Terry v. Baskin’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““We think the Court of Civil Appeals is in error in the above holding, and further is in error in holding that the issues of limitation involved in the present suit are determined by the rule announced in Deaton v. Rush, supra [ 113 Tex. 176 , 252 S.W. 1025 ]. In that case the grantor was attempting to recover from his grantee in possession by virtue of the grant, and it was very correctly held that a vendor having an equitable right to rescind and cancel a conveyance for fraud could not maintain a suit for the recovery of the land from his vendee in possession without the cancellation of the deed, though he may have judgment for such cancellation, and, as an incident thereto, for the recovery of the land in the same suit. Of course, in such a case, if the right to cancel the conveyance is barred by limitation, no recovery of the land can be had; this for the simple reason that it is absolutely necessary to cancel the conveyance before the land can be recovered. “As disclosed by the pleadings, we are confronted with very different conditions in the instant case from the conditions in Deaton v. Rush. In the instant case, the defendants are in possession of the land, and the plaintiffs, Morrison & Lewis, are seeking to oust them of such possession by means of a suit for partition and sale through a receiver. Morrison & Lewis in effect pleaded the power of attorney and conveyance to them as the basis of their asserted rights. Defendants pleaded as a defense to the right of Morri”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Biggs v. Poling

2. “"It will simplify the entire case to first determine where lies the superior title to the land. This does not mean the legal title, but the superior title, whether legal or equitable, since an equitable title may be superior to the legal title, and will prevail over the legal title if capable of being enforced against it. ****** “O’Neil’s pleading recited the facts, substantially as we have stated them, and as the jury found them, the effect of which was to invest him with a superior equitable title to the land, and reveals that, upon such a title and notice of the equity by the plaintiffs in the acquisition of their rights, his defense to their suit was rested. His prayer for the removal of the cloud upon his title, cast by the claims of the plaintiffs and interveners, did not alter the character of his defense, or convert it into an affirmative action subject to limitation. If his was the .superior title and capable of enforcement against the legal title, his right to be quieted in it would follow. Asserting, as he was, a superior equitable title, independent of the deed of Jones and wife to Mrs. Duey, as the basis of his defense, in what way was the reformation of that deed essential to the establishment of his defense? With no possession adverse to his right, how could limitation affect his right? It is not the law, and could not well be the law, that, in a trespass to try title action, proof of an equitable title by a defendant in possession is subject to limitation. Wha”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Biggs v. Poling