Opinion ID: 1533620
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Homestead 200 Acres

Text: Because of the controlling effect which we give to plaintiffs' continued occupancy and use of the land, both on the homestead and mutual mistake issues, we shall discuss this phase of the case first. After purchasing the six forty-acre water tracts in controversy (less one-half of the minerals) from Judge Henry Russell in 1951, plaintiff, O. H. Sullivan, included them in a homestead designation which he filed in the Deed Records of Ward County, on November 30, 1954. [1] It is undisputed that since that time plaintiffs have lived in the home situated on this land, maintained and claimed it as their homestead, kept the entire area under fence, raised livestock thereon, farmed portions themselves, and leased other portions to be farmed by tenants. This was established not only by their own testimony but by disinterested witnesses. This actual use as a homestead in 1956 and thereafter, and the fact that these six water tracts were not intended to be included in the 1956 deed and the 1959 deed of trust, were known to all of the grantees in the instruments, including W. M. Barnett, who purchased under the trustee's sale in 1962. Defendant's only challenge to this homestead status is by way of argument, first made on motion for instructed verdict, that plaintiffs had abandoned their homestead claim by an attempted sale of the property to W. C. Scott on February 5, 1955. It is true that plaintiffs executed a deed to Scott covering the homestead tracts and other lands in 1955. However, Scott was unable to make the first payment due December 20, 1955, and he reconveyed the land to plaintiffs on January 25, 1956. In the meantime, plaintiffs had continued to live on the land and use it as their homestead. There was no abandonment in law or in fact. They never agreed or intended to move unless and until Scott made the first payment. It has been held that the rural homestead rights protected by Article 16, Section 50 of the Constitution of Texas, Vernon's Ann.St., may attach to property held under lease or at the will of the record owners. Davis v. Lund, 41 S.W.2d 57, (Tex.Com.App.1931, holding approved); Young v. Hollingsworth, 16 S.W.2d 844, (Tex.Civ.App., 1929, writ ref.); Beckner v. Barrett, 81 S.W.2d 719 (Tex.Civ.App., 1935, writ dism.); Birdwell v. Burleson, 31 Tex.Civ.App. 31, 72 S.W. 446 (1902, writ ref.). An intention or attempt to sell a homestead does not amount to an abandonment as long as the homestead claimants retain possession and have no intent to abandon unless the sale materializes. McDaniell v. Ragsdale, 71 Tex. 23, 8 S.W. 625 (1888); Gaar, Scott & Co. v. Burge, 49 Tex.Civ.App. 599, 110 S.W. 181 (1908, writ ref.); American National Bank of Austin v. Cruger, 31 Tex.Civ.App. 17, 71 S.W. 784 (1902, writ ref.). When homestead rights are once shown to exist in property, they are presumed to continue, and anyone asserting an abandonment has the burden of proving it by competent evidence. Rancho Oil Co. v. Powell, 142 Tex. 63, 175 S.W.2d 960 (1943); Burkhardt v. Lieberman, 138 Tex. 409, 159 S.W.2d 847 (1942); Moorhouse v. Crew, 273 S.W.2d 654 (Tex.Civ.App., 1954, writ ref.). The party claiming abandonment must plead it and carry the burden of proving it. Postal Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Powell, 47 S.W.2d 343 (Tex.Civ.App., 1931, writ ref.); Huss v. Wells, 17 Tex. Civ.App. 195, 44 S.W. 33 (1897, writ ref.). Defendants here failed to plead abandonment and did not ask for the submission of any issue on that question. Plaintiffs not only possessed and claimed the land as their homestead but had record title thereto on January 25, 1956, when their deed was made to J. S. Witt and D. F. Ross covering one-half interest in all or portions of 26 numbered water tracts, in which the scrivener also inadvertently included the six tract numbers in controversy. One of the grantees, J. S. Witt testified that he and his deceased partner, D. F. Ross, did not intend to buy the six homestead tracts; that they did not pay for them; that they were included in the deed by mutual mistake; that neither he nor Ross ever claimed the plaintiffs' homestead tracts; and that they always recognized them as