Matthews v. Deason
Matthews v. Deason
Opinion of the Court
Originally, as appears from the record, plaintiff in error sued defendants in error to compel specific performance of an alleged contract to convey a lot of land in the city of Dallas and to enjoin pendente lite the threatened sale thereof by the sheriff of Dallas county. Interlocutory writ of injunction was issued upon fiat of the trial judge returnable to the succeeding term of court. Motion to dissolve the writ was filed, but not acted upon, and, so far as the record discloses, the interlocutory writ is yet in force. However, at a subsequent term of court plaintiff in error amended his petition, and in lieu of the suit for specific performance of contract sought recovery of damages for the breach thereof and an unlawful eviction from the premises agreed to be conveyed. We therefore treat the original suit as abandoned and the interlocutory writ as result thereof dissolved. The general demurrer and certain special exceptions leveled against the amended petition were sustained. Plaintiff in error declined to amend, and the cause is here upon assignments challenging the action of the court in the respect stated.
Omitting formalities, the petition alleges, in substance, that theretofore, in suit No. 18163a in the Fourteenth district court of Dallas county, defendants in error sued plaintiff in error to “foreclose” on certain promissory notes, and to “dispossess” the latter of. a lot of land in Dallas county, of which plaintiff in error was owner and in possession of at the time. Pending suit and upon the representation of defendants in error that a “cloud,” etc., upon the title to said land could be removed by so doing, plaintiff in error agreed to the entry of judgment in said cause on condition that defendants in error would reconvey said land to him, upon the payment of $800 in cash, the assumption of an existing debt of $4,000 against said lot, and.the securing of an extension in its time of payment, the execution of plaintiff in error’s note for $2,000, payable in monthly installments of $65 after date; also the execution of his note for $350 due in six months, payable one-half in cash and one-half in merchandise. Thereafter, in compliance with the agreement, plaintiff in error, by paying the First State Bank of Dallas $100, secured an extension of three years upon said $4,000 note, tendered defendants in error $800 cash, and offered and .was willing to execute the other notes,- and requested defendants in error to convey him said lot of land, which they refused to do. Further, that defendants in error, in order to defraud plaintiff in error, did, under authority of said judgment, sue out a writ of possession and by authority thereof remove plaintiff in error therefrom, to his damage, etc.
It will not be denied, upon analysis, that the petition sufficiently states that a suit by defendants in error against plaintiff in error was pending, and that the latter agreed that judgment might be and was entered therein on condition that the land described would be reconveyed to plaintiff in error whenever he paid an amount of cash, etc., to-defendants in error, and that he did, after-judgment, in all respects comply with such conditions subsequent, and that defendants, in error refused to convey the land. The insufficiency of the pleading lies, if at all, in the generality of the allegations of the peti *857 tion concerning the character and purpose of the pending suit. Even in that respect, we conclude, in the light of the rule stated, the insufficiency is in the manner and form of stating the facts, rather than in the substance of what is actually conveyed by the language used. The allegation is that defendants in error had sued Matthews in case No. 18103a in the Fourteenth district court of Dallas county to “foreclose” on certain notes and to “dispossess” him of a lot of land in the city of Dallas, and that he had agreed to judgment in that suit on the conditions enumerated. To foreclose is “to shut out; to bar. Used of the process of destroying an equity of redemption.” Bouvier. The force and pertinency of that allegation was to say that the suit was to destroy plaintiff in error’s right of redemption in the land described. Dispossession, as used in the petition, meant of course the ouster of plaintiff in error from the land by legal process after foreclosure. Thus we have, in substance, attaching to the terms used their ordinary meaning, the averment that the suit was to foreclose plaintiff in error’s equity of redemption in the land and to oust him of possession of the same. To that character of judgment it is clear from the other allegations plaintiff in error agreed on condition that the land would be reconveyed on certain conditions, with which he complied, but which defendants in error repudiated. Accepting as true the allegations detailed, they show a breach of the contract to reconvey the land and for which a cause of action exists for any legal damages which may be shown; and consequently the general demurrer was erroneously sustained.
It appears from the judgment that every special exception contained in defendants in error’s original and supplemental answer was sustained. An examination of. these special exceptions fails to disclose that any one of them raised any issue not raised by the general demurrer, save two.
For the reasons stated upon both issues' discussed, the judgment is reversed, and cause remanded for another trial consistent with the views herein expressed.
Reversed and remanded.
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Reference
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- MATTHEWS v. DEASON Et Al.
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