Borton v. Borton
Borton v. Borton
Opinion of the Court
This suit was instituted by Mrs. Leila E. Borton, plaintiff, against her husband, W. H. Borton, defendant, for a divorce, for a partition of their community estate, for quieting her title to certain lands alleged to be her separate estate, and for injunction to restrain defendant from selling, mortgaging, or incumbering any of said property, separate or community, or in any way wasting or destroying any part thereof.
In addition to plaintiff’s allegations upon which she sought a divorce, she alleges among other things that at the time her suit was filed that she owned as her separate property three tracts of land situated in Harris county, Tex., and one in Walter county, Tex., and that as defendant had already sold seven bales of cotton belonging to said community estate and converted the proceeds of such sale to his own use, she feared he would attempt to sell, mortgage, or incumber all of said property, both separate and community. Her prayer was for a.decree of divorce, partition of all community property, and for- a decree quieting her title to the land alleged to be her separate estate, etc.
Defendant answered by general demurrer, general denial, and by special denial of all of plaintiff’s allegations in support of her prayer for a divorce. He expressly denied that the three tracts of land situated in Harris county was the separate estate of plaintiff, and says that it is the community property of plaintiff and himself, and that the same represents the total earnings and savings of the parties for the past 37 years as husband and wife; that plaintiff is claiming said lands under and by reason of a certain Instrument which upon its face appears to be a deed from him to plaintiff, conveying to her said lands, but in fact said instrument was not intended by him to be a deed, nor a transfer of his interest in said lands to plaintiff; that when said instrument was signed he was threatened with a fictitious ■and unfounded litigation, which was never instituted; that he'executed said instrument without the knowledge of plaintiff for his own protection tfigainst said threatened suit; that said instrument was never delivered to plaintiff, but that she obtained possession of the same and placed it of record without his knowledge and consent; that same was without consideration and was void.
Plaintiff by supplemental petition denied all the material allegations of defendant’s answer, and further alleged that said lands were conveyed to her by said deed, and was so intended by defendant, and that said deed was delivered to her by defendant for the purpose of conveying said lands to her.
The cause was tried before a jury, who, upon special issues submitted to them by the court, found that none of the causes alleged by plaintiff for a divorce in fact existed, but they found that defendant did make manual delivery to plaintiff of the deed in question by which he conveyed to plaintiff the lands in question. Upon such findings of the jury the court rendered judgment denying plaintiff’s prayer for a divorce and partition of the community property, but rendered judg *193 ment in favor of plaintiff adjudging tier to be the owner of the three tracts of land in question in her own separate right, and quieting her title thereto as between her and defendant as prayed for. From so much of such judgment as adjudged said land to plaintiff, defendant has appealed.
Appellant’s contentions are: First, that as appellee’s suit was for a divorce; partition of the community property of herself and husband, and for the quieting of title in her to certain lands claimed by her as her separate property, the court was without authority and jurisdiction to determine the rights of appellee to the lands claimed by her as her separate property, after the jury had found that no cause existed which entitled appellee to a divorce; that a refusal of the divorce prayed for entitled appellant to judgment and the court erred in not so decreeing. Second, that if, after said divorce had been refused, the court had jurisdiction to determine the rights of appellee to lands claimed by her as her separate property from proper allegations, it had no power or authority to do so in this cause, because ap-pellee’s petition does not allege what interest she has in said lands, nor that she was in possession or entitled to possession thereof, nor that appellant had unlawfully entered upon and dispossessed her of the same, as required by law in suits of trespass to try title.
We think that appellee’s original and supplemental petitions, when considered in connection with the allegations of appellant’s answer, were sufficient to authorize the trial court to render the judgment rendered in this cause upon sufficient proof of the matters alleged.
We think it well settled by the cases cited that, besides actions for divorce, a wife may maintain a suit against her husband for the recovery of her separate estate wrongfully converted by him, and also to have a resulting trust declared in her favor in lands claimed by her in her own right in his possession, her title to which he is disputing, and to which he is asserting title in himself adverse to her.
We have read and considered all of appellant’s assignments, and what has been said disposes of all of them.
We find no error committed by the trial court in the trial of this cause, nor in the judgment there rendered; such judgment is therefore affirmed.
Affirmed.
other cases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Borton v. Borton.
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published