Court Opinion

ID: 9764441
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:22:23.82271+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:56.745146
License: Public Domain

MR. JUSTICE CULVER,
joined by CHIEF JUSTICE CALVERT, and JUSTICES GRIFFIN and WALKER, dissenting.
As pointed out in the majority opinion, for this court to acquire jurisdiction in a plea of privilege case on a basis of conflict of decisions, it is necessary that the conflict appear on the face of the opinions that are said to be in conflict and must be “so far upon the same state of facts that the decision of one is necessarily conclusive of the decision in the other.”
The petitioners claim conflict with H. L. Woods v. P.B.S. Motor Company, 288 S.W. 2d 557 and Harvey v. Bain, 140 Tex. 375, 168 S.W. 2d 234. In my opinion in neither case is there such conflict with the decision of the court in this case as to comply with the above rule.
In the Woods case the plaintiff sued on an alleged breach of contract. The points brought forward and discussed by the Court of Civil Appeals were as follows: “Appellant did not prove that there was an obligation in writing executed by appellant nor prove that the appellant had contracted in writing to perform any obligation in Red River County for which he was sued.” The court held that the appellee, having relied upon § 5, Art. 1995, V.A.C.S. to maintain venue in Red River County, failed to either plead or to prove execution of the instrument in writing the exception did not apply. Although in the Woods case the court did observe that since the appellee did not specifically allege that the contracts sued on were in writing or that they were executed by the appellant, it was not necessary to deny the execution of the instruments under oath as required by Rule 93, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, yet the decision did not rest on that point. In our case the Court of Civil Appeals considered the respondent’s First Amended Petition as reasonably inferring that the obligations sued upon were in writing although the same were not affirmatively alleged and that since no plea of non est factum was filed by the petitioner the instruments should be received in evidence as fully proved. Nevertheless, the court goes further in holding that even in the absence of proof of *435signature where no plea of non est factum is required venue may still be maintained under the doctrine of assumption of plaintiff’s written contracts.
In Harvey v. Bain the action was brought by certain lessors of mineral leases, signed only by the lessors, claiming that the lessee had accepted the contracts in Leon County. The ground relied upon in the controverting affidavit was that the lessee had contracted in writing to pay the consideration in Leon County and that the suit was upon that written contract. This court held that while ordinarily in a suit on a written obligation those matters which go only to the merits of the action will not be inquired into in a hearing on the question of venue only, nevertheless where the obligation in writing was not executed by the party to be charged one of the venue facts that must be established is that he assumed the obligation of the written contract. The lessors in that case did not discharge the burden of showing that the lessee ever became obligated to accept the lease contracts.
Admittedly here the contracts were not signed either by the petitioners or the respondent. The petitioners’ case was predicated upon an acceptance by the respondent of the written lease agreement sent to the respondent for its signature. Correspondence between the parties was introduced in evidence and the trial court and the Court of Civil Appeals held that under the record the respondent had accepted and assumed the written contracts. In my opinion the evidence sustains that finding. The evidence is set forth in the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals, 340 S.W. 2d 867, and will not be repeated here. I would dismiss the application for want of jurisdiction, and, in the alternative, affirm the trial court and Court of Civil Appeals.