48 S.W.2d 1024 | Tex. App. | 1932
Mrs. Mary F. Crosslin, a feme sole, executed and delivered to the Atlas Lumber Company her promissory note dated September 29, 1924, due September 29, 1929, for the sum of $2,500, with interest from date at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum. Said note also provided for attorney's fees in event of suit thereon. Said note was secured by a vendor's lien on a certain lot of land in the city of Waco. To further secure the same, Mrs. Crosslin executed and delivered a deed of trust of even date therewith on said lot. Said note and liens were duly assigned by the Atlas Lumber Company to Mrs. Anne H. Scott. Mrs. Crosslin thereafter married A. O. Wallace. She, joined by her husband, on July 11, 1928, conveyed the lot of land so incumbered to N. Wood, subject to the amount due on said note and also subject to any unpaid taxes thereon. Mrs. Scott paid city taxes on said lot for the years 1926, 1927, and 1928, which accrued prior to such conveyance, in the sum of $224.74. She also paid state and county taxes on said lot for the year 1929 in the sum of $20.35. Said taxes were delinquent at the time of payment. She also paid to the city of Waco taxes on said lot for the year 1929 in the sum of $70.91 and for the year 1930 in the sum of $63.69. Taxes for the year 1929 were delinquent at the time of payment. Receipts for the taxes so paid indicate that the property was assessed for said years in the name of Mrs. Wallace. Mrs. Anne H. Scott and husband, B. L. Scott, on the 21st day of July, 1930, instituted this suit against Mrs. Mary Crosslin Wallace and her husband, A. O. Wallace, and N. Wood, to recover the amount due on said note and all taxes paid by Mrs. Scott on said lot. They alleged that said taxes had been paid by Mrs. Scott to protect her liens on said lot, and that the same constituted a personal liability against Mrs. Wallace and said N. Wood. They prayed that said liens be foreclosed on said lot. Appellant N. Wood answered disclaiming all right, title, and interest in and to said lot of land and denying all appellees' allegations.
A trial before the court was had on June 2, 1931, and resulted in a judgment in favor of appellee Mrs. Anne H. Scott against Mrs. Mary Crosslin Wallace for the amount due on said note in the sum of $3,173, for taxes paid by Mrs. Scott in the sum of $321.37, and a judgment against appellant Wood for taxes paid by Mrs. Scott in the sum of $163.47. Executions for the collection of the sums so recovered were awarded against Mrs. Wallace and Wood, respectively. The court found in that connection that the note sued on was secured by a vendor's lien and a deed of trust lien on said lot, and ordered said liens foreclosed, said lot sold, and the proceeds applied to the satisfaction of said respective recoveries. N. Wood alone has appealed.
The special lien given by the Constitution, art. 8, § 15, against real estate for the taxes assessed thereon is, of course, superior to the claims of an antecedent lienholder, and we think the statutory provisions above quoted evidence a clear legislative intent that, in the case of sales of real estate for taxes, such taxes shall be satisfied in full out of the property against which they are assessed. The decision by the Supreme Court in Stone v. Tilley, supra, was rendered a quarter of a century ago and has remained unchallenged to this date, and we think the rule therein announced controls the disposition of this appeal. The judgment of the trial court is therefore so reformed as to deny to appellee a personal judgment against appellant for the taxes paid by her which accrued upon the property involved herein after its purchase by him, but this shall not affect the judgment of the court establishing the amount of the taxes so paid and ordering the proceeds of the sale of the property applied in satisfaction thereof.
The judgment of the trial court as so reformed is affirmed. *1026