Wagner v. Geiselman
Wagner v. Geiselman
Opinion of the Court
J. F. Wagner instituted this action in trespass to try title against M. P. Geiselman to recover lot No. 2 in block No. 52 in Foster’s addition to the city of Houston. The lot is a part of the Harris third of a league, and part of a tract of 127 acres conveyed by Harris to Richey; the title afterwards coming to J. E. Foster. Defendant pleaded not guilty and the statute of limitation of three, five, and ten years. Plaintiff, by supplemental petition, pleaded estoppel against defendant to set up the title under which he claims on grounds which will hereafter appear. The suit was instituted in 1905, and tried January 3, 1912. Trial without a jury resulted in a judgment for defendant, from which plaintiff prosecutes this appeal.
“S. M'. Harris owned a third of a league adjoining the corporate limits of the city of Houston, and some of it probably was inside the corporate limits.
“(2) Beginning on the 17th day of October, 1838, and continuing on down through 1839, T840,1847,1848,1851, and 1852, he sold off various tracts of 100 acres and 50 acres, and on .April 3, 1856, he made a deed to Paul Bre-mond, describing the land as follows: ‘500 ■acres of land or more, lying partly within the ■corporate limits of the city of Houston, and on the north side of Buffalo Bayou, bounded on the west by lands sold to Dobie and the John Austin tract, and on the east lands originally belonging to D. Gregg, it being part of the •headlight of Sam Harris of a third of a league, and all of said one-third of a league not heretofore sold is conveyed by the said Harris.’ This deed was recorded on April 4, 1S56, in the deed records of Harris county.
“(3) It was not made clear to me upon the trial what lands he had sold, so in order to advise myself in the premises, I went to the records of one of the leading abstract companies and got a consecutive list of the transfers and at the time the deed was made to Bremond, who gob the land from Harris, the latter party, Harris, being the source from which both parties derive their title, 100 acres had been conveyed to one Reynolds ■on the 17th day of October, 1838, and it adjoins the Austin on the west, that is to say, its west line, beginning at Buffalo Bayou, was coincident with the east line of the John Austin to the extent, approximately, of halfway up said west line of the Harris survey, and directly north of the Reynolds land, and of tñe same width as it and the Richey 127 acres, which had not been conveyed when the deed from Harris to Bremond was made. The next tract sold was that of April 19, 1839, of 100 acres to Dobie; so the 500 acres ‘or more’ sold to Bremond did in fact touch or reach the east line of the Austin which is the west line of the Harris and the north end of the Reynolds out to the north end of the Harris survey, and it did go east to the west line of the D. Gregg land, which west line was coincident with the east line of the Harris one-third of a league. It will be seen from the map that the Dobie 100 acres lies between the Paul Bremond 500 acres and the Reynolds for the full length of the Reynolds and for a part of the way between the Bremond and the Richey 127 acres.
“(4) The record shows that at the time Harris made the deed to Bremond he had sold 800 acres of the land out of his third of a league, down to January 27, 1852, but the deed to Bremond is recorded in Book P. p. 623, of the Records, while the two last deeds before that, each for 100 acres, one made May 23, 1851, and one January 27, 1852, were not recorded until later, as the first appears in volume Q, p. 315, and the other volume V. p. 6S3; but counting in those two deeds the whole amount of land that Harris had sold out of his third of a league up to the time of making the deed to Bre-mond was 800 acres, six 100-acre tracts, and four 50-acre tracts, therefore he had left 676 acres.
“(5) The deed to Benjamin Richey, under whom the plaintiff claims, was made on the 23d day of December, 1856, but was not recorded until August 15, 1857.
“(6) Counting the Bremond conveyance at just 500 acres, for the purpose of a statement, he sold altogether, including conveyances made in 1858 and 1860 and 1863, 1,440 acres, and if there he added to that the 127 acres which he sold Richey, in 1856, but which was not recorded until 1857, he sold altogether out of the tracts 1,567 acres, or 91 acres more than there was in the whole survey.
