Krause v. Kessler

SMITH, Chief Justice. Mrs. S. S. Severn owns certain land in Bee county and gave the use of the land to her sister, Mrs. Edith Krause, a married woman, for the crop year of 1933. The [343] land was planted to broom corn for that year, and the crop harvested therefrom was levied upon and sold under an execution to satisfy a judgment rendered in favor of V. E. Kessler and against Mrs. Krause’s husband. Mrs. Krause brought this suit against Kessler for damages upon the theory that the. seized crop was her separate property, or personal earnings, and she sought to recover of Kessler as for conversion. From a judgment based upon a directed verdict against her, Mrs. Krause has appealed. Mrs. Krause, appellant, contends that the crop in law constituted rents derived from her separate estate, or, in the alternative, her personal earnings, and that, under.the statute, it could not be subjected to the payment of her- husband’s (community) debts, as was done. Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 4616. The record shows, in effect, that the land was planted and cultivated, and the crops harvested and marketed, by the joint efforts, labor, and funds of the Krause family, and under that state of facts the resulting product was properly subject, as the trial court held, to payment of the debt of the husband incurred in behalf of the community. First Nat. Bank v. Davis, Tex.Com.App., 5 S.W. 2d 753. The judgment is affirmed.