Rule v. Richards
Rule v. Richards
Opinion of the Court
On April 14, 1910, the ap-pellee, T. J.. Richards, sued Johnnie Floyce Rule, appellant, to remove cloud from 27 town lots in the town of Paducah, Cottle county, in which he sets out his title specifically about as follows: First. Patent to R. Potts, dated September 20, 1893. Second. Warranty deed from R. Potts to R. E. Avent November 2, 1893, recorded April 4, 1894. Third. Judgment for debt, foreclosing attachment lien on the lots in question in a suit against R. E. Avent by S. B. Harwell, attachment levied on the property the 11th day of June, 1894. Fourth. Sheriff’s deed, reciting therein a sale, by virtue of an order of sale issued on said judgment, dated January 23, 1895, and filed for record January 30, 1895. Fifth. Warranty deed from S. B. Harwell and wife, N. A. Harwell to T. J. Richards, dated February 11, 1909, filed for record March 16, 1909. The appellee also pleaded three, five, and ten years’ statutes of limita *387 tions, and further alleges: “Plaintiff will further show to the court that the defendant’s claim to said land and premises herein-above described is founded upon the following instruments, to wit: (a) Deed from R. E. Avent to J. H. Rule, dated December 18,1893, filed for record July 14, 1894, recorded in volume 6, p. 38, deed records of Cottle county, Tex.; (b) quitclaim deed from Mrs. Mary Rule, widow of J. H. Rule, to Johnnie Floyce Rule, dated June 2, 1910, filed for record June 13, 1910, and recorded in volume 18, p. 200, deed records of Cottle county, Tex. Fifth. This plaintiff will further represent to the court that the defendant is setting up some claim of title to the above-described lots and premises under and by virtue of said instruments, notwithstanding your plaintiff, by reason of the premises and matters herein set forth, is vested with full and complete fee-simple title to said land and premises and all the right, title, and interest that the defendant or those under whom he claims ever had, if any, in said land and premises has long since been divested out of defendant and those under whom she claims and is now vested in this plaintiff; that said instruments last mentioned and claims of the defendant thereunder operate as a cloud on the title of this plaintiff to said lands ana premises, which your plaintiff is entitled to have removed.” The petition closes with a prayer to remove the cloud and to recover the lots in question.
The appellant answered by general exception, general denial, plea of not guilty, and pleaded the title of appellant is as alleged, except that it consisted in part of a certain bond for title, executed May 19, 1893, by R. A. Avent to J. H. Rule, filed for record May 23, 1893, and recorded May 24, 1893, in the deed records of Cottle county. The court overruled the appellant’s general exceptions and after trial rendered judgment for appel-lee, vesting the title in appellee to the lots and removing the cloud created by the instruments set out in appellee’s petition.
The appellant, by the first assignment, alleges error in the action of the trial court in overruling the appellant’s general exception to the petition, and by the second assignment that the court erred in admitting in evidence the testimony of S. B. Harwell to the effect that he did not have notice or knowledge that any person other than R. E. Avent owned or claimed any interest in or to the lots in question at the time he instituted suit against R. E. Avent, and at the time he had the attachment levied upon the property. Appellee objected to the testimony because it was immaterial, irrelevant, and incompetent. S. B. Harwell was the plaintiff in the suit against R. E. Avent in the justice court, precinct No. 1, Cottle county, in which attachment was issued and levied on the lots in question and foreclosed by the judgment of that court. The grounds in part of the appellant’s exception and objection appears to be that it was incumbent on appellee to allege and prove that Harwell, when the land was levied on, did not have notice of appellant’s claim to the lots. The petition did not allege the want of notice on the part of Harwfell when the levy was made upon the lots.
In the case of Barnett v. Squyres, supra, the Supreme Court said: “The decisions of this court have determined the rule to be otherwise, placing the burden upon the person asserting right under unrecorded instruments to show notice to the creditor prior to the acquisition of the lien.”
Under the authority of the Supreme Court, we now hold the burden was not on appellee to allege and prove want of notice to S. B. Harwell, but that burden was on appellant, and on that point the first and second assignments are overruled. We will, however, consider the general exceptions in the further discussion of the case.
R. E. Avent is the common source of title. On the 5th day of October, 1894, S. B. Harwell obtained judgment against R. E. Avent in the justice court, precinct No. 1, Oottle county, Tex., by default in the sum of $164.30, and reciting therein the foreclosure of an attachment lien which was levied on the lots in question with others on the 11th day of June, 1894. Plaintiff introduced in evidence certified copy of the attachment records of Cottle county, Tex., Book 1, p. 7, as follows: “S. B. Harwell against R. E. Avent, amount of debt, $164.33, justice court 1, Cottle county, June 9, 1894. Return of Officer: Came to hand on this the 31th day of June, A. D. 1894, and executed on this the 11th day of June, A. D. 1894, at 4 o’clock p. m., by levying upon and taking into my possession the property of the within-named defendant, R. E. Avent, all of the following described property, situated in the town of Paducah, county of Cottle, state of Texas.” Then follows the description of lots.
