Wilson v. Meredith, Clegg & Hunt, 4971

• Decision Date: 15 April 1954
• Docket Number: No. 4971,4971
• Citation: 268 S.W.2d 511
• Parties: WILSON et al. v. MEREDITH, CLEGG & HUNT et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 511

268 S.W.2d 511

WILSON et al. v. MEREDITH, CLEGG & HUNT et al.

No. 4971.

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, Beaumont.

April 15, 1954.

Rehearing Denied June 2, 1954.

Buchanan & Stover, Silsbee, for appellants.

Cecil, Keith & Mehaffey, James F. Parker, Beaumont, for appellees.

R. L. MURRAY, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment in the district court of Hardin County rendered upon an instructed verdict in behalf of the appellees, who were the defendants in the trial court. The suit was brought by the appellants in trespass to try title for a particular 160 acres of land in the Henry Binns League in Hardin County. Plaintiffs below pleaded a formal action of trespass to try title and also specially pleaded their title. They also pleaded various statutes of limitation but on appeal they do not contend that there was any evidence which sustained such pleas of limitation. The defendants below filed formal pleas of not guilty, various other pleas, and the several statutes of limitation. They also filed a plea of laches. In their brief on appeal appellees contend only, as to the various statutes of limitation, that the evidence sustained their plea under the 3-year statute of limitation. At the close of all the evidence both parties, plaintiffs and defendants, filed motions for instructed verdict. The plaintiffs below asked for an instructed verdict for title and possession of the entire 160 acres, and in the alternative for title and possession of an undivided onehalf interest in the 160 acre tract. This motion was overruled. The motion of defendants below was granted and judgment was rendered on such instructed verdict that the plaintiffs below take nothing in their suit against defendants below as to the land in controversy. Plaintiffs below have duly perfected their appeal to this court for review of the judgment.

The appellants bring their appeal under the following four points of error:

First Point

Accepting as true all the evidence in the case most favorable to plaintiffs, the court erred in granting defendants' motion for instructed verdict for the reason that the deed in defendants' chain of title from N. B. Hooks to Sarah E. Fuller was void, or if not void, became barred by laches.

Second Point

Accepting as true all the evidence in the case most favorable to plaintiffs, the trial court erred in granting defendants' motion for instructed verdict, for the reason that if any interest passed by the purported deed from N. B. Hooks to Sarah E. Fuller it was an equitable right to acquire title, or a quitclaim, and the defendants took with constructive notice of and hold subject to plaintiffs' one-half interest in the land in controversy.

Third Point

That trial court erred in overruling plaintiffs' motion for instructed verdict for all the land in controversy.

Fourth Point

Alternatively, the trial court erred in overruling plaintiffs' motion for instructed verdict for an undivided one-half interest in the land in controversy.

It was stipulated that the common source of title to the land involved in this lawsuit, as between plaintiffs and defendants, is John G. Woldert, sometime spelled Waldert.

By instrument dated April 18, 1881, J. G. Woldert executed an instrument to N. B. Hooks, which recited that 'in consideration of the sum of $1.00 to me paid the receipt of which is hereby acknowledged and the further consideration of his having lived on said land as tenant have this day granted, bargained, and sold and released unto N. B. Hooks of the County of Hardin and the State of Texas, 160 acres of land out of the Henry Binns League of land and described as follows, to be run in a square so as to include his entire improvements where he now resides together with all and singular the improvement hereditaments and appurtenances to the same belonging or in any wise incident or appertaining thereto.'

By instrument dated September 3, 1892, N. B. Hooks, in consideration of the sum of $160 to him paid, granted, sold and conveyed unto Sarah E. Fuller 'all that certain tract of land in Hardin County, Texas, to-wit:

'One hundred Sixty acres it being a part of a league of land originally granted to Henry Binns. The same to be in a square form and to include all the improvements occupied by me, the said N. B. Hooks, in 1881 and deeded by J. G. Woldert to N. B. Hooks, the 18th day of April, 1881, which said deed is hereby made a part of this conveyance.' This instrument contained words of general warranty in the usual form.

It was stipulated that the plaintiffs in this lawsuit are the heirs at law of Nick or N. B. Hooks, and are also the heirs at law of his first wife, Nancy Sheffield Hooks; that Nancy Sheffield Hooks died intestate on May 30, 1888, and that N. B. Hooks died intestate on September 19, 1912. Plaintiffs are suing for the interest which they acquired as heirs of N. B. Hooks and Nancy Sheffield Hooks.

