Court Opinion

ID: 9829660
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 19:30:36.327662+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:03.948641
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellees insist that the records of the assessor’s office should not be given the same legal effect as to constructive notice which is attributed to the records in the office of the county clerk; that there is a general statute which makes the records in the latter office constructive notice of the contents of the instruments there registered to all persons, while no such effect is by law given to the records of the assessor’s office. In Scales v. Wren, referred to in the original opinion, Chief Justice Gaines quotes as follows from the act of 1897 (Acts 25th Leg. c. 103, § 6): “The county collector, county clerk and county assessor shall furnish all affidavits, certified copies of the records of their respective offices, and such other evidence as may be in their possession by virtue of such office as may be applied for by the county attorney.” He then adds: “Now, it is plain that, if the county attorney had called upon these officers, as it was his duty to do, the county clerk would have furnished him information which would have apprised him that the owner of the land was not unknown.” It is thus made clear that the Supreme Court relied upon the statute quoted for saying that the records of the county clerk’s office were constructive notice in such instances to the county attorney, and not upon the general law relating to recorded instruments. It may be said here that, had the county attorney called upon the assessor for these data, as it was his duty to do, that officer would have furnished him with information apprising him of the name of one of the owners of the land, Mrs. Adams. We do not wish to be understood as holding that.A. J. Adams has an interest in the land that may be recovered upon another trial, for, if Mrs. Adams parted with her interest before she executed the deed to him, she conveyed him nothing. The evidence as to her having sold the land in controversy is conflicting, and this appeal is from an instructed verdict. The testimony upon that issue, at least, presented a question of fact which should be submitted to the jury upon another trial.
Both the motion of the appellees and of the appellants are overruled.