belonging to and constituting the homestead of the plaintiffs. He also testified that W. M. Barnett, their subsequent grantee and beneficiary under subsequent deeds of trust, including the 1959 deed of trust, knew that these homestead lots were not intended to have been included in any of the series of instruments which began with the 1956 deed, because Barnett loaned Witt and Ross the money to buy the interest in the 26 tracts from plaintiffs and personally inspected the land which was being purchased and immediately pledged to Barnett; that such inspection did not include the six tract numbers which comprise the 240 acres in controversy. Witt also testified that Mrs. Sullivan did not appear before the notary who purportedly took her acknowledgment to this deed; that the acknowledgment was filled out in advance and that he, Witt, subsequently took the deed to Mrs. Sullivan and obtained her signature. The jury found in answer to Special Issue No. 7 that Mrs. Sullivan did not appear before the notary. Article 16, Section 50, of the Constitution of Texas and the statutes in effect on the dates of the instruments in controversy (Articles 1300, 4618, 6605 and 6608, Vernon's Ann.Tex.Civ.St.) required not only the consent of the wife to the sale of a homestead, but that she appear personally before the notarizing officer and acknowledge her signature separately and apart from her husband. In view of Mrs. Sullivan's failure to do this, the deed of January 25, 1956, was ineffectual and passed no title as to the 200 acres designated in the trial court's judgment as the portion which constituted the homestead, so long as plaintiffs continued to occupy and claim it as their homestead. [2] Cleveland v. Milner, 141 Tex. 120, 170 S.W.2d 472 (1943); Sanger v. Calloway, 61 S.W.2d 988 (Tex. Com.App., 1933, jdgt. adopted); Robertson v. Vernon, 3 S.W.2d 573 (Tex.Civ. App., 1927), affirmed by the Texas Commission of Appeals in 12 S.W.2d 991 (1929); Cosgrove v. Nelson, 269 S.W. 891 (Tex.Civ.App., 1925), affirmed 277 S.W. 1118 (Tex.Com.App., 1925, jdgt. adopted); Charlton v. Richard Gill Co., 285 S.W.2d 801 (Tex.Civ.App., 1955, n. w. h.). See also Humble Oil & Refining Company v. Downey, 143 Tex. 171, 183 S.W.2d 426 (1944). The other crucial document under consideration, the deed of trust signed by the plaintiffs and by Witt and Ross, and their wives, on January 15, 1959, in favor of W. M. Barnett, covering 51 numbered water tracts, repeated the earlier error and again included by mutual mistake the six tract numbers which comprise the land in controversy. The grantors, Witt, Ross and Sullivan, were conducting farming operations together on the other lands described in the Deed of Trust, and it was executed to secure a $90,000.00 loan from Barnett. As to that portion of the tracts which constituted 200 acres of the Sullivan homestead tract, the deed of trust and subsequent trustee's deed to Barnett were void and passed no title, because the deed of trust was not given for one of the three excepted purposes set forth in the Texas Constitution with respect to homesteads. Article 16, Section 50, Constitution of Texas; Burkhardt v. Lieberman, 138 Tex. 409, 159 S.W.2d 847 (1942); Toler v. Fertitta, 67 S.W.2d 229 (Tex.Com.App., 1934, jdgt. adopted); Inge and Boring v. Cain, 65 Tex. 75 (1881). Defendants contend, and the Court of Civil Appeals held, that the trial court's judgment for plaintiffs even as to the 200 acres of the homestead tract was erroneous because no issue was submitted to the jury on whether the land constituted the plaintiffs' homestead on the relevant dates. As heretofore stated, this fact was conclusively shown by the evidence. There was no evidence to the contrary. Without objection from defendants, six of the seven special issues submitted to the jury specifically identify and inquire about the land in controversy as plaintiffs' homestead or homestead property. Submission of an issue on an undisputed fact is unnecessary. Rule 272, Rules of Civil Procedure; Wright v. Vernon Compress Co., 156 Tex. 474, 296 S.W.2d 517, 522-523 (1956). This was specifically held with reference to a homestead in a suit to cancel a mineral deed in Coats v. Stewart, 135 S.W.2d 1026 (Tex.Civ.App.1939, writ dism., judg. cor.).