## Facts

- Winnie Elizabeth Stone executed and delivered a deed on September 21, 1951 conveying the disputed real property to Erna Mae Burris and another grantee; the other grantee’s interest was later conveyed to Burris.
- The 1951 deed was not recorded until 1985.
- After executing the deed, Stone continued to occupy and use the property until her death in the 1970s.
- The trial court found Stone’s post-deed occupancy was not hostile to, or inconsistent with, Burris’s claim of ownership.
- Stone’s will devised her estate to her son (McDougald’s father); Shannon Dan McDougald (Stone’s grandson) claimed ownership, asserting adverse possession and arguing the delayed recording weakened Burris’s title.
- Burris claimed fee simple title based on the 1951 deed and argued the recording delay did not affect title because McDougald was neither a creditor nor a bona fide purchaser.

## Issues

1. Whether a decades-long delay in recording a deed affects the grantee’s title when the opposing claimant is neither a creditor nor a bona fide purchaser.
2. Whether a court may award a non-titleholder an undivided interest in real property based on generalized equitable considerations when the court finds a valid deed was delivered and adverse possession was not proved.

## Decision

- The court of appeals reversed the judgment declaring the parties tenants in common.
- The court held Burris was entitled to judgment declaring her the sole owner in fee simple.
- The court rendered judgment for Burris because the trial court’s findings established a valid delivered deed, no adverse possession, and no recording-statute protected status for McDougald or his predecessors.

## Legal Principles

- Title to real property passes upon execution and delivery of a valid deed; recording is not required to make the conveyance effective as between the parties and against non-protected third parties.
- Recording statutes primarily protect creditors and subsequent bona fide purchasers without notice; a claimant who is neither cannot defeat, or share in, the prior grantee’s title based on nonrecording alone.
- Adverse possession requires hostile possession; continued possession by the grantor after conveying by deed, when not hostile or inconsistent with the grantee’s ownership, does not establish adverse title.
- Courts may not reallocate legal title based solely on generalized “equities” when no recognized legal or equitable doctrine supporting a transfer of ownership is established and the findings compel judgment for the deed holder.

## Conclusion

Because the deed was valid and delivered in 1951, the delayed recording did not impair Burris’s title as against a claimant who was neither a creditor nor a bona fide purchaser, and the findings negated adverse possession, the appellate court reversed the tenancy-in-common award and declared Burris the sole fee simple owner.


Burris v. McDougald, 832 S.W.2d 707 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 1992, no writ)