Court Opinion

ID: 9832524
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 21:58:38.838071+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:47.663924
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellees present a very earnest and forceful motion for rehearing. It is particularly insisted that we were in error in our conclusions as to the title of Mrs. Tennie Sikes, the contention being that the undisputed proof shows that the lots claimed by Mrs. Tennie Sikes were originally owned by J. O. Sikes, the father of C. O. Sikes, husband of Tennie Sikes; that J. O. Sikes left surviving him three sons and one daughter, a Mrs. Gibbons, who inherited the property; that Paul Smith, who conveyed the lots to Tennie Sikes, had only the title acquired by him from one of the heirs; that later the heirs of Mrs. Gibbons conveyed to Tennie Sikes, without recitation therein that it was conveyed as her separate property and without proof that it was paid out of her separate funds, thus leaving a one-fourth interest in one of J. O. Sikes’ sons, which, so far as the record shows, has never been conveyed, and also the one-fourth interest inherited by O. O. Sikes, to which, so far as the record shows, no formal transfer has been made. The proof is as ¿stated in the contention just noted. We nevertheless, on original hearing, were, and are still, of the opinion that as against the appellees, the subsequent creditors of O. O. Sikes, Tennie Sikes is entitled to hold the property claimed by her free from, the appellees’ attachment liens, and in view of the earnestness and ability with which appellees present their contention, it is perhaps due them that we should state the *231reasons for our original conclusions in this respect with more particularity.
The deed from Paul Smith was executed on the 14th day of June, 1902. It was a general warranty deed, and for the consideration therein stated purported to convey the entire title, free and absolute, to Tennie Sikes as her separate property and estate. Presumably, as originally stated, this was done with the full assent and at the direction of' O. O. Sikes, the husband, which in legal effect and so far as C. O. Sikes was concerned constituted the property the separate property of Tennie Sikes. The deed from the heirs of Mrs. Gibbons was also a general warranty deed, dated on May 20, 1911, and duly acknowledged and filed for record July 8, 1911; the Smith deed having been recorded April 11, 1911. In view of the facts shown by the record that thereafter C. 0. Sikes and Tennie Sikes occupied the premises together as their homestead for years before the accrual of the debts upon which appellee sued without any complaint on the part of the husband and without evidence of a claim by him of title in the lots as against the separate interest of his wife, but with a formal disclaimer of title on his part filed in the court below, we think, as between husband and wife, that it should ije held that the Gibbons deed was secured in the way of perfecting the wife’s title, and that the Smith and Gibbons deeds, together, under the circumstances, and as against the husband and as against his subsequent creditors, vested in Tennie Sikes full and absolute title to all interest in the premises save that shown by the single remaining heir of J. O. Sikes, from whom no conveyance appears. See Peters v. Clements, 46 Tex. 124; Tison v. Gass, 46 Tex. Civ. App. 163, 102 S. W. 754; Speer on Law of Marital Rights, § 358 et seq.
■ In other respects we deem it to be unnecessary to attempt to add to what was originally said by us, save that we should perhaps say that in reversing and rendering the judgment, as we did, in favor of Tennie and Olga Sikes, it was not our purpose to reverse the judgment in favor of appellees as against the defendant C. O. Sikes. C. O. Sikes answered in the case below, suffered judgment, and prosecuted no appeal.
The judgment, therefore, as against him will not be disturbed, but in other respects the motion for rehearing is overruled.