Court Opinion

ID: 9829781
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 19:36:59.796963+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:06.134931
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
In the original disposition this court held that the trial court did not err in excluding from evidence tax receipts offered by appellants to show payment, by the mortgagee, of certain taxes upon the property involved. What was said upon that question will be withdrawn from the original opinion, and the matter will now be discussed anew.
Under the provision of the Constitution which prohibits the forced sale of a family homestead, an exception is made in the case of taxes due thereon, for which the taxing power has a lien upon the property. Article 16, § 50.
A person who pays taxes due upon a homestead, at the request of the owner, is subrogated by law to the tax lien to the amount of the taxes paid by him. Specifically, the mortgagee in this case having paid certain state, county, and school district taxes upon the Williams homestead, at the request of the owners, and those items having been included in the amount secured by the deed of trust, the mortgagee thereby obtained a valid lien upon the homestead to the amount of the taxes paid, and the trustee’s sale under the power given in the deed of trust was authorized ánd valid. Belcher Land Mortgage Co. v. Taylor (Tex.Com.App.) 212 S.W. 647; Harrison v. Bank (Tex.Com.App.) 238 S.W. 209; Chambers & Co. v. Little (Tex.Civ.App.) 21 S.W.(2d) 17; Girardeaux v. Perkins, 59 Tex.Civ.App. 552, 126 S.W. 633; Wood v. Eastland B. & L. Ass’n (Tex.Civ.App.) 75 S.W.(2d) 466; Price v. McAnelly (Tex.Civ.App.) 287 S.W. 77; Meador v. Wagner (Tex.Civ.App.) 70 S.W.(2d) 794; Williams v. Daniel (Tex.Civ.App.) 30 S.W.(2d). 711.
It appears in this case that, when the Williamses defaulted in certain payments upon the debt secured by the deed of trust, the trustee proceeded, under powers given him in that instrument, to sell the property, which was bought in by appellants. Appellees made no objection to that sale, but, after it was consummated and the property was conveyed, by trustee’s deed, to the purchaser, appellees brought this suit in the form of trespass to try title, and to cancel the deed of trust and trus*1076tee’s deed. By this procedure appellees assumed the burden of establishing, as they have charged, that the entire rights and interests claimed by appellants under and by virtue of the trustee’s deed were derived from a void deed of trust lien upon appellees’ homestead. Appellees did not meet this burden below, for it was shown by parol testimony and by tax receipts offered in evidence by appellants, but excluded by the court, that the mortgagee, at appellees’ request, paid certain state, county, and district taxes upon the property involved, and that the amounts so paid were included in the amount secured by the deed of trust, in which it was expressly provided that the lien thereby created included the tax items. Under the authorities cited, the deed of trust, to the extent of those items, was valid, as were also the foreclosure, sale, and trustee’s deed thereunder.
The fact that the total debt secured by the lien, and for which the sale was made, was substantially in excess of the amount of the taxes paid, does not impair or affect the validity of the sale, for the power of sale was properly exercised if any part of the debt was owing at the time. Price v. McAnelly, supra; Wood v. Eastland B. & L. Ass’n, supra; Chambers v. Little, supra; Welsh v. Pottorff (Tex.Civ.App.) 87 S.W.(2d) 287.
There is this qualification of the rule that, where the mortgagor, prior to the trustee’s sale, has made payments upon the debt, such payments should be credited upon that part of the debt covered by a valid lien, such as, for taxes paid, and, if such payments exceed or aggregate the amount of taxes paid, the sale is nevertheless void, if not valid for any other reason. Girardeaux v. Perkins, supra; Paschall v. Loan Co., 19 Tex.Civ.App. 102, 47 S.W. 98. The record indicates that some payments were made on the debt secured by the deed of trust in question, but the showing upon that issue is not sufficient to warrant an order of affirmance, or rendition, in this court.
Appellees insist that appellant did not himself put the deed of trust and trustee’s deed in evidence, and that, while appellees did put those instruments in evidence, they offered them, not as muniments of title, but only for the purpose of canceling them. We are of the opinion that, as appellees had the burden of showing that those instruments were void, and exhibited them to court and jury for the purpose of establishing their invalidity, neither that court nor this may close its eyes to the contents of those papers, and blindly declare them to be without any effect. We are of the opinion that appellants’ third proposition is well taken, that the court erred in excluding from evidence the tax receipts purporting to show that the mortgagee paid taxes upon the property involved; the evidence was admissible in connection with appellants’ testimony that the mortgagee paid said taxes, at appellees’ request, and included those items in the amount of the debt secured by the deed of trust.
Appellants’ motion for rehearing will be granted, and the judgment reversed and the cause remanded.