Court Opinion

ID: 9831243
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:57:29.317577+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:33.077383
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellant, G. W. Lewis, to whom we referred in the original opinion as defendant, has filed a motion for rehearing, in which he vigorously insists that the record in this case presents fundamental error for which the cause should be reversed. In addition to those matters previously discussed by us, he now urges the following: (1) Because the- record shows that subsequent to August 7, 1929, when he acquired the title to the Wichita County land, by deed from his wife, and since the date of judgment of February 17, 1930, the lands had been-leased to George Lebus, for oil and gas, *379and that the trial court could not properly award the fee title, one-half to each the plaintiff and defendant, irrespective of the rights of the lessee, who was not a party to the suit, he being a necessary party. (2) Because the judgment rendered was unfair, unreasonable and unconscionable. (3) Because there was no pleading upon which to base a verdict or judgment in favor of plaintiff for expenditures in support and maintenance of their minor children. And ■(4) because the judgment for maintenance ■of the children exceeded by $27 or $28 the .total amount found in the jury’s verdict.
We shall note the contentions of ■defendant in the order mentioned above. At the outset, it is proper to say that fundamental error is such as is apparent from the record. The record referred to consists of the pleadings, orders of the court, the verdict, the judgment and decrees in connection therewith. As a general rule all these matters are contained in the transcript filed. It does not include the statement of facts or exhibits sent up by order of the trial court. 3 Tex.Jur., pp. 816 and 817, sec. 574.
The record, to which we have referred, does not disclose the matters set out in defendant’s first point, mentioned above. The transcript in this case contains ■over 200 pages, much of which was unnecessary, especially since the appeal has ■taken the turn shown. Plaintiff’s petition is lengthy and seeks to enumerate the various properties and types of revenues re■ceived by defendant therefrom, in which plaintiff claimed an interest. She alleged that defendant had received oil and mineral royalties from parts of the land since it passed into his possession, and that he had negotiated and sold mineral leases on parts -and had caused wells to be drilled thereon, which had produced large quantities of oil, “the details, particular facts and amounts of which are unknown to plaintiff; hence she cannot now state with more particularity,” but that all said facts were within the knowledge of the defendant, and she asked that he be required to file with the court a . -complete list and inventory of all said facts, together with a statement of all leases made by him on such lands. It will be noted that plaintiff’s allegations did not state that any leases defendant had made were then effective or that any other person was interested therein. The second amended petition of plaintiff, from which we have quoted, and to which we have referred, was filed on January 20, 1938. There appears an order of the court in the record, entered January 3, 1938, requiring defendant to file within ten days a complete list and inventory of all sums received by him from said lands since February 17, 1930 (the date of the judgment attacked by plaintiff), “including also a list of all oil and gas leases made by him since said February 17th, 1930.” There is nothing in the record to indicate that such requirement was ever met by defendant. If any such leases as he now claims to exist were outstanding and effective, he knew it at 1 that time, and if he complied with the order of the court in that respect, he did not have such report shown in the transcript. Defendant is the appellant here, and it was his duty to have a correct transcript prepared and filed in this court, and we must, for the purposes of this appeal, presume that it is correct. Ross v. McGowen, 58 Tex. 603; Missouri Pac. Railway Co. v. Scott, 78 Tex. 360, 14 S.W. 791; Eldora Oil Co. v. Thompson, Tex.Civ.App., 230 S. W. 738; Woodhead v. Good, Tex.Civ.App., 27 S.W.2d 374.
By his motion here, defendant tells us that it is disclosed by the “record” that George Lebus has an oil and gas lease on parts of the land in controversy. The record to which defendant refers is an exhibit which, no doubt, was in evidence upon the trial.’ The record of the evidence adduced appears in a statement of facts of 365 pages, besides a large number of original instruments sent up with the statement of facts, as exhibits. If we consider that particular exhibit, it would entail an examination of the voluminous statement of facts to ascertain all matters pertaining to it.' This would doubtless lead 'to many other controverted questions, which cannot be considered by us when only fundamental errors should be passed upon. We know of no rule of law which enjoins that duty upon us. To do so would give to an appellant an advantage to which he is not enti- ' tied, resulting from his failure to brief his case on appeal, thereby depriving appellee of an opportunity to reply, and then .have the whole record, including the evidence, considered on motion for rehearing. We do not consider that the record by which we are bound discloses that other persons than the parties here were necessary to the entering of the judgment that was rendered. Certainly if there are, by chance, any other person or persons who have an inter*380est in the land, such interests are not affected by the judgment to which they were not a party.
