Court Opinion

ID: 9827960
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:58:22.597291+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:40.378470
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
[8] Upon further examination and consideration of the evidence, upon appellant’s motion for rehearing, we have concluded that upon the undisputed evidence upon the issue of estoppel the jury should have been instructed to return a verdict for appellant, Stewart, and judgment should have been rendered for him. The undisputed evidence establishes the following facts: After 1895, when Katie Bell came back from the penitentiary, she and Calvin never lived together as man and wife, except possibly for a few months immediately following her return. Katie Bell continued to live in the house on the Donovan place with her children, but Calvin moved to another place several hundred yards away in the town of La Marque. He was moved to this “through fear,” as stated by the witnesses, from which it is to be inferred that he was afraid of being in some way molested on account of Katie being, or being considered, a white woman. Calvin testified, as did some of the children, that he visited her occasionally, but it is clear that to all outward appearances they were living entirely separate and that Katie Bell was supporting herself. By a great many persons Katie Bell was taken to .be a white woman. This was the condition of affairs when the Kennedy suit was brought against her alone for the 50 acres. When that suit was brought, she applied to Kelsey for assistance, and agreed to give him one-half of whatever land might- be saved for her, in consideration of which Kelsey agreed to employ and pay a lawyer for her, and otherwise assist her in the defense of the suit. About the time Kelsey purchased the property, and before he got the deed, he had. a conversation with Calvin Bell about it. With regard to this Kelsey testifies as follows: “He told Calvin Bell he was going to get a deed to the property. Calvin Bell stated the property did not belong to either Calvin Bell or Katie Beil. Katie Bell had no more right to it than did he (Calvin Bell). That the property belonged to Jim Donovan. Witness told Calvin that Katie was going to get ten acres. Calvin stated that he had nothing to do with it; if she got a thousand acres, he had nothing to do with it. Witness in taking the deed from Katie Bell consulted and relied on the opinion of I. Lovenberg, Jr., her attorney. In taking the deed from Katie Bell he believed that Calvin told him the truth when he told him that Katie Bell was a white woman. Witness relied upon it as a true statement that Katie Bell was a white woman.” This witness also testified; “Katie Bell did not live with Calvin Bell during the time witness knew her. There was a general reputation throughout La Marque that Katie Bell was a white woman. Calvin Bell is a negro. Before witness bought the property, he also had a conversation with Calvin Bell. Calvin Bell told witness that Katie Bell was white and that was the reason he was not with her.”
When interrogated about this talk with Kelsey, as a witness for appellees, Calvin testified: “Well, he spoke to me this way about that property. He says, ‘Well, I am about to get into that piece of ground of Kitty’s over there.’ I says, ‘Tes.’ And he says, ‘Well, it is a big lawsuit, and I am going to defend the case for her and she tells me that she will allow me one-half.’ • I says: ‘All right. I have nothing to do with that.’ I says: ‘She never said nothing to me about what her trades were or anything of the kind. I have nothing to do with it. Anything that they want to contract without my voice or *567signature to it, I have no right to lay hold of.’ ” He added: “At that time I did not know what my rights were in the premises. Ambrose (Kelsey)' did not ask me to sign any deed. I never saw any deed.” Witness did not deny that he told Kelsey that Katie Bell was a white woman. This witness testified, it is true, that he continued to live with Katie Bell, but according to his own testimony his visits were only occasional and not open, and there is nothing in his testimony to rebut the inference that so far as public appearances went, at least, they were living entirely separate.
These facts, which were undisputed, were calculated to induce the belief on the part of Kelsey that Katie Bell was a white woman and therefore could not be the wife of Gal-vin Bell, or at least that they had separated, and Galvin had left Katie to shift for herself, and did not claim any interest in the land in controversy, or any right to control her in the disposition of it. Acting under this belief, Kelsey interested himself, employed and paid a lawyer to defend the suit, through which means alone the ten acres were saved to Katie Bell. Calvin stated that neither he nor Katie had any interest in the land; that it belonged to Donovan. It is entirely clear that without the assistance of Kelsey, which he was induced to give by the promise of half of what might be recovered, and which contract he was induced to make by Galvin’s conduct and representations, together with those of Katie Bell, there would be no land to fight over. All would have gone to Kennedy. “He who does not speak when he should, will not be allowed to speak when he would,” if the result of such later speech be to allow the perpetration of a fraud upon another.
[9] Having by his positive statements to Kelsey induced him to go ahead with the business, Calvin cannot now be allowed to set up rights which he disclaimed then. The other appellees are bound likewise by the estoppel, which rests upon both Galvin and Katie Bell.
The motion of appellant for a new trial is granted. The former judgment, in so far as it remands the case for another trial, is set aside, and judgment is here rendered for appellant for the land sued for.