideration of the sum of One Thousand ($1000.00) Dollars to us paid, and secured to be paid by L. B. Thompson, Guardian of the persons and estate of Ora Thompson, Bernice Thompson, Mary Thompson, Jennie Lee Thompson, Grant Thompson, J. B. Thompson, Rastus Thompson, Homer Thompson, and Sallie Bell Thompson, Minors as follows: The exchange of deeds to the hereafter described real estate belonging to us to L. B. Thompson, guardian as aforesaid for the real estate deeded to W. B. Thompson on this day by said Guardian fully described in said Guardian's deed and which said real estate herein conveyed by us to said Guardian is valued at $1000.00, have granted, sold and conveyed * * *."

Plaintiff at the time of this exchange was two or three years of age. She was then living with her guardian and continued to live with him until she was about seven years of age. She then lived with relatives until she was fourteen years old. Shortly after becoming fourteen years of age she married. Within two years after her marriage she sold an undivided interest in the 77 acres to Lonnie Barber for $167.50. The only proof of such sale is her own testimony, as no deed is shown in the record. There is nothing to show that her husband joined in such sale, but we will assume that he did.

It seems to be undisputed that at the time plaintiff made the sale to Barber of an interest in the 77 acre tract she knew nothing about such tract having been conveyed to her former guardian in exchange for the 81 acres in which she had an inheritance, and she had no actual knowledge that she had any interest in the 81 acres which had been exchanged to W. B. Thompson. It is claimed that the recitals in the deed executed by Thompson, and which are set out above, were sufficient to give her knowledge. Under the view we take of the case this becomes immaterial.

In 1931 plaintiff and her husband executed a quitclaim deed to Mrs. Bell Thompson, one of the plaintiffs in error, of all her right, title and interest in the 81 acres. The jury found that at the time she executed this deed she did not know and had no information that the 81 acres was land which her guardian had deeded to W. B. Thompson in exchange for the 77 acre tract. Apparently upon this finding the quitclaim deed went out of the picture entirely because only two propositions are presented in this court in application for writ of error, and they summarize the substance of all propositions in the Court of Civil Appeals. The plaintiffs in error, who are claiming the 81 acres under the guardian's deed, seek to uphold said deed upon the grounds of ratification and estoppel, as is more fully shown by their two propositions as follows:

"Proposition First. Where a guardian, purporting to act for his ward, takes a deed in her behalf which, on its face, recites the consideration therefor to be the exchange of lands belonging to the ward, and places the deed of record; and the ward, upon removal of the disability of minority, sells the land so received in the exchange, her title thereto being referable alone to the deed made to her guardian, she is estopped to deny the validity of the exchange or to claim that at the time of the sale she did not know the facts or that she did not know her legal rights.

"Proposition Second. Recitations in a deed showing that the consideration therefor is the exchange of lands charge a person claiming title to the land under the deed with a knowledge of such facts, and a sale of said land, the claim of title being referable alone thereto, amounts to a ratification of the entire transaction and estops the person so dealing with the land from claiming that she did not have knowledge of the facts or that she did not intend by the sale of the land to ratify the transaction in which it was acquired."

It appears to be admitted that the deed by the guardian conveying the 81 acres to W. B. Thompson was void because the probate court had no jurisdiction to authorize an exchange of lands. This was the holding of the Court of Civil Appeals and is not questioned here. This being true, the title of plaintiff to her undivided interest in the 81 acres did not pass. The guardianship terminated by her marriage, or before by the death of the guardian, and she became fully vested in her own right with the title to her undivided interest in the 81 acres. She lost her minority by marriage, but at the same time took on the disabilities imposed by law upon a married woman as regards her separate estate in lands. We do not have here, therefore, the question of a minor, after attaining majority, confirming or ratifying an act of a guardian, but we have purely and simply the question of a married woman disposing of her separate...