By his second assigned fundamental error, defendant claims the judgment entered was unreasonable and unconscionable, in that, out of the $7,483.23 found by the jury to have been received by defendant from the lands in controversy, plaintiff was awarded $6,761.61, and he only $381.61. As reflected by the verdict and judgment before us, it appears that the jury found the rental value of the 170 acres for the eight years defendant had enjoyed it was worth $4,760, and that he had in that time received in oil royalties $2,723.23, aggregating $7,483.23. That since • the land belonged to them jointly, one-half of that sum, or $3,741.61 of those receipts belonged to plaintiff. The judgment further found that during the period of time mentioned, defendant owed plaintiff, for support of the children, $3,360. That he had paid on that obligation $340, leaving a balance due and unpaid of $3,020. The last amount mentioned was taken from defendant’s half of the total receipts and added to plaintiff’s one-half, which aggregated the amount of $6,761.61, for which judgment was entered. By the calculation, as made, plaintiff had remaining $721.61, and in addition to that, he had discharged an indebtedness to his wife, which, when added, gave him an equal division of the proceeds from the land. The fact issues involved in the foregoing matters were submitted to and found by the jury, and under such conditions, we do not consider the judgment is so flagrantly unfair as to be unconscionable and present fundamental error for revision by us.
The next or third alleged fundamental error suggested in the motion is in effect that there are no pleadings upon which could be based a judgment in favor of plaintiff for maintenance and support of the children.
The allegations of plaintiff on this point are not all that could be desired for the recovery of that item, but in the absence of a special exception thereto, based upon the grounds here urged, we consider them,sufficient. They were good as against a general demurrer. The rule in such cases is that when a pleading is assailed by general demurrer, the contents of the pleading are conceded to be true, and the verity thus accorded extends to what, by fair implication, the pleader intended to allege, as well as to what is explicitly stated. 33 Tex.Jur., pp. 553, 555, sec. 120. Further, it is said the.pleadings will be construed as favorable to the pleader as possible ; the court will seek to discover the in-tendment of the pleader; that every fact will be supplied that may reasonably be inferred or that may be implied from what was stated in the pleading. 33 Tex.Jur., p. 631, sec. 178.
As has been stated, this action was, among other things, to set aside a former property settlement between a husband and wife, and the judgment of court based thereon in a divorce proceeding. Among other allegations of fraud, the plaintiff plead that she was awarded the six minor children and an adult child of weak mind. That defendant agreed under the contract to contribute $20 per month to the support of the children; that he failed to keep his promise and that upon discovery of the other elements of fraud in the contract, she realized that the promise to pay so much per week for the support of the* children was likewise a fraud upon her, and that he had no intention of performing it at the time, but was promised only to induce her to accept his proposed settlement and to procure a divorce from him, so that he could marry another and create a new family and establish a homestead on the land, all of which he proceeded to do. She further alleged that since the rendition of the judgment, she had had the responsibility of caring for, maintaining and educating all of said children and the care and support of the one of feeble mind, and that the reasonable amount necessary for sa'^ purposes, and the amount defendant shouiu have contributed for said purposes was $75 per month during said period of time. A fair deduction from said allegations is that for the last eight years plaintiff had supported, maintained, cared for and educated said children, and that it was the duty of the father to have borne the expense thereof, but that he had failed to do so, except for the payment of $340, acknowledged in other parts of the pleading, and that the reasonable and necessary amount expended by her for those purposes was $75 per month. We think no violence is done to the pleadings of plaintiff when thus interpreted. For, as we have seen, we must seek to find out what a party intended to say by the language used; that all facts will be supplied that may reasonably be inferred by the things stated. Defendant does not contend that she would not have *381the right to recover of defendant the amount expended by her for the purposes mentioned, if it appeared to be reasonable and necessary; but the contention is that she did not plead a right to so recover. We think the pleading sufficient, and must overrule the contention.
The final point raised is that the judgment is for $27 or $28 more than the amount found by the verdict. When we come to consider the amount of the judgment in this ease and even that part in which it is claimed the error appears, we find that the verdict was rendered to the effect that $35 per month was a reasonable amount for the purposes claimed by plaintiff. A calculation of eight years at that sum and deducting the $340 shown to have been paid would leave defendant due $’3,-020, but it is claimed that only seven years, eleven months and six days had elapsed at the time of the judgment, and therefore between $27 and $28 too much was included in the judgment. In the circumstances of this appeal, we think the maxim Lex non curat de minimis would apply. The error is too small as compared to the amount in controversy to require us to take cognizance of it. Texas Building Co. v. Collins, Tex.Civ.App., 187 S.W. 404, error refused; Houston Chronicle Pub. Co. v. Lemmon, Tex.Civ.App., 193 S.W. 347; Koger v. Clark, Tex.Civ.App., 216 S.W. 434, writ dismissed.
We have carefully studied every phase of the case presented in this motion, and for the reasons stated, we believe we properly disposed of the appeal in our original opinion, and believe the motion for rehéar-ing should be overruled, which is accordingly done.