76 S.W.2d 132 | Tex. Comm'n App. | 1934
The Humble Oil & Refining Company brought this suit against C. H. Robertson and others, in the form of trespass to try title to a tract of land upon which it holds an oil lease, which tract we shall designate as the 42%-acre tract. The real question at issue, however, respects the location on the ground of the west boundary line of said tract. The tract constitutes a part of block 14 of the Nacogdoches school land survey in Van Zandt county. The oil lease held by the. Humble Company was executed by H. J. Ray and wife on April 16, 1928, and was recorded May 21, 1928. The lease, according to its terms, covers the same land that is described in a deed executed by Mrs. Lara Oliver to H. J. Ray on December 26, 1927. The tract is described in said deed, by metes and bounds, as follows:
“Beginning at the southeast comer of block No. 15, a subdivision of said labor, on east boundary line of same, at 2250 vrs of the-northeast corner of same; thence south 371 vrs to corner on which an elm brs north 33 9/10 vrs, the same being 5 in. in diameter and a black walnut 4 in. in diameter bears south 4 1/2 west 2 3-10 vrs; thence W. 645 vrs to stake from which a P. O. 16 in. in diameter bears south 56 east 5 8-10 vrs, do. 16 in. diameter brs. north 37 east 11 vrs; thence north 371 vrs. to corner of block No. 15; thence east 645 vrs to the place of ‘beginning containing 42-1/2 acres of land.”
On March 10, 1930, H. J. Ray and wife executed to the defendants in error an oil lease on a strip of land lying in block 14, which strip is approximately 41 varas wide and abuts the west boundary line of said block a distance of 371 varas .from the northwest corner of the block. This strip is the land in controversy, the Humble Company claiming that same is embraced within the boundaries of the 42%-acre tract. In this connection, the following facts are conclusively established by undisputed testimony:
Blocks 14 and 15, along with other blocks of the Nacogdoches' county school survey,, were originally laid out and surveyed about the year 1880. According to the calls of the original field notes, the respective boundary lines of these blocks run with the cardinal points of the compass. The southeast corner and the southwest comer of block 15,. as then established, were witnessed by marked bearing trees. One of these witness trees for the southwest comer of said block remained standing as late as the year 1923. These two corners, according to original field note calls, also constitute respectively the northeast corner and northwest comer of block 14. In the field notes for these respective blocks, the distance called for between said two corners is 645 varas. The location of these corners, on the ground, is conclusively shown by undisputed testimony, and the distance between them is thus conclusively shown to be approximately 686 varas instead of 645 varas as called for in the original field notes. It will be observed, too, that the above-quoted description of the 42%-acre tract calls for these corners, as constituting the northeast corner and the northwest corner, respectively, of the said tract. The location, on the ground, of the southeast corner of the 42%-acre tract, as called for, is
However, the judgment of the trial court is erroneous in a material respect. In the judgment, the Humble Company is denied a recovery as to any part of the narrow strip of land to which this controversy relates. The testimony shows conclusively that the company, at all events, was entitled to a recovery, in respect to the part of said strip that lies east of a line drawn from the southwest corner of the 42i/4-acre tract, as testified to by the witness Black, and the northwest corner of block 14. On account of this error, the judgment of the trial court and that of the Court of Civil Appeals are reversed and the cause remanded.
Opinion adopted by the Supreme Court Nov. 28, 1934.