Starkey v. H. O. Wooten Grocery Co.
Starkey v. H. O. Wooten Grocery Co.
Opinion of the Court
The appellee H. O. Wooten Grocery Company instituted this suit in the district court of Jones county against appellants in the ordinary form of trespass to try title to 160 acres of land. In the second count of the petition appellee specifically pleaded its title, alleging substantially that on November 5. 1906, appellee was a creditor of J. S. Starkey, the indebtedness being evidenced by a note, and on November 25th it instituted suit thereon, caused a writ of attachment to be issued, and levied on the land in controversy, and on January 23, 1908, recovered a judgment against J. S. Starkey for the amount claimed and for foreclosure of its attachment lien; that an order of sale was issued August 18, 1908, under which the land in controversy was sold, at which sale appellee became the purchaser; that J. S. Starkey was the owner of the land in controversy, and continued to be such owner up to the date of plaintiff’s purchase; that just prior to maturity of said note the said J. S. Starkey conveyed the land to 'L. D. Starkey and W. O. Starkey for a recited consideration of 85,000 cash, which it was alleged was in fraud of creditors of J. S. Starkey. There was a prayer for cancellation of the deed and judgment for the land. J. S. Starkey answered, disclaiming any interest in the land, and does not appeal from the judgment. Appellants W. O. and L. D. Starkey set up the defense of innocent purchaser for value and prayed for a cancellation of the sheriff’s deed, alleging it to be a cloud upon their title. A trial resulted in a verdict and judgment in favor of the appellee Grocer Company and against ap-pellee J. S. Starkey and appellants W. O. and L. D. Starkey, decreeing the title and possession of said land to appellee Grocer Company. Appellee introduced deeds showing title to the land in question to be in J. S. Starkey, also a deed from J. S. Starkey and wife to W. O. and L. D. Starkey, dated October 14, 1907, recorded the following day, which recited a cash consideration of $5,000 and the assumption by the vendees of the unpaid purchase money due the state of Texas. Proceedings in the attachment suit, together with the sheriff’s deed, conveying the land to appellee Grocer Company, were also introduced. Appellee Grocer Company then called appellee J. S. Starkey and the appellants L. D. Starkey and W. O. Starkey as its witnesses, and closed. Appellants in their own behalf introduced the deeds above mentioned and closed without the introduction of any oral testimony. Appellants requested a peremptory instruction, which was refused by the court. The case was submitted to the jury upon three special issues as follows; “(1) Did the defendants W. O. and L. D. Starkey at the time of the delivery to them by J. S. Starkey of the deed to the land in controversy actually pay the said J. S. Starkey the sum of $5,000 in cash? (2) Was the deed from J. S. Starkey and wife to the defendants L. D. and W. O. Starkey conveying the land in controversy executed with intent on the part of J. S. Starkey to hinder, delay, or defraud his creditors? (3) If you answer question No. 2 above in the affirmative, then did W. O. Starkey and L. D. Starkey know of such intent on the part of J. S. Starkey?” The jury answered the first question in the negative, the remaining two in the affirmative.
In Goree v. Goree, 22 Tex. Civ. App. 470, 54 S. W. 1036, Key, Justice, said: “We have carefully considered the entire record, and have reached the conclusion that there is no evidence that will support a finding that the defendant had any notice of the fact that W. T. Goree intended to abandon his wife, and not fulfill his promise to buy her another home at the time he bought the land and the deed was executed. The plaintiff made the defendant her witness, thereby vouching for his credibility (Paxton v. Boyce, 1 Tex. 325), and he testified that he had no knowledge of the contemplated abandonment un>til the day after the deed was executed, and no other witness testified to any fact or circumstance inconsistent with his testimony on that subject, nor was any circumstance shown which would have put a prudent man upon inquiry to ascertain if W. T. Goree intended to defraud the plaintiff” — and upheld the deed.
Our Supreme Court in Grand Fraternity v. Melton, 102 Tex. 399, 117 S. W. 788, said: “The judgment must stand unless the evidence establishes that the shooting was intentional to that degree of conclusiveness which precludes a reasonable doubt to the contrary; that there must be no room for fair and reasonable minds to reach different conclusions from the evidence. This is the rule that governs in this court. The jury were the judges of the credibility of the witnesses, but they had not the right to arbitrarily reject the evidence of an unim-peached witness against whom there was no discrediting fact or circumstance. Jewell and Pollock appear from the testimony to have been friends to Melton, and there is nothing to show that they bore any relation whatever to the fraternity that would justify suspicion against their truthfulness. The jury were the judges of the weight of the evidence, but they could not lawfully deny proper weight to undisputed facts with no suspicion cast upon them. If the jury had the power to discredit any and every witness and to disregard any and all facts, their verdicts could not be set aside by the judge nor reviewed by the appellate courts, yet the law enjoins it upon the courts to set verdicts aside when contrary to the evidence or the law.” The earliest case to which we have been cited bearing upon this question is that of Paxton v. Boyce, supra, involving the question of the fraudulent transfer of a slave, in which our Supreme Court said: “By a reference to the evidence contained in the statement of facts, it is very obvious that the plaintiff made an effort to prove that the purchase of the slave was made by the claimant with an intent to defeat and defraud him of his just debt, and with this view circumstantial evidence was given of a fraudulent intent on the part of the vendor. His declarations were proven conducive to that end, but not in the presence of the vendee, and, in attempting to bring home notice to the vendee of that intent by the vendor to make him a participator in the fraud, the only circumstance proven was that he lived a neighbor to the vendor. There was no proof of actual notice or participation in the supposed fraud, and, if there was proof at all, it was only by presumption and that not drawn from pregnant facts, but from a fair-fetched probability. It is an acknowledged rule of evidence that presumptions merely are not to *695 stand against unimpeached positive testimony. We find in tlie statement of facts that the plaintiff made a witness of the claimant of the property on the trial and propounded the interrogatory: ‘Did you know of the pendency of the suit?’ Its object was no doubt to prove a fact from which a reasonable conclusion could be drawn by the jury of his participation in the fraud of his vendor. His answer was an unequivocal denial. It is a rule of evidence that, when one party makes a witness of the other, he does it under the responsibility and condition that he thereby places him on the score of credibility beyond impeachment. He may prove the witness mistaken by proving the party to be otherwise, but he will not be allowed to impeach his credibility. The answer of the complainant destroyed the presumption arising from such circumstances as were proven. Fraud cannot be presumed. If it is proven by circumstantial evidence, the circumstances should be strong and pregnant, from which no other' reasonable conclusion could he drawn. When the above rules are applied to the evidence presented by the statement of facts, it will be seen that the verdict in the case under consideration is not only not supported by the weight of the evidence, but is contrary to some of the best-established rules governing testimony.”
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STARKEY Et Al. v. H. O. WOOTEN GROCERY CO. Et Al.
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- 21 cases
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- Published