Willis v. Ferguson
Willis v. Ferguson
Opinion of the Court
This cause was before this court on appeal several years ago, and will be found reported in the 46th volume of Texas Reports. The facts of the case there differ from those brought before us for consideration in the present appeal in but one material respect. The evidence offered by the appellee to sustain his title to the land, and which was excluded by the district judge, which exclusion was held error in the opinion then delivered, was admitted upon the subsequent trial of the cause, and comes before us now as a part of the statement of facts in the record.
Judge Roberts, in delivering th% opinion of the court on the first appeal, held that this evidence of title in the appellee having been excluded, he stood in the attitude of a naked possessor of the land, and could not attack collaterally the judgment under which the appellants claimed. He further said that had the evidence been admitted, it would have shown an interest of the defendant in the land anterior to the rendition of the judgment of 1872, under which the plaintiffs claim their title, which would have relieved the defendant from the attitude of a naked possessor, and required the plaintiffs to have shown additional facts not developed in this case, which would either reach back to maintain the- validity of the plaintiffs’ title, or would have the effect to vitiate the title of the defendant. Upon the second trial we find no evidence adduced which carries the inception of plaintiffs’ title any further back than the date of the judgment in cause Ho. 1567, viz., September 10,1872. The attachment sued out in that cause during its progress, and which was levied on the land in controversy, was quashed in the very judgment rendered therein for the plaintiffs, and hence can have no effect in giving to them a lien dating back to the time it was levied.
Admitting that this judgment was properly rendered and that Ferguson could not attack it collaterally in this cause, its lien does • not extend further back than the date of the rendition of the judgment itself. The title of appellee is traced .to an administration of John M. Lewis, Jr., upon the estate of John M. Lewis, Sr., during which a sale of the land in controversy took place, by order of the county court sitting in probate matters. This sale occurred December 4, 1869, and was duly confirmed January 31, 1870. The deed from the administrator to the purchaser, McCaleb, was made February 8,1870, and McCaleb conveyed to the appellee, Ferguson, on the 25th of the same month. If the county court was authorized to have the sale made, the title of appellee antedates the judgment lien under which Willis & Bro. claim the land more than two years.
To avoid this the latter contend that the whole proceedings of
We think these circumstances strengthen the presumption in favor of the action of the county court, as against a collateral attack, and that the proceedings had in the administration, as before recited, passed the title to the land in controversy to McOaleb, to whose rights the appellee in this cause has fully succeeded.
The appellants further seek to sustain their title to one-half of the land by reason of their purchase at sheriff’s sale under the judgment of Jagers and Byrd against Mrs. Susan M. Lewis, the property being the community estate of Mrs. Lewis and her husband, J. M. Lewis, Sr. This judgment was obtained in Polk county October 8, 1866, and was recorded in Montgomery county March 22,1867, and, so far as the record shows, the first execution upon it was issued July 23, 1872. By the law then in force, a judgment became a lien upon land of the debtor situated in a county other than that in Avhich it was rendered from the time Avhen a transcript of such judgment should be filed for record in such other county, provided that the lien should cease and become inoperative, if execution should not be issued upon such judgment within one year from the first day upon which such execution could by law be issued thereon. As no execution issued upon this judgment for more than five'years after its rendition, all lien acquired by its record was lost, and the lien created by the levy of the execution Avas the only one from Avhich appellants could derive any benefit. The land in controversy was levied upon under that execution August 1,1872, long after the title had passed by purchase to the appellee Ferguson, and it was not subject to such levy.
Affirmed,
[Opinion delivered March 20, 1883.]
Reference
- Full Case Name
- P. J. Willis & Bro. v. Green Ferguson
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Case approved.— The’decision in this case on former appeal (46 Tex., 496) approved and followed. 2. Administration. — An independent executrix, under will, openly declared her purpose to have nothing to do with the estate, refused to return an inventory, and requested the county judge to appoint as administrator de bonis non her son. Held, that these facts tended to show that the county judge acted on sufficient evidence in declaring the estate vacant, and a purchaser of land, sold under order of court by the administrator de bonis non, was protected as 'against a collateral attack calling in question the legality of the administration. 3. Purchaser pendente lite.— While a purchaser pendente lite is bound by the judgment rendered in the cause in reference to the property in litigation which is purchased by him, his rights are not affected by proceedings seeking only a moneyed judgment against the vendor and having no reference to the property purchased. Hot would the fact that an attachment, which had been quashed, was once levied on the land, which was bought pending proceedings to obtain a moneyed judgment, constitute the purchaser a purchaser pendente lite. 4. Lien oe judgment.— Linder the laws in force in 1867 a judgment became a lien upon land of the debtor situate in a county other than that in which it was rendered from the time when a transcript of such judgment should be filed for record in such other county; but the lien ceased if execution was not issued upon such judgment within one year from the first day upon which execution could issue thereon.