Sanchez v. Ramirez

Citations

• 58 Tex. 310
• 1883 Tex. LEXIS 17

Syllabus

<p>1. Trespass to try title—Set-off. — In a suit filed March 23, 1879, the action being in trespass to try title, a judgment was rendered October, 1879, for defendant, that he be quieted in his right and title to the land. On March 3, 1880, thereafter, a second suit was brought by the same plaintiff against the same defendant for the same land, when the defendant pleaded his former recovery in bar. Held,</p> <p>(1) The rendition of a judgment in trespass to try title for defendant on his plea setting up title in himself, and praying for a decree divesting the plaintiff of title to the property, constituted no bar to a second suit instituted within the time prescribed by the former law. Pasch. Dig., 5298.</p> <p>(2) Any other construction would have placed it in the power of a defendant, by his manner of pleading, to practically nullify the statute whenever the plaintiff failed to show sufficient title in his first suit.</p> <p>(3) The first suit having been instituted prior to the adoption of the Revised Statutes, the second suit was properly brought; reaffirming Hall v. Wooters, 54 Tex., 232.</p> <p>2. Judgment.—In trespass to try title, it was ascertained on the trial that the defendant, against whom judgment was rendered, was indebted to the plaintiff on account of damage done him, in a larger amount than the sum of a debt for money loaned by defendant to the plaintiff. Held, that the decree of the court canceling the debt owing the defendant by an appropriation of the damage due the plaintiff in so far as it was necessary, was not cause for reversing the judgment.</p>