Scarborough v. Blount
Scarborough v. Blount
Opinion of the Court
This is a suit for partition instituted by some of the heirs of Alfred Blount against others of such heirs. The land sought to be divided consisted of two tracts of land adjoining, and containing in the aggregate 242% acres. P. E. Scarborough intervened, claiming that he was the owner by purchase and conveyance from William Blount, one of the heirs, of his interest as such heir, and that he was also the owner of an undivided 42% a'cres of said land which had been conveyed by Alfred Blount to William Blount in his lifetime, and which had been conveyed by William Blount to him. M. E. McFarlane also came in claiming an interest. To this petition in intervention, both plaintiffs and defendants answered, alleging that William Blount never at any time claimed any interest in said land under said deed from Alfred Blount to him; that the land so conveyed was in fact held in trust by William Blount for Alfred Blount; and that these facts were well known to said Scarborough at the time of, and prior to, the execution of said deed. It was further alleged that the price paid by Scarborough was grossly inadequate for the. 42% acres in addition to the grantor’s interest as one of the heirs, and that William Blount is an ignorant negro, unable to read or write, and understood and thought that he was only conveying his interest as one of the heirs. Upon trial without a jury, the court held that the deed from William Blount to Scarborough only conveyed the interest of the grantor, as one of the heirs; that the deed for the 42% acres was executed in order to save the same from a creditor of Alfred Blount, and was not intended to convey the land; that William Blount never at any time claimed any interest under the deed; and that the intervener was only entitled to the interest of William Blount as one of the heirs in the 242% acres. The court proceeded on this basis to establish and declare the respective interests of the parties, and appoint commissioners to make partition in accordance therewith. From so much of the judgment against him as decrees that he is not entitled to the 42% acres, the intervener, Scarborough, appeals.
It is well settled that, as against Alfred Blount, the deed from him to William conveyed the land embraced in it, and that he would not have been allowed to impeach its legal effect on the ground that there was no consideration for its execution, and that William was not to take the beneficial title, but only to hold the land in trust for him, if, as is here shown, the purpose of its execution was to defraud his creditors. Epperson v. Young, 8 Tex. 136; McClenny v. Floyd, 10 Tex. 166; Robinson v. Martel, 11 Tex. 156; Hoeser v. Kraeka, 29 Tex. 454. It does not matter that the grantee was to hold the property in trust for the grantor. Such trust cannot be-enforced if it springs from, and is used as a means of carrying out, the purpose to defraud creditors. In such case, the contract, as evidenced by the deed, being fully executed, the law will not assist the grantor to reap the anticipated fruits of his own fraud. Eastham v. Roundtree, 56 Tex. 110; Rivera v. White, 94 Tex. 538, 63 S. W. 125; Kahn v. Kahn, 94 Tex. 115, 58 S. W. 825. This was the situation as between Alfred Blount and his grantee. It has been settled by a long line of decisions in this state that such conveyances can only be impeached by subsequent creditors and purchasers without notice. Heirs of the grantor are in no better position to do so than the grantor himself. Danzey v. Smith, 4 Tex. 415; Dittman v. Weiss, 87 Tex. 614, 30 S. W. 863; Wilson v. Trawick, 10 Tex. 435; Hart v. Rust, 46 Tex. 557.
If the deed cannot be impeached either by the grantor or his heirs as against the grantee himself, it is clear that a purchaser from the grantee, even with notice of the fraud, would occupy at least as strong a position as the grantee. Even if it be true that, up-to the time of the execution of the deed to-appellant, Scarborough, William Blount had claimed nothing under this deed, there was-nothing in this nonclaim to estop him from asserting such claim as the law authorized' him to make. The evidence discloses no element of such estoppel, and none is pleaded.
For the error indicated, the judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded, with directions to the trial court to enter a decree of partition allotting to the intervener, Scarborough, 42% acres to be surveyed off of the west side of the Keaghy 68% acres referred to in the deed from Alfred to William Blount, and, in addition, whatever interest William Blount was entitled to as heir in the balance of the land, after taking out this 42% acres; The relative interests of the other parties in the remainder of the land, after taking out the 42% acres, to be as decreed by the court in the judgment appealed from.
Reversed and remanded, with instructions.
Reference
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- SCARBOROUGH v. BLOUNT Et Al.
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