Case Name: BRILLHART v. BEEVER
Court: Texas Courts of Civil Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1917-10-10
Citations: 198 S.W. 973
Docket Number: No. 1231
Parties: BRILLHART v. BEEVER.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Western Reporter
Volume: 198
Pages: 973–976

Head Matter:
BRILLHART v. BEEVER.
(No. 1231.)
(Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Amarillo.
Oct. 10, 1917.
On the Merits, Oct. 31, 1917. Rehearing Denied Nov. 28, 1917.)
1. Appeal and Eeeoe <§=>409 — Citation in Eeeoe — Defects—Quashing.
Under Rev. St. 1911, art. 2091, providing that the citation in error shall he made returnable within 10 days, if defendant in error resides in the county, or 20 days, if he resides out of the county, the error of the clerk, in making the citation returnable in 30 days, does not require the quashing of the citation.
2. Appeal and Eeeoe <§=>429 — Citation in Ebeor — Defects—W aivee.
Defendant in error waived any right to abate the citation in error because of a mistake in designating the return day by moving to strike out the statement of facts and dismiss the proceeding in error.
3. Appeal and Eeeoe <§=>14(1) — Successive Proceedings.
A proceeding in error will not be dismissed because it is prosecuted after the dismissal of an appeal from the same judgment, where the judgment was not affirmed on the appeal.
4. Appeal and Eeeoe <§=>655(3) — Recoed — Authentication.
A statement of facts, though not bearing the file mark of the clerk of the lower court, will not be stricken out, where a certificate of the clerk is attached, certifying that it is an exact copy and a duplicate original of the statement of facts filed in his office.
5. Appeal and Eeeoe <§=>564(2) — Statement of Eacts — Time foe Filing.
A statement of facts filed within 12 months is in time, where the case is brought to the appellate court for review by writ of error.
On the Merits.
6. Specific Pebfoemance <§=>31 — Contbacts Enfo'KCEable — Incomplete Contbacts.
To be specifically enforced, a contract must show a concluded agreement, and if it is reasonably doubtful whether what passed was only treaty, however it may approach the confines of an agreement, it will not be specifically enforced.
7. Vendos and Purchaser <§=>28 — Contbacts —Offee and Acceptance.
In reply to a letter from plaintiff, defendant stated that he would make plaintiff a proposal respecting a sale of land, defendant to assume an amount due the state, pay $1,000 in cash, and give his notes for $4,000, $1,000 to be payable annually, with interest at 6 per centum, and that he would go into further agreement with plaintiff, if this interested him. Plaintiff replied that he would buy the land at defendant’s offer, and would pay $1,000 cash when deed and abstract were satisfactory, and give notes payable annually, and that, if defendant eared for any information in regard to his .ability to pay, he might write a certain person. Defendant replied that plaintiff apparently expected a good abstract and deed, and to give his notes, and that he could not do this. In answer, plaintiff wrote that he did not ask defendant to take his personal notes, that it was customary to furnish an abstract of title, that practically all school land was transferred with vendor’s lien notes against the land, but that, if defendant was afraid of notes against the land, he might give a bond for deed. Beld, that defendant’s offer was not intended to conclude an agreement, and could not be converted into a contract by acceptance, but was merely a proposal to enter into further negotiations, and the subsequent correspondence showed that the parties never reached a c.ommon understanding respecting the time of payment of the amount to be paid in cash, or the manner in which the deferred payments should be secured.
8. Contbacts <§=>1 — Requisites — Teems of Ageeement.
An agreement, to constitute a complete contract, must comprise all the terms which the parties intended to introduce into the agreement.
9. Contbacts <§=>24 — Acceptance of Offer— Vaeiance feom Offee.
An acceptance varying from the offer is in effect a rejection and a counter proposal, and the offer thereupon lapses as in case of express rejection.
10. Customs and Usages <§=>10 — Opeeation and Effect.
A custom to give an abstract of title to land upon a sale does not amount to a custom that the deed and abstract must be satisfactory to the proposed purchaser.
11. Customs and Usages <§=>14 — Exclusion by Expeess Conteact.
Where, in correspondence respecting a sale of land, the purchaser expressly stipulated that a deed and abstract must be to his satisfaction, the matter would have been controlled by the contract, if made, and not by a custom to give abstracts of titlev
Error from District Court, Hemphill County; W. R. Ewing, Judge.
Action by G. C. Brillhart against J. O. Beever. Judgment for defendant, and plaintiff brings error.
Affirmed.
Frank Willis, of Canadian, R. T. Correll, of Ochiltree, and F. P. Works, of Amarillo, for plaintiff in error. E. C. Gray, of Higgins, for defendant in error.

Opinion:
On Motion to Quash Citation, Strike Statement of Facts, and 'Dismiss Writ of Error.
HALL, J.
Defendant in error moves this court to quash the citation in error because the sheriff is commanded to return the process within 30 days. Article 2091, R. S., provides that the citation in error shall be made returnable within 10 days from- the date of its issuance if the defendant in error resides in the county, and in within 20 days if he resides out of the county. The error of the clerk in designating the return day is not such error as requires us to quash the citation. The purpose of the citation is to bring the defendant in error into this court, and it would be a technical ruling to grant the motion in this instance. It is held in Hall v. La Salle County, 46 S. W. 863, that an appearance by defendant in error to dismiss the writ of error upon other grounds is a waiver of clerical defects in a citation. By moving this court to strike out the statement of facts and to dismiss the writ of error proceeding, defendant in error has clearly waived his right to abate the citation.
Defendant in error insists that we should dismiss the proceeding because it is prosecuted after an appeal from the same judgment had been dismissed by this court at a previous term. In Schonfield v. Turner (Sup.) 6 S. W. 628, the court said that the abandonment of the appeal deprived the plaintiff in error of no right, and that the case stood'as'if no appeal'liad béen taken, since defendant in error had made no effort to affirm the judgment at the previous term. This holding is cited with approval in Texas, etc., Ry. Co. v. Hare, 4 Tex. Civ. App. 18, 23 S. W. 42 (affirmed in 93 Tex. 651). In the Hare Case, as in this case, the appeal was dismissed for want of prosecution.
The ground of the motion upon which defendant in error seeks to strike out the statement of facts must also be overruled. It appears that plaintiff in error has used the identical statement of facts which was sent to this court at the former term when an appeal was prosecuted from the judgment of the lower court, and the clerk of the lower court failed to place his file mark upon it. It appeal's by the certificate of the clerk attached to the copy of the statement of facts that it is an exact copy and a duplicate original of the statement of facts filed in his office in the court below. We . think this is sufficient upon that point. M., K. & T. Ry. Co. v. Waggoner, 102 Tex. 260, 115 S. W. 1172. While the copy now with the clerk of the lower court was filed there more than 90 days after the appeal was perfected, for the purposes of this proceeding it is filed here in time. It seems to be the settled practice that a statement of facts filed within 12 months is in time where the case is brought to the appellate court for review by writ of error. McLane v. Haydon, 178 S. W. 1197; Louisiana-Rio Grande Canal Co. v. Quinn, 160 S. W. 151.
The motion- is in all things overruled.
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