Barlow v. Cruse
Barlow v. Cruse
Opinion of the Court
Appellant was plaintiff and appellees were-defendants' below. We shall refer to them as plaintiff and defendants.
Plaintiff brought this suit in the district court of San Jacinto county against defendants Mrs. Ava Cruse and William McMurrey for performance of an alleged written contract. The alleged contract was set out in substance with great particularity. It was' alleged that the contract was executed in triplicate, and that same was placed with defendant William McMurrey to be deposited in escrow with the People’s State Bank of Cold Springs, San Jacinto county, Tex. That such deposit was never made and that plaintiff was unable to locate the contract and gave defendants notice that if they did not produce same, secondary evidence of its contents would be offered on the trial. The prayer was for partition of the property involved, judgment for such damages as might be shown by plaintiff, and for general relief.
Defendant Mrs. Ava Cruse answered by general demurrer, general denial, and a plea of not guilty.
Defendant William McMurrey answered by disclaimer of any claim, right, or title in or to the premises described in plaintiff’s petition.
The ease was tried to the court without the aid of a jury, and judgment rendered that plaintiff take nothing by his suit, and that defendants go without day and recover their costs. This appeal is from that judgment.
It appears from the record that on May 25, 1925, Mrs. Ava CruSe conveyed 1,200 acres of land (sections 101 and 102 II. & T. C. Ry. surveys situated partly in San Jacinto and partly in Liberty counties) to plaintiff, Barlow, for which he executed his six certain vendor lien notes, each for the sum of $907.50, bearing 6 per cent, interest, payable the first six months after date, and one payable on each six months thereafter until the whole were paid. These notes reserved the vendor’s lien to secure their payment, and contained the usual acceleration clause as to payments. At said time plaintiff, Barlow, also executed a deed of trust covering the land conveyed further securing the payment of said notes, with power of sale in' the event plaintiff did not fully discharge the debt. William McMurrey was named trustee. The deed of trust also contained the acceleration clause as to pay-.
The court filed his findings of fact and conclusions of law. There is also in the record a full and complete statement of facts agreed to by the parties and approved by the court. On the evidence, the court found that there was no contract because Mrs.
Plaintiff assigns error against the admission of the testimony of Mrs. Cruse because her answer was not sworn to, that is, she did not answer by sworn plea of non est factum, and hence her testimony was not admissible and could not be considered by the court in arriving at his judgment.
If it should be said that it was error to admit Mrs. Cruse’s testimony, still we think the judgment must be affirmed, and upon the ■conclusion of the court that the minds of the parties did not meet and so no contract resulted. The evidence offered by plaintiff, we think, showed this. Barlow and his attorney both testified to the agreement made by them with Judge McMurrey, attorney for Mrs. Cruse, in his office at Cold Springs. It is undisputed that Mrs. Cruse was not present and that she was not consulted or in any manner advised with relative to the agreement made by plaintiff and his attorney with Judge McMurrey, as attorney for Mrs. Cruse. Plaintiff used Judge McMurrey as a witness. He testified in some measure corroborating plaintiff as to the things done by them in making the agreement alleged, but in positive terms said that Mrs. Cruse refused to accept or to be bound by the agreement. He testified: “Well, as I recall the matter, we did negotiate an agreement similar to the one you set out in your pleadings, but Mrs. Cruse never did agree to it.” And: “Now, wait— there was a negotiation there similar to what he sets out in his pleading, that it was to he divided into three parts, but Mrs. Cruse didn’t agree to it.” And: “Well, we negotiated the one — the Barlow agreement that we thought — that I thought we would go into ■was—
“Q. How was that? A. The one that I thought — that Dr. Barlow and I thought to get together on was- — I wrote it out and sent it to the house; Dr. Barlow, and I guess she, signed it; I can’t remember the details. So when I sent it to the house and she signed it up, she brought it on down to me and said ■she wouldn’t agree to that.
“Q. Did Mrs. Cruse acknowledge it? A. I don’t remember whether she did or not; she brought the papers back to me.
“Q. She brought them back personally? A. Tes, I think so. .
“Q. How was that? A. I think so; she came back and refused to agree to the agreement.”
And: “Q. Did you have any agreement on behalf 'of yourself, Dr. Barlow, and as attorney for Mrs. Cruse— A. Only the—
“Q. With reference to depositing these papers in the bank in escrow? A. Only the proposed agreement; Mrs. Cruse didn’t agree to it.
“Q. Just a moment; answer my question, please, Judge. A. Tes.
“Q. Tou did have? A. Tes, sir, that was the understanding of what we should do with it.
“Q. With the papers? A. With the papers.
“Q. Did you ever deposit them in the bank? A. No, because Mrs. Cruse refused to carry out the agreement.
“Q. Mrs. Cruse refused to carry out the agreement. A. Tes, she refused to agree to it.
“Q. What became of those contracts? A. I don’t know.”
So, it is seen that plaintiff, by his own witness, clearly shows that Mrs. Cruse was not present at the time the agreement was made between plaintiff and the witness, attorney for Mrs. Cruse, and that she was not consulted in the making of the contract; that, although she signed and acknowledged the agreement, that she, upon reading same, refused to accept it and went to her attorney and told him she would not agree to it, and did not deliver it to him for any purpose; that her attorney did not put the papers in the bank for the reason that she refused to agree to> the terms of the agreement embodied in same, and refused to deliver the papers to said attorney. Certainly, under the evidence of plaintiff, no contract was shown, and the court did not err in so holding.
The judgment should be. affirmed and it is so ordered.
Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.