Hudson v. Wheeler

Citations

• 34 Tex. 356

Syllabus

<p>2. The-office of a demurrer is simply to ask the judgment of the court upon the sufficiency of the pleading demurred to, and to call in question such matters of form and substance as are apparent upon its face; from which it follows that when a good cause of action is defectively pleaded, or when the petition shows upon its face that there is no good cause of action, the petition is demurrable.</p> <p>2. In this case the question is fully considered whether the statute of limitations can be interposed by way of special demurrer or exceptions, when the petition shows upon its face that the plaintiff's cause of action is barred; and the conclusion is deduced, both from reason nnci the authorities, that it maybe so interposed.</p> <p>3. Fraud alone does not prevent the operation of the statute of limitation®, nor does fraud, combined with mere ignorance of it on tho part of the defrauded party, have that effect. The rule now established is, that the statute of limitations will not run in aid oí a fraudulent deed or other-act, until the fraud is discovered, or by ordinary diligence might have been discovered, by the defrauded party; nor will the statute run so ' long as the fraudulent party purposely conceals the. fraud from, the person whose interest is to be affected by it.</p> <p>4. Deeds, though fraudulent and utterly void as muniments of title, may, if recorded ip the county where the land lies, be proper and cogent evidence .of a notorious claim and possession, adverse to the true owner, and sufficient, by force of the statute of limitations, to bar his recovery.</p> <p>5. A tenant at will may terminate his tenantcy at his p!easurernotwithstanding the absence of his landlord in foreign lands;. and the tenant may, after terminating the tenancy, purchase the same premises from another claimant, and invoke the protection ol the statute of limitations against the claim of the former landlord—there being- no fraudulent concealment in- the case.</p> <p>6. Long contin