The appellees claim under the above deed from N. B. Hooks to Sarah E. Fuller. All of the principal points of controversy in this litigation arise from the wording of the latter instrument, the deed from Hooks to Sarah E. Fuller.

The parties stipulated as follows:

'It is stipulated that the surrounding land on the east and on the south and on the west and on the north except as to what is designated on defendants' Exhibit No. 1, as the Pat Wolf 25 acres, of this 160 acres for many years has been owned by the Houston Oil Company of Texas and the American Production Corporation and before them, the Southwestern Settlement & Development Company, and that such ownership of such surrounding land was acquired under a regular chain of titl under John G. Woldert. That they have recognized the boundary lines of the 160 acres and their surveyors have put markers at the corners of the 160 acres involved in this lawsuit. It is further stipulated that the inception of the title to the land surrounding the 160 acres of land involved in this suit, had its inception in the deed from John G. Woldert to A. W. Carlisle, dated April 18, 1881, and recorded in Vol. J, Pages 159-160, of the Deed Records of Hardin County, Texas, and such deed is made a part of this stipulation, word for word.'

Such deed conveys the entire Binns League, save and except '160 acres deeded by me to N. B. Hooks to include his improvements' and other tracts not material to this discussion. The evidence seems to be undisputed that the land which N. B. Hooks selected out of the Binns League was the land for which plaintiffs below filed their suit and that the lines about said tract are now marked with a yellow painted line; that there was a marked line around the said N. B. Hooks tract in about 1884; that the improvements of N. B. Hooks on the property were inside that line; that he had a house and barn on the land and had about 15 or 20 acres of it under fence.

The field notes of a survey of 100 acres made for one Thomas Cravey on December 11, 1893 contains the following descriptive matter: 'Beginning at the N W cor of N. B. Hooks Sur. Pine brs. N 59 W 3.6 vrs.' The surveyor's certificate recites that 'the foregoing survey was actually made by me on the ground.'

From the marriage license records of Tyler County, Texas, it was shown that N. B. Hooks and Nancy Sheffield Hooks were married on August 11, 1865.

In evidence are three instruments dated in 1909 showing that J. M. Fuller acquired all the interest of Sarah E. Fuller in the 160 acre tract which she acquired from N. B. Hooks.

Also in evidence are the following deeds:

A deed from J. M. Fuller to Tom Cravey dated in 1908 conveying 'all that certain tract of land in Hardin County, Texas, to-wit: One hundred and sixty acres, it being part of the league of land originally granted to Henry Binns, the same to be in a square form and to include all improvements occupied by N. B. Hooks in 1881, and being the same tract of land deeded by J. G. Woldert to N. B. Hooks, April 18, 1881, which said deed is hereby made a part of this conveyance;'

Deed from T. C. Cravey to Campbell Baillie dated March 20, 1911 conveying the 160 acres of land out of the Henry Binns League in Hardin County; deed to Tom C. Cravey, (who is identical with T. C. Cravey) by J. M. Fuller on January 25, 1908;

Deed from Campbell Baillie to C. S. Jackson dated February 25, 1919, which deed contains the description by metes and bounds of the land sued for.

From the deed of Baillie to Jackson, dated February 25, 1919, down to the time of the filing of this lawsuit on October 14, 1952, a great number of conveyances to varied interests in the 160 acre tract were shown. Seven of such conveyances to different persons were made between such date and April 13, 1938. Beginning March 2, 1950 and continuing throughout 1950, 1951, and 1952 there were 48 conveyances of various mineral interests, royalty interests and pooling agreements and oil and mineral leases on the 160 acres in suit.

There seems to be no question that N. B. Hooks was in possession of the land when he got the deed from Woldert and that he made his selection and ran his lines on a 160 acre tract and that the lines which he laid out at that time are substantially the same as those of the tract in suit. It seems also to be undisputed that Sarah E. Fuller took possession of this same 160 acres under her deed from Hooks and lived there for some time, and that a pond or lake thereon was known as the Fuller pond; and that she had tenants on the place who farmed it for at least three years.

The land of the other owners of the remaining portion of the Henry Binns League not deeded by Woldert to Hooks is well marked by the owners of such other lands, who placed markers at the corners of the 160 acres of the tract selected by Hooks. The lines and corners of the Hooks tract, later known as the Fuller place, are well marked and have long been recognized by adjoining property owners.

From the year 1892 to the date of filing of this suit the appellees, and those...