Houston Oil Company of Texas v. Walter E. Kimball

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court affirmed the lower courts, holding that the burden of proof lies with a party claiming under an unrecorded deed to show the subsequent purchaser had notice or did not pay valuable consideration, that a certified copy of a recorded deed may be admitted without proof of execution but can still be challenged for forgery, that the deed's description referencing the original grant and field notes was sufficient, and that the trial court did not err in limiting the limitation issue to three years or in excluding tenant possession issues. The court also clarified the standard for an error "apparent on the face of the record".