Appellee next introduced a sheriff’s deed to Mrs. N. A. Harwell, conveying the lots, reciting that the sum of $50 was bid on the same and paid to the sheriff by Mrs. N. A. Harwell, reciting that the sale had been made by virtue of an order of sale, issued out of the justice court in the above case, which deed is dated January 23, 1895, and recorded January 30, 1895. A deed from S. B. Harwell and wife, N. A. Harwell, to T. J. Richards, conveying the lots for the recited consideration of $200, dated the 11th day of February, 1909, and properly recorded. The evidence shows that the papers in the case of Harwell v. Avent were lost and could not be found in the justice court’s office. It is further shown that the execution docket of said court had no entry showing that an execution or order of sale was issued and entered upon such docket, or entry showing a return on it of any execution or order of sale. There is no oral testimony either from the justice of the peace, sheriff, or any one else that the execution or order of sale issued. In fact, the only evidence of such writ is that contained in the sheriff’s deed.
Appellant suggests fundamental error in the rendition of the judgment by their reply brief, because no execution or return of the sheriff thereon showing the sale of the lots was introduced in evidence, and by the third assignment of error suggests the insufficiency of the evidence, apparently upon other grounds than that mentioned in the reply brief.
In addition to the instruments set out in appellee’s petition as being a cloud upon ap-pellee’s title and under which appellant claims, appellant offered in evidence a bond for title covering the land in question from B. E. Avent to J. H. Rule, dated the 19th day of May, 1893. The acknowledgment to the instrument is as follows: “State of Mississippi, County of Sunflower. Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared B. E. Avent, who acknowledged signing the foregoing instru-, ment for the purposes and consideration therein expressed. Signed and delivered the 19th day of-, A. D. 1893. U. D. Link, Justice of the Peace, Sunflower county, Mississippi.”
In Howard v. North, supra, it is said: “The statute directs the sheriff, after sale has been made and the terms complied with, to execute and deliver a conveyance to the-purchaser, but does not prescribe the facts which shall be stated in the deed, or that the authority under which the sheriff acted shall be recited. The recital in the deed is not made by the statute, nor is it on general principles of law a substantial and efficient part of it, nor is it evidence of the facts recited in it, except between the immediate parties to it. * * * The usage of incorporating in the sheriff’s deed a recital of the authority under which he sold was commended as productive of great convenience, as well to the sheriff as to the purchaser. It would point the former to his authority to sell and would facilitate the latter in deriving his title; but it was held to be not indispensable. The recital of the power to sell and convey did not give the right, nor was it evidence of the right”
In Wofford v. McKinna, 23 Tex., supra, the court said: “A sheriff’s deed is inoperative without proof of the power to sell. It is no evidence of title without the introduction of the judgment or execution.”
In the case of Leland v. Wilson, 34 Tex., supra, it is said: “A sheriff, by the recitals in his deed, cannot bind a party whose land he may have improperly sold; the recitals are to be regarded only as inducement. Howard v. North, 5 Tex. 290, 51 Am. Dec. 769; Jackson v. Pratt, 10 Johns. (N. Y.) 381. The maxim, ‘Omnia prsesumuntur recte,’ is only applicable to the record of judicial proceedings, and is not to be applied to the exercise of ministerial functions. In the ease of Jackson v. Roberts, Ex’rs, 11 Wend. (N. Y.) 433, the court says: ‘We may well inquire whether a sheriff has power to make evidence in favor of his own acts against others, which shall be conclusive against their rights. If it is evidence against a stranger, of what is it evidence? Of all the facts necessary to make out the grantee’s title, or part only? If the former, it must be evidence of judgment and execution and of the debtor’s title to the premises; yet it is well settled that it is not evidence of these things, hut they must he proved, aliunde. The shériff sets forth in his deed that he sold, by virtue of an execution, the property of the defendant in that suit. If his dictum is conclusive evidence of this, I can conceive of no safeguard against sales on pretended or forged executions.’ ”
The sheriff’s deed is not necessary in proving title. The essential prerequisites of title is the valid judgment and execution. The deed is but the ministerial act of the officer executing it. It proves nothing but the sale. If he should misdescribe the judgment or execution, it would not affect the title to the land sold, or in fact, if no deed was made, the sale under execution would be sufficient to pass the title without a deed. It may well be doubted whether the recitation in the deed of the sale of land can be used as evidence, binding those who are not the immediate parties thereto. In this case, there being no allegation that an execution was issued and levied upon the lots by virtue of which they were sold, and there being no evidence in the record that an order of sale or execution was in fact issued on the judgment, there is no power shown in the sheriff to make the deed, and without such power his deed would be ineffectual and of no validity. The records of the justice court, if they prove anything, prove the execution or order of sale did not issue. There is no entry of the issuance of any such writ on the execution docket. We therefore conclude the court was in error in holding that appellee proved title and in rendering judgment for him for the lots and in canceling the instruments by which he alleges appellant claims some interest in the land.
This case having been heretofore appealed and is now before this court without any change in the allegations of the petition as to title, we believe, under the evidence adduced, it should be reversed and here rendered, and it is accordingly so ordered.
Reference
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