Cochrane v. Wilson
Cochrane v. Wilson
Opinion of the Court
E. B. Wilson, residuary legatee under the will of Jesse O’Bryant, deceased, brought this suit against Joseph Cochrane, Paul Bankett, and Camilla Bank-ett to recover upon eight promissory notes executed by Joseph Cochrane to Jesse O’Bryant, aggregating $1,400, with interest thereon from January 1, 1908, and for foreclosure of a vendor’s lien upon 50 acres of land, part of the William Harvey league in Austin county, by which the notes were secured. Defendant Joseph Ooehrane answered, and among other things alleged that he was a married man and the head of a family; that the 50 acres of land mentioned in plaintiff’s petition was his homestead, and had been continuously occupied by him and bis family ever since he bought the land in 1871, and that he was still occupying the same as his homestead; that in 1879 he was sued and judgment obtained against him upon a note executed by him in 1874, payable to one Motley in payment for rent due said Motley, and that Jesse. O’Bryant, stepfather and testator of E. B. Wilson, the plaintiff, became the owner of said judgment, and that on or about September 26, 1879, tbe defendant and bis wife executed a mortgage in tbe form of a deed of their said homestead to said Jesse O’Bryant to secure the payment of said judgment; that he continued occupying said homestead and paying taxes thereon; that on July 23, 1893, said *532 Jesse O’Bryant reconveyed said land to defendant, reserving the vendor’s lien thereon to secure the payment of $1,400. Plaintiff thereupon filed his first supplemental petition, alleging that Jesse O’Bryant was the ¡holder of the original vendor’s lien note in the sum of $556 executed by Joseph' Coch-rane to P. M. Cuny on January 19, 1871, in payment for the land, and that, being unable to pay said note, the said Cochrane transferred the land to O’Bryant in consideration of the cancellation and surrender of said vendor’s lien note; and that thereafter, on July 22, 1893, the said O’Bryant, for and in consideration of $1,400 secured by a lien on the land, conveyed the same to Cochrane. To this the defendant by his first supplemental answer replied that in 1873 he paid the full amount of the original vendor’s lien note to James Cochrane, the then holder of same, and that from the year 1879 to the year 1908 he paid Jesse O’Bryant and plaintiff Wilson $100 to $150 per year on his indebtedness. The case was tried by the court without a jury, and resulted in a judgment for plaintiff for $1,624, the aggregate of the principal and interest of the notes sued on, and against all of the defendants foreclosing the vendor’s lien on the land in question, and from this judgment the defendant Joseph Cochrane has prosecuted a writ of error to this court.
On the coming In of plaintiff’s supplemental petition, defendant moved for a continuance of the case on the ground of surprise, and upon the refusal of the court to grant the continuance he bases his first assignment of error, which is as follows: “The court erred in overruling defendant’s motion for a continuance after plaintiff had filed, immediately before announcement of ready for trial, his first supplemental petition, setting up new matter and presenting an entirely new cause of action, as presented hy defendant’s bill of exception No. 1, in this, to wit: Plaintiff, in his original petition, based his cause of action upon certain vendor's lien notes alleged to have been executed by Joseph Cochrane about July 22, 1893, amounting to $1,400, with interest; while in his first supplemental petition, plaintiff says that on or about the 19th of January, 1871, M. P. Cuny and wife conveyed the land in question to Joseph Cochrane for $556, reserving vendor’s lien note for said amount, which note, in due course of trade, passed into the hands of Jesse O’Bryant, after which Joseph Cochrane conveyed said land to Jesse O’Bryant in consideration of the cancellation of said notes. Thereafter, on the 22d of July, 1893, Jesse O’Bryant re-conveyed said land to Joseph Cochrane, reserving the vendor’s lien notes sued upon.’’
i here is no merit in the third and fourth assignments. As has been before shown, it is conclusive that plaintiff’s suit was upon the notes executed by defendant to Jesse O’Bryant in 1893, and not upon the note executed by defendant to Ouny in 1871.
We have carefully examined appellant’s fifth assignment, and have concluded that it is without merit, and it is overruled. The judgment of the court below is affirmed.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.