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54 Tex. 201

Kocourek v. Marak

Texas Supreme Court

Decided January 11, 1881

Texas Supreme Court · decided 1881-01-11

Tried below before the Hon. L. W. Moore. Appellant, Mary Kocourek, filed her original petition on the 9th day of April, 1880, in which she alleged the following facts, viz.: That on the 15th day of February, 1880, appellant and her husband, Joseph Kocourek, one of the appellees, were seized and possessed of five tracts of land, containing in the aggregate 221 acres, particularly described in her petition; that appellant and her husband lived on the land, and it was their…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1881-01-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently August 1965

22 state decisions

70188118901900191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Bornee, Associate Justice.

¶1This case was dismissed on demurrer to the petition, and raises the two questions, whether the allegation presented such legal duress on the part of the husband, as, on behalf of the wife, should avoid the deed to the homestead; and if so, was the purchaser charged with notice of it.

¶2The general doctrine of this court upon these questions is, that the certificate of the officer to the separate acknowledgment of the wife to a deed of conveyance, is conclusive of the facts therein stated, except in cases of fraud, mistake or imposition; and that the rights of a third party will not be affected by such fraud, mistake or imposition, unless they participated therein or had notice thereof. Wiley v. Prince, 21 Tex., 640; Pool v. Chase, 46 Tex., 210; Williams v. Pouns, 48 Tex., 146.

¶3The same strictness, as to what would constitute legal duress on the part of the husband, does not apply against the wife by reason of their peculiar relationship, as in ordinary cases. Wiley v. Prince, 21 Tex., 641.

¶4In the above case of Wiley v. Prince, it was decided that threats by the husband to burn down the house and carry away the children, were sufficient to avoid the conveyance by the wife.

¶5To the same effect is the ease of Central Bank v. Copeland, 18 Md., 319.

¶6*206In Tapley v. Tapley, 10 Minn., 458, it was decided that an instruction was properly given, to the effect that, to avoid the deed of the wife, the threats of the husband need not be those of physical injury only, but threats of separation were sufficient, if the wife reasonably apprehended that they would be carried into execution.

¶7It was the evident intention of the legislature, as shown by the express language of the statute, that the conveyance of the wife to be binding must have been willingly executed. R. S., art. 4310.

¶8Tested by the above cases, the allegations in the petition were sufficient, if sustained by competent testimony, to show such moral coercion over the wife and “imprisonment of her mind;” and such notice on the part of the' purchaser, Marak, as should avoid her deed. Louden v. Blythe, 21 Penn. St., 25.

¶9The demurrer was improperly sustained.

¶10Reversed and remanded.

¶11[Opinion delivered January 11, 1881.]

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