Court Opinion

ID: 9827976
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:58:54.36744+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:40.672460
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
■[3] Plaintiff in error cannot on rehearing shift its position and with aijy show of success seek to change the plain language of its pleadings and propositions. In the opinion of the court it was stated: “This writ of error was obtained on the proposition that the mortgage given by Beckham on the automobile herein described was null and void because he was a dealer and had exposed the automobile for sale.” This statement was founded upon all three of the propositions copied into the brief of plaintiff in error, which claimed that the mortgage given defendant in error was void because it was given by the owner of a stock of goods exposed to sale. If that was not the point in the propositions there was no point, and there was no statement that the mortgage to defendant in error was not executed in good faith as is now claimed in the motion for rehearing. The only language in reference to anything shbwing bad faith on the part of the seller that could be tortured into such a charge was that he knew that the car was being exposed for sale. The brief was based on the nullity of the mortgage on account of exposure of the automobile for sale in the regular course of business.
Plaintiff in error set up a cross-action against defendant in error, in which it was alleged that Beckham owed plaintiff in error $2,000 as evidenced by a promissory note, that it was due and unpaid, and then alleged: “That to secure said note said Beckham delivered to this defendant the automobile in question as hereinbefore in this defendant’s special answer alleged, thereby giving this defendant a lien thereon. That such lien of this defendant is superior to the asserted lien, if any, of plaintiff.” The prayer was: “Wherefore this defendant prays for judgment against defendant Beckham for its debt and against said defendant and plaintiff for foreclosure of its lien and for costs and general relief.” It would naturally be concluded from the pleadings of plaintiff in error that it was claiming a lien upon the automobile, but according to the motion for • rehearing this court was utterly wrong in indulging in any such conclusion. We copy from the motion: “The court erred in saying that plaintiff in error sought to ‘substitute its second mortgage’ and like Samson in pulling down defendant in error’s structure pulled down its own and completely destroyed its lien, because plaintiff in error never had or claimed a mortgage, first, second or third, but had the actual car itself of which it was a bona fide purchaser for full value.” Alexander, president of the Laredo National Bank, did not in his testimony claim to have purchased the car, but stated that it was placed in a warehouse as security for its debts. The claim of having purchased the automobile was never presented until it was written into the motion for rehearing. It was not so written in the pleadings and of course was not so shown in the testimony. The motion seems to presume on the credulity, with which it charges this court, but credulity cannot be stretched so far as to accept statements made in the motion for rehearing which are directly in conflict with allegations and proof.
Th% motion for rehearing is overruled.