Ray W. Willoughby Et Al v. Ernest Jones Et Al

Petitioner, Ray W. Willoughby, who (with the sheriff of Brewster County) was a defendant below, was granted a summary judgment, which was reversed by the Court of Civil Appeals (over a dissent) on the ground that a fact issue was involved, the cause being remanded for trial. 245 S.W.2d 341. The suit was a combined action of (a) trespass to try title to some 47,000 acres of land in Brewster County, (b) for removal of a cloud on the title thereto consisting of certain first and second lien deeds of trust held by the defendant-petitioner and a foreclosure judgment thereon in his favor against the plaintiff-respondents Jones, as well as (c) for $500,000 damages in the way of profits which the plaintiff-respondents would have made by selling the land but for the negligence of petitioner and the sheriff in holding the foreclosure sale when they should have known the foreclosure decree to be void for insufficiency of description of the premises. The foreclosure judgment (under which petitioner, Willoughby, as plaintiff, became the purchaser) was rendered in Cause No. 2525 in the same court in which the instant suit was filed and adjudicated. It was not appealed. Plaintiff-respondent, E. B. OQuinn, Esq., was attorney for the plaintiff-respondents Jones as defendants in that suit but was not a party, his present alleged half interest