Becht v. Martin

Citations

• 37 Tex. 719

Syllabus

<p>In 1840 the Congress of the Republic, by special Act, authorized the emancipation of P. M., a negro, and allowed him to remain in the Republic, with his property. At that time, and until his death, in 1863, he and a | female slave cohabited as man and wife. In 1863 he executed a written instrument whereby he empowered a white man to “ attend to all “ of my business during my life, and to attend to the renting, or selling “ of my present homestead, after my death,” and directed that the proceeds of the property, when sold, should he paid-to his (so-called) wife, and, on her death, “ he exhausted for the benefit of my children,” who were themselves slaves. After the death of P. M., and in 1863, the white .man sold and conveyed the property to the defendant, for Confederate money—the jury finding that defendant knew that his vendor was acting as trustee for the so-called wife of P. M., and their issue, by whom, in 1871, this suit was brought to recover the property. Meld, that the instrument executed by P. M., in 1868, created a trust in favor of the plaintiffs, and though the trust was inoperative so long as they remained slaves, yet, after their emancipation, it was valid and enforceable in their favor. Meld further, that the trustee’s sale for Confederate' money was illegal, and the defendant took the property burdened with the trust id favor of the plaintiffs.</p>