76 S.W.2d 793 | Tex. App. | 1934
(after stating the case as above).
The appellants prefeent the point of error in canceling the deed of May 21, 1931, conveying a one-half undivided interest in the oil and other minerals under the six acres of land. The granting clause of the deed designates as a grantee “the said 0. M. E. Church, and (naming nine individuals) as Trustees of Cool Spring Colored Methodist Church of the County of Smith, State of-Texas”; the habendum clause names “the said C. M. E. Church” and “Trustees of the ■Cool Spring Methodist Church”; and in the warranty clause it runs: “The said Trustees of the Cool Springs Colored Methodist Church and their successors, and C. M. E. Church.” An uncertainty or doubt may not be declared as to the name of the real grantee intended to be designated to tate the title in fee equally with the trustees named, whether the local church at Cool Springs or the church as a general body at large, which is a corporation. Considering the whole instrument it can be ascertained and be made certain that the name “the said C. M. E. Church” and “C. M. E. Church,” as used to describe the grantee church, was not intended to refer and apply to the church as a general body at large, the corporation, as distinguished from the local church, but only to the same “Cool Springs Colored Methodist Church,” the local church at that station or place. The words, “the said C. M. E. Church,” were intended to designate the same church “Cool Springs Colored Methodist Church.” The inference that they designate the same church is strong. In the first part of the deed it was recited that the parties who paid the purchase money for the land were the “Trustees of Cool Springs Colored Methodist Church.” And the words, as next used in the granting clause, “said C. M. E. Church,” would import the intent to refer .to and designate that same local church at Cool Springs. The word “said” means, and is used in the sense only of “before mentioned.” And the point of difference between the two names is weak. The first description as given of “Colored Methodist Church” of Cool Spring station is merely imperfect in the omission of the word “Episcopal,” and must be so regarded, for it is evident that the name, the “Colored Methodist Episcopal Church,” has long been adopted by the church judicatories, and each and every church, whether incorporated or unincorporated, bears and uses the associate name. In the present case the one local Colored Methodist Episcopal Church at Cool Springs only was intended to be named and designated as the church to take the entire beneficial title. The mention, however, of the name of the local Colored Methodist Episcopal Church at Cool Spring as a grantee would be of no legal force, and would be treated as surplusage, being an unincorporated religious association. For as a matter of pure law an unincorporated religious association, as here appears, -is legally incapable in their associate name of taking and holding real property, and must take conveyance, as in this case may be deemed was done, through the intervention of trustees. Methodist Episcopal Church South v. Clifton, 34 Tex. Civ. App. 248, 78 S. W. 732; 23 R. C. L. p. 443; 54 C. J. p. 47. The legal effect attaching to the deed must put at rest any question of whether or not the entire legal title to the land was vested in the trustees named, and their successors duly appointed or elected for the future, but solely for the use and benefit of the members of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church of Cool Springs, in Smith county.
The deed to the trustees of the local church at Cool Springs was, as may be seen, a simple conveyance of the property without any express trust terms or conditions. They are not by any language creating the trust charged with the performance of any active and substantial duties with- respect to the control, management, and disposition of the property for the benefit of the church, the beneficial owner. The trustees are made a mere passive depository of the property with no active duties to perform. The trust, in effect, is t classed as an express passive or naked trust. 3 Pomeroy Eq. Jur. (4 Ed.) § 988; 65 C. J. § 16, p. 227. Hence the right of management and sale of the property by the trustees must come from the members of the local congregation in whom the beneficial title is vested or as the canons or discipline of such religious denomination made applicable so provide. 54 C. J. § 122 and § 128, pp. 60, 63; and other authorities. And the accepted rule is that none less than all the trustees in such passive or naked trust can make a valid conveyance of the trust property. Dodge v. Lacey (Tex. Civ. App.) 216 S. W. 400; Wilbur v. Almy, 12 How. 180, 13 L. Ed. page 945. It is quite certainly shown as a fact that the sale and convey-
It is concluded that the appellant C. L. Porter may not be deemed an innocent purchaser in the circumstances. He had means of knowledge sufficient to charge him with the infirmity of the deed by the trustees.
It is a sufficient answer that the letter in evidence of May 28th written by the Boone Refining Company, stating amounts paid for oil runs from the well, was offered in evidence and was not objected to by appellants, and besides that the statement in the letter respecting the money paid to appellants does not purport to be in the class of strictly hearsay evidence. The letter purports to make statement of the specific fact of the amount paid to appellants as within the own knowledge of the writer.
The judgment is affirmed.