“(7) It will be seen from these figures that, if the Bremond conveyance had been calculated at only 500 acres, he would have had 176 acres left after he sold to Bremond, or 49 acres more than necessary to make up the 127 acres which he sold to Richey; but his deed to Bremond called for 500 acres ‘or more’ and described it as being all the land not heretofore sold and conveyed by him.
“(8) Bremond lived until 18S5, and his estate was administered on in this county, and the property covered' by the deed for 127 acres seems to have never been inventoried as a part of his estate; or at least the inventory called for 500 acres, and the lot in controversy is in the south end of the 127 acres.
,r(9) A large part of the estate of Bremond passed into the hands of the executrix of the estate of one A. P. Lufkin by foreclosure, and the Lufkin heirs and the Bremond heirs made deeds to the 500 acres, and the title passed into the hands of James A. Baker and George L. Porter.
“(10) There appeared to have been Richey and J. E. Foster eleven conveyances, and J. E. Foster, in 1874, divided the property covered by the 127 acres into city lots and blocks, some of them in the extreme northern or northeastern end of the city and some perhaps beyond the city limits, and through a lottery scheme he sold the property divided into lots, those drawing certain numbered tickets getting certain lots, and one Miss Sternenberg drew one of the numbers and received one of the .lots, a conveyance being made to her in the ordinary form, and that *526 lot passed down from lier to the plaintiff: in this case by a regular chain of title.
“(11) About the 14th day of September, 1898, James A. Baker and George L. Porter conveyed by special warranty deed, for a consideration which I find was not full value of the property, the 127-acre tract platted by Poster into his said addition (which was the same land conveyed by Plarris to Richey) to P. S. Burke, and Burke, who was an attorney at law and a solvent man, at once conveyed all of the blocks, except Nos. 53 and 54, to Miss Violet Poster, the daughter of J. E. Poster, who had died some years before, and the block 52, in which this lot is situated, was among the lots conveyed by Burke to Miss Poster, and he retained lots 53 and 54, and Miss Poster conveyed the lot to the defendant, Geiselman, who had his title examined, and who paid full value for the property he bought, which was the entire block 52, and I find that he purchased in good faith, and I also find that Louis Stahl, who bought from Miss Sternenberg, afterwards Mrs. Penton, and by whom the lot sued for was given to the plaintiff, purchased in good faith.
“(12) There is no limitation in the case, so it is not necessary to refer to the question of possession and improvements; but the defendant had had the property fenced since his purchase.
“(13) It was agreed that Poster sold a great many of the lots, just as he did to Miss Sternenberg, and that many of the parties went into possession, and that either they or their vendees or those who were claiming under their vendees are still in possession, and there has been no attack made upon their title, and that the Poster estate had .been administered upon and the property of 127 acres was administered as a part of his estate, or at least' so much of it as he had not sold prior to his death.
“(14) I find that the plaintiff has paid taxes on the lot in controversy as far back as the year 1896, and that the defendant has paid taxes on the property regularly from 1901 up to this time, and that on miscellaneous lots and blocks in the 127 acres, or the Poster addition, parties claiming lots through and under Poster have paid taxes on them since 1874. This, however, does not apply to the lot in controversy, finding as to taxes upon which is made above in the first part of this paragraph.”
What we have said disposes also of the fifth assignment of error, which is overruled.
By the sixth assignment of error appellant complains of the action of the court in overruling the motion for a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence. This evidence consisted of the pleadings and judgment in the case of Violet Foster against the executor and heirs of Bremond heretofore referred to. In attaching so much importance to this evidence the trial court overlooked the fact that at the date of the institution of the suit the title had passed out of the estate of Bremond. Even if this were not true, however, we do not think that the judgment would have had the effect of passing to appellant or his vendors by estoppel the title afterwards acquired by Violet Foster from Baker and Porter, Cleveland v. Smith, supra.
We find no error in the record requiring reversal, and the judgment is affirmed.
Affirmed.
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