Court Opinion

ID: 9676638
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 05:29:15.380276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:50.012097
License: Public Domain

BURGESS, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority, in their zeal to maintain “[T]he purity and efficiency of the right of trial by jury,” simply misses the point.
Miller filed an action in trespass to try title and sought damages for the timber. He did not assert an action to reform his deed. His pleadings included a legal description of the property, to which he claimed both record title and title by adverse possession. At trial, Miller contended that his deed recited an incorrect beginning point. He claimed that the only way to reconcile all of the conveyances out of the common grantor was to move the beginning point from the southeast corner of the Allie and James Powell tract, as recited in the deed, to the southeast corner of the Harriet and Albert Bean tract, as awarded on the judgment. This would place Miller on the eastern part of the “Bean tract,” where the timber was cut. Appellants argued that two parallel calls were reversed in error and could be reconciled by reversing those calls so that the Miller deed fit into the western part of the Bean tract, where no timber was cut.
The jury charge refers to “the land in controversy” as “the 12.5 acres sued for” and does not set forth a property description. The judgment awarding title to Miller describes the eastern part of the Bean tract. On appeal, Miller argues that it was within the trial court’s power to reform the *956deed to correct the metes and bounds description. I disagree. Miller and the majority consistently refer to the “the subject property”, but ignore the fact that “the subject property” is described in his pleadings only with a point of beginning in the southeast corner of the Powell tract, and never as a tract beginning at the southeast corner of the Bean tract.
The petition in a trespass to try title case must contain a “description of the premises by metes and bounds, or with sufficient certainty to identify the same, so that from such description possession thereof may be delivered....” Tex.R.Civ.P. 783(b). This is an absolute requirement; the trial court lacks jurisdiction to enter judgment to title to land in the absence of a pleading placing the property in controversy. Gilbreath v. Yarbrough, 472 S.W.2d 185 (Tex.Civ.App.-Tyler 1971, writ ref’d n.r.e.); Holasek v. Janek, 244 S.W. 285 (Tex.Civ.App.-Dallas 1922, no writ). See also, Butler v. Hanson, 455 S.W.2d 942 (Tex.1970). Miller’s petition set forth a single property description, which was identical to the description contained the deed under which Miller claimed record title. All of the alternative adverse possession allegations referred back to this description. Miller never alleged the description in the deed contained an ambiguous description, nor did he seek to reform the deed to correct the description. The judgment does not describe the same property as Miller’s pleadings and therefore awards title to property not in controversy. This is error.
This is an action in trespass to try title, seeking possession of real property; to prevail Miller must plead and prove that the land can be located in order to show his interest in it. Valadez v. Barrera, 647 S.W.2d 377 (Tex.App.-San Antonio 1983, no writ). Miller’s own position is the description contained in both the deed and his petition is ambiguous. But obviously an ambiguous description cannot supply the notice required by Rule 783. Furthermore, the judgment must conform to the pleadings. Tex.R.Civ.P. 301. Miller has no pleadings to support an action to reform the deed, nor did he amend his pleadings to alter the description of the property in controversy to conform with the description of the property he sought judgment upon. Since Miller failed to establish title to the property in his petition, he is not entitled to damages for deforestation of an unlitigated tract, and the award of damages was also in error.
I would sustain points of error one, two and three, thus not reaching the remaining points of error, and reverse the judgment of the trial court and render judgment that A.A. Miller take nothing of his suit.