66 Tex. 178 | Tex. | 1886
The appellants claim under a transfer of the certificate, by virtue of which the land in controversy was granted, claimed to have been made prior to the issue of the patent, and the appellees claim through a regular chain of title from the patentee to themselves. There was some controversy as to one of the transfers of the land certificate through which the appellants claim, and, in view of that fact, the court below informed the jury that title to the certificate would pass by written transfer or by verbal sale, and further, that title thereto might be acquired by an adverse holding for two years; that, by any of these methods, title to the certificate, as between its true owner and the claimant, would pass.
The real and vital question in the case was whether, admitting that the appellants were the owners of the certificate with which the land was located, there existed facts which gave to the appellees notice of the right of appellants to the land by reason of the ownership of the certificate under which it was granted. The record shows that the land was patented to Logan B. Henderson, who, by will, duly probated, gave the certificate on which the patent issued to Mary G. Herndon; and the defendants assert title to the interest in the land claimed by them through conveyances made by two of her children, subsequently to her death.
The conveyances through which the appellees claim were made for valuable consideration, and they claim without notice of any right-the appellants may have had by reason of the transfer of the certificate by Mrs. Herndon, before it was located, to a person through whom appellants claim. The charge of the court as to what would amount-to notice, and as to its effect upon the rights of the parties, is full and fair, and there was no error in the charge, under the evidence, in that the jury were instructed to look to all the evidence, and therefore to-determine, as they would any other fact, whether the appellees had notice of any right or claim held or made by the appellants at the time they purchased.
There was no proof of any fact which would have justified the court below in instructing the jury that appellees were affected with notice of the right or claim of the appellants at the time they purchased.
On the contrary, it seems to us, from an inspection of all the evidence offered, that a finding upon this issue in favor of the appellants would not be supported. The brief of counsel urges that the evidence was not sufficient to show that Mary G. Herndon died before her children made the conveyances through which the appellees claim.
There is no assignment of errors, which raises this question; but, if there were, it seems to us that the evidence offered by the appellants-
Affirmed.
[Opinion delivered May 4, 1886.]