Gibbons v. Bell

Citations

• 45 Tex. 417

Syllabus

<p>1. Statute of frauds — Locative interest in land. — A contract by which parties agree to acquire land together, one furnishing the . certificate, and the other the labor and expense of surveying and procuring patent for it, is not a contract for the purchase and sale of land by one to the other, bat is an agreement by which they are to acquire land jointly.</p> <p>2. Parol partition op land. — Land thus acquired may be partitioned by parol by the owners.</p> <p>3. Locator — Equitable rights. — When a contract for location is consummated by the issuance of the patent, the party in whom the legal title is vested holds it in trust for his co-tenant to the extent of his interest. The legal title is a bare, naked trust in the patentee, held in subordination to the superior equitable rights of the locator, to the extent of his undivided interest before partition and for the specific part allotted to him afterwards.</p> <p>4. Stale demand — Equitable title. — Though in such’ case the facts relied on in an action for the land and damages are alleged as of date more than ten years before the institution of the suit upon such title, the petition would not for that cause be subject to demurrer as settling a stale demand.</p>