Lindsay v. Jaffray

Citations

• 55 Tex. 626
• 1881 Tex. LEXIS 160

Syllabus

<p>1. Trespass to try title—Equitable title — Land certificate.— Land was patented in the name of a patentee who had died thirty years before. Thirteen years before the patent issued the heirs of the patentee sold the certificate by virtue of which the land was patented through an agent to an unknown party. In trespass to try title, brought by those claiming under transfers of the certificate, subsequent to the sale by the heirs, but who were unable to connect themselves with the original unknown vendee of the heirs, and against a defendant who claimed under quit-claim deeds made by the heirs after suit began, held,</p> <p>(1) It was not necessary to the validity of the sale by the heirs that it should have been in writing.</p> <p>(2) The possession and apparent ownership of the certificate being shown in the vendor of the plaintiff, in the absence of evidence connecting the defendant with an outstanding equitable title, derived by purchase through the party to whom the heirs first sold, such equitable title cannot be available as a defense.</p> <p>2. Jurisdiction.— When the authority of a court is exercised by the rendition of judgment, and the judgment is satisfied, its authority is exhausted, and all proceedings afterwards had by it without notice to those who acquired interests under it, are absolutely void.</p> <p>8. Depositions—Practice.— Whilst it is true that notice must be given in writing and before trial of objections to a deposition, that an interrogatory had not been fully answered, a different rule prevails when the objection is that the answer of the witness pertains to matters about which he had not been questioned; in the latter case the objection may be made orally on the trial.</p> <p>4. Practice.—A judgment rendered after trial without the intervention of a jury will not toe reversed because improper evidence was heard by the judge.</p> <p>5. Evidence.— When a suit is brought in a firm name, and the individuals composing that firm are stated in t