Court Opinion

ID: 9831905
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 21:28:17.346362+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:39.220722
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
It apparently is the contention of appellee that because Knox, after purchasing the land, asked the Bankers’ Trust Company for a corrected deed and instituted a suit to correct the deed, and was also, at that' time, informed if the note executed by Garrison for the land was paid the deed would be corrected, that this would constitute notice. Notice after the purchase cannot act retroactively, so as to defeat an already vested title acquired by a bona fide purchaser.
It is sought to show that Knox had notice of the existence of the implied vendor’s lien. The deed executed shows on its face that the purchase money was paid. There is no evidence on the face of the deed that the purchase money was unpaid. The trial court found that there was no actual notice to Knox that the purchase money remained unpaid, but finds Knox was not a bona fide purchaser, because he took a title with an obvious imperfection and accepted an irregular conveyance. He must, therefore, have based his conclusion upon' constructive notice conclusively presumed. This obvious, irregular conveyance and title does not disclose that it was so on account of nonpayment *338of the purchase money, but if irregular, that there was either a clerical error in the deed, or that the legal title was in some one else. When it was ascertained that it was a clerical mistake, that the deed conveyed the land to the vendor of Knox, there ,was then not only an equitable title in his grantor, but also the legal title. There is no presumption which follows from this mistake, conclusive or otherwise, that there was notice to Knox of the implied lien.
. There are well-recognized exceptions to the general rule of constructive notice through title papers. The purchaser has no constructive notice contained in a recital “from which other persons do not derive any rights in such property; he is not charged with notice of any fact collateral and foreign to the objects and effects of the instrument as a conveyance of an estate or interest to himself.” The rule is not extended to recitals or statements contained in the instrument which deals with another subject-matter not connected with the direct series of title deeds by reference. As to such the purchaser is not charged with constructive notice. 2 Pom. Eq. Jur. § 629. The appellee could not have derived any right in the property by the recital that the conveyance was to I. J. Garrison instead of J. Garrison. This mistake was not such as to put a reasonably prudent man upon inquiry, and of such a character as would lead to a discovery of the main fact; that is, the existence of an unpaid purchase-money note, by the exercise of proper diligence in pursuing the inquiry as to whether J. Garrison was the person to whom the land was conveyed. College Park, etc., v. Ide, 15 Tex. Civ. App. 273, 40 S. W. 64. The Bankers’ Trust Company by its deed to Garrison by the recital therein acknowledged the receipt of the full consideration in hand paid, thereby satisfying any inquiry that might otherwise have been prosecuted. Eylar v. Eylar, 60 Tex. 315. A mistake in the initial of the name of the grantee would not excite inquiry, as to whether the purchase money was paid, and it does not occur to us that a reasonable and prudent man would be put upon the inquiry for such a fact.
The motion is overruled.