179 S.W. 536 | Tex. App. | 1915
The first assignment presented is as follows:
"The court erred in rendering judgment for defendants and in overruling plaintiff's motion for judgment in his favor, notwithstanding the findings of the jury."
It is not denied that the findings of the jury justified, if they did not demand, a judgment in favor of the defendants in error. But it is argued that the state of the evidence was such that the court should have ignored those findings and entered up a judgment in favor of the plaintiff in error. It has long been the settled law in this state that when a jury has been impaneled to try the issues of fact, the court is required to conform his judgment to the jury's findings. Rev.Civ.Stat. 1911, arts. 1986, 1990, 1994; Ablowich v. Bank,
We might rest the affirmance of this judgment upon the disposition made of this assignment, for none of those remaining are presented in a manner which entitles them to consideration; but the plaintiff in error insists that the judgment is fundamentally erroneous because of the insufficiency of the evidence to support it. Conceding, for the sake of argument, that the absence of sufficient evidence to support a judgment is an error apparent upon the face of the record which may be considered without an assignment, we think the appeal is without merit. The evidence shows that in 1889 Bickerstaff was the owner of the land in controversy, together with two other tracts. He was in need of money, and procured a loan from D. F. McLemore and made the deed of January 29, 1889, for the purpose of securing McLemore in the loan advanced. In 1891 McLemore executed a deed reconveying this tract, and other lands not here involved, to Bickerstaff. There was considerable dispute as to whether or not this deed was ever delivered. McLemore admitted its execution, but says that it was the understanding that the deed was to be delivered when Bickerstaff paid the debt; that he failed to do this, and the deed never had been delivered. The deed was produced on the trial as coming from the custody of D. F. McLemore. Savannah Bickerstaff, one of the defendants in error, testified: That her father at his death left a number of papers relating to his business, which she turned over to Mr. Davenport, his attorney. Before doing this she looked over them and found an *538 instrument in the form of a deed, which related to the land in controversy, and to which J. B. Bickerstaff and D. F. McLemore were parties. She did not recollect the date, but did recall that it also had a certificate of acknowledgment from S. M. Speer. Davenport testified that Miss Bickerstaff brought to his office a number of her father's deeds and papers, which were examined by him. One of them, according to his description, appeared to be the deed from D. F. McLemore to J. B. Bickerstaff, reconveying the land in controversy. This deed mysteriously disappeared from his office the very day it was brought to him. That an issue of fact regarding the delivery of the deed of 1891 was presented and determined by the jury in favor of the defendants. This alone is sufficient to defeat the plaintiff's right of recovery.
But if it should be assumed, as the plaintiff in error contends, that the deed from D. F. McLemore in 1891 was never in fact delivered, there is ample evidence in the record, about which there appears to be little or no dispute, which shows that the chain of title upon which the plaintiff in error relies is insufficient to support his claim of ownership. It was admitted in the argument before this court that the deed from Bickerstaff to McLemore executed in 1889 was only a mortgage, as found by the jury. Under a well-established rule in this state the mortgagee acquires no estate in or title to the mortgaged property which he may convey to another. He holds only a lien, which is merely a legal right to have recourse on the mortgaged property for the satisfaction of his debt in case of default. He cannot sue and recover the property in the event the condition is broken, but must seek a foreclosure of his lien and a sale of the property. The fact that the mortgage is evidenced by a deed absolute upon its face does not alter the rule. Mann v. Falcon,
The evidence shows that the deed from D. F. McLemore to the plaintiff in error was signed by Bickerstaff as a witness, but was acknowledged before a notary public by the grantor. There was also evidence tending to show that Bickerstaff received a credit on his debt due to D. F. McLemore equal to the sum recited in the deed. It is insisted that these facts are sufficient to create an estoppel against the heirs of Bickerstaff, notwithstanding the notice to the plaintiff in error and his failure to pay a valuable consideration for the transfer.
There are at least two satisfactory reasons why these facts do constitute an estoppel. First, because an equitable estoppel cannot be invoked except for the purpose of protecting the party claiming its benefit from some damage or loss which might result if the true state of the facts should control the determination of the controversy. The party who invokes estoppel must be able to point to some injury he will sustain, if the truth is told. Here the plaintiff in error parted with no consideration, and can lose nothing if it be shown that he got no title. The only injury of which he can complain is the failure to obtain something for nothing. The fact that in the transaction Bickerstaff may have secured a benefit, in the nature of a credit on his debt, does not alter the situation. An estoppel is interposed, not because one party has received a benefit from the transaction, but because another may be injured. The rules governing estoppel are not to be confused with those which govern ratification.
The second reason is, because the plaintiff in error apparently knew as much about the legal status of the title to the land as did Bickerstaff. Wortham v. Thompson,
If the deed under which D. F. McLemore claimed was a mortgage at its *539
inception it remained a mortgage, and no subsequent parol agreement of the parties could alter its legal character. Keller v. Kirby,
A conveyance by a mortgagee out of possession passes nothing. Perkins v. Sterne,
For reasons not necessary to state we have passed over several tenable objections urged by the defendants in error against the consideration of this case on its merits.
There is no error in the judgment, and it is affirmed.