Court Opinion

ID: 9833734
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 22:58:46.787974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:44:06.320172
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
In the original disposition of this case the court passed only upon the question of cancellation of the oil and gas lease held by appellee Houston Oil Company of Texas upon the land involved.
As a matter of fact, apparent of record, the pleadings in the case involved an action in trespass to try title to said land, set up by appellants as against said oil company and John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, and in addition thereto' specially pleaded their a'ction to cancel the oil company’s oil and gas lease upon said land. The oil company included in its answer the general denial, as well as plea of not guilty. The insurance company took no cognizance, in its answer, of the plaintiffs’ allegations in trespass to try title.
In all the subsequent proceedings in the-case, the parties and the trial judge ignored the question of title to the fee in the land, clearly showing the intention, by common consent, of eliminating the question from the case, and of leaving that title, unmolested by this litigation, in appellants, in whom the record clearly shows a vested title, at least so far as the defendants below were concerned. Apparently lulled by this intention and conduct of - the parties, the trial judge did not expressly adjudicate the question of title in the decree. This omission, however inadvertent, is nevertheless abortive of the true decree, and subjects appellants’ conceded title to the land to the hazard imposed by the provisions of article 7391, R. S. 1925, which was clearly not intended by the trial judge, or warranted by the record.
This error in the judgment apparently escaped the notice of the parties, for it was ignored in all the proceedings after trial below, as well as in the presentation of the appeal, but has now been called to the attention of this court, for the first time, in a much belated motion for rehearing, which appellees have not contested, and which will be granted.
The whole record in the case, including the pleadings, evidence, submission, and motions, below, shows conclusively that the cause was tried and disposed of in the trial court, as well as in this court, solely upon the attempted cancellation of the oil and gas lease, and the consistent attitude of the parties in the court below, and in this court, as well as the attitude of the trial court, discloses that the title to the land, as well as the right of possession thereof (subject to the rights of the oil company, as lessee, and the insurance company, as lienholder), was, and is, solely in appellants.
In this state of the record, and in view of the attitude and conduct of the parties and of the trial court, it is perfectly obvious that the judgment of the trial court should be revised so as to eliminate therefrom any implication which would vest, or tend to vest, the title to the land in appellee, *315or becloud the title of appellants. The obviously inadvertent error in that judgment is clearly fundamental, and it is within the power, and is the duty, of this court to notice and correct that error, in order to prevent a palpable and obvious miscarriage of justice.
To this end, appellants’ motion for rehearing will be granted; the judgment heretofore rendered in this cause, affirming in toto the judgment of the trial court, will be set aside, and judgment will here and now be rendered that appellants do recover title and possession of the land in controversy, subject to the oil and gas lease held thereon by appellee Houston Oil Company of Texas, and to the rights, if any, ■of John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company, by reason of its asserted deed of trust lien upon said land; but in so far as the judgment of the court below denies recovery to appellants upon their action to cancel said oil and gas lease, the same will be af&rmed, as in the original disposition. All costs of this appeal will be assessed against appellants, as before.
Reversed and rendered in part; and in part affirmed.
BICKETT, C. J., did not participate in the decision of this case.