Court Opinion

ID: 9833210
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 22:31:31.841996+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:44:00.482315
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
[10, 11] Having fully considered appellant’s motion for rehearing, and the authorities cited therein, we have reached the conclusion that we were in error in holding in our original opinion that appellee showed superior title to the land in controversy, and in affirming this case. It appears from the record that appellee introduced in evidence a certified copy of a deed from R. E. Avent, the common source of title, of date December 18, 1893, filed for record on July 14, 1894, and recorded in the deed records of Oottle county on the 18th* day of July, 1894, conveying the land in controversy to J. H. Rule, under whom appellant holds; that the attachment under which appellee claims was levied on June 11, 1894, and filed for record in the county clerk’s office of Oottle county on June 12, 1894; that; Mrs. N. A. Harwell, under whom appellee holds, purchased the land on January 23, 1895, at sheriff’s sale under said attachment proceeding; that appellee purchased the land February 11, 1909, from S. B. and N. A. Harwell. It appears that the deed from R. E. Avent to J. H. Rule, above referred to, was acknowledged before a justice of the peace and ex officio notary public of Sunflower county, Miss., on the 10th day of July, 1894, and the notary, in his certificate, recites that he had impressed his seal thereon (appellee alleges the loss of the original deed), and a certified copy of the record introduced in evidence does not show that a seal was used, further than the notary’s recital in his certificate that the acknowledgment was given under seal. We are of the opinion that under the decisions in this state the presumption obtains that the seal was attached to the original instrument, and that said deed was duly and legally recorded, and from the time of said record was notice to all parties buying said land after the record of said deed; and, in order for appellee to recover herein, it is necessary for him to show by the evidence that either he or his vendor, Mrs. N. A. Harwell, bought said land for a valuable consideration, and without notice of the claim under which appellant holds; and having failed in this, because of the execution and record of the deed above referred to, it then becomes necessary for appellee to show affirmatively, in order to recover, that at the time of the fixing of S. B. Harwell’s attachment lien he (the said S. B. Harwell) had no riótice of the claim under which appellant holds. There does not appear to have been any evidence introduced to show that either appellee or Mrs. Harwell paid a valuable consideration, and purchased without notice of the claim under which appellant holds; nor that there was any evidence that S. B. Harwell, at the date of the attaching of his lien, had no notice of said claim. Watkins v. Edwards, *107723 Tex. 443; Grace v. Wade, 45 Tex. 522: Rodgers v. Burchard, 34 Tex. 453, 7 Am. Rep. 283; L. & H. Blum Land Co. v. Harbin, 33 S. W. 153; Walker et al. v. Downs, 64 S. W. 682; Butler v. Dunagan, 19 Tex. 559; Wilson v. Simpson, 68 Tex. 312, 4 S. W. 839; Ballard v. Perry, 28 Tex. 347; Hines v. Thorn, 57 Tex. 104; Witt v. Harlan, 66 Tex. 661, 2 S. W. 41; Alexander v. Houghton, 26 S. W. 1102.
In view, however, of the fact that the case appears to have been tried in the court below upon the theory that, the property in controversy having been attached and the attachment recorded before the defendant’s chain of title was placed of record, the sale under the attachment would relate back to the levy and vest the purchaser at such sale with the superior title to the property, and that the question as to whether the attaching creditor, S. B. Harwell, had no notice of the unrecorded conveyance under which appellant holds appears to have been overlooked and not fully developed, we conclude that appellant’s motion for rehearing should be here granted, and this case reversed and remanded; and it is accordingly so ordered.