Walker v. Lawler's Heirs

Citations

• 45 Tex. 532

Syllabus

<p>1. In 1840 A and B, as attorneys for an administrator, rendered professional services in a suit involving his intestate’s title to a league of land; in 1852, 0, one of the heirs, conveyed, as sole owner, the league in controversy to D, who, in part consideration,' assumed the payment of the fees due A and B, and executed a mortgage on the entire league to secure the payment of the purchase-money. D afterwards set aside three hundred and fifty acres of the land to A and B in payment for their services in the suit, and made a deed thereto. The vendee of A and B, in 1854, conveyed to W. After-wards, at a sale on foreclosure of the mortgage to C byE, the administrator on his estate, the entire league was purchased by E as C’s administrator. 0, during his life, recognized the fact that the lands conveyed by him were incumbered bjr the lien for the fees due to A and B: Held, 1. In a suit for the land by E against TV, that the above facts constituted a sufficient defense; that E could not repudiate the conveyance under which TV claimed, without restoring the value of the services for which the conveyance under which TV claimed the land was made, and- that TV was subrogated to the rights of the attorneys A and B. 2. The heir cannot treat the adjustment of a claim against the estate of his ancestor.as a nullity, while he enjoys without offering to restore the benefit of .it.</p> <p>2. Bona fide purchaser — Equitable lien. — When a Iona fide possessor or purchaser of an estate pays money in discharge of an existing incumbrance or charge upon the estate, having no notice of any infirmity in his title, he is entitled to be repaid the amount of • such payment by the true owner seeking to recover the estate from him.</p> <p>3. Limitation. — Limitation will not begin to run against one wiio establishes an equity based on a conveyance to him by the vendee of an heir in adjustment of a claim against the estate with the heir’s consent, when a suit to evict is afterwards brought by