Court Opinion

ID: 9832945
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 22:19:27.074067+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:56.102678
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
In an able motion for rehearing ap-pellee contends that since all of the evidence upon the issue of appellant’s residence came from appellant, his testimony was a judicial admission and established as a matter of law that at the time of the institution of the suit, at the time of service of process, and at the time of the filing of his plea of privilege, appellant was a resident of McLennan county, Texas, for venue purposes, and that this court erred in not so holding.
Appellee is correct in his statement that all of the testimony as to appellant’s residence came from appellant. The facts developed by his testimony are substantially set forth in the trial court’s findings of fact as follows:
“As to the residence of the defendant the following testimony was introduced: The defendant, Mr. Page, testified that he was a contractor, doing general construction work and that some time prior to June 20, *7351942, he and others entered into a contract to construct what is now known as the Blackland Army Flying School and later he entered into contracts with the Government to construct two auxiliary landing fields in McLennan County, Texas; that all of said construction work was rendered and performed in McLennan County, Texas, and that he has at this time thousands of dollars worth of machinery and equipment in this county and has at times engaged as high as three thousand employees; that he has maintained an office and telephone on each job in this county since he first began work on said fields; and his name also appeared in the Classified Ads of the Waco telephone directory, showing that he was a general contractor at Waco, Texas.
“The defendant also testified that he had, at all times since prior to June 20, 1942, a post office box at Waco, Texas, and at the time of the hearing he had two boxes where he received all of his mail concerning his business for this district.
“He also testified that in the McLennan County contracts with the Government that he entered into, he gave his address as Waco, Texas, and that he had envelopes showing his return address: ‘Holland Page, General Contractor, P.O. Box 1790, Waco, Texas’, because ‘whenever we get a job we have a project number like this job here and we are requested to have all our particular mail we have with reference to that particular job mailed to that particular box we have there. In some districts we have three or four mail boxes.’
“That he maintained in the First National Bank of Waco, Texas, what he called a ‘Revival Account’, which was used only to buy stamps, pay freight and to pay employees that were fired or discharged, and for the purpose of loaning employees small sums so that such amounts could be paid immediately, but that the pay rolls on each job were made on the job and sent to the Austin office where the social security and other taxes were taken off and the checks issued from said office and mailed back to the job to be paid out on the job.
“He further testified that shortly after coming to Waco he engaged a room at the Roosevelt Hotel where he slept and lived while in Waco and that he kept said hotel room until about the time the Blackland job was half completed; that he then went to Marfa, Texas, where he stayed from two to three months and then he went to Brownwood and stayed two or three months and then came back to Waco about April 20th and has had a room at the hotel since that date, and has at times had two rooms at said hotel; that he maintains a room in different towns for different employees, such as engineers and others that were sent out of Austin on special business; that he maintained these rooms so that he would be certain that he or his employees would have a room when visiting the jobs at different places; that he had two rooms in Marfa, two in Olney and used two rooms here; that he also maintained telephones and post office boxes on each job, which were located at Bastrop, Temple, Brownwood, Olney, Marfa, Mountain Home, Ark. and two at the home office at Austin, Texas, besides the three telephones in Waco.
“Mr. Page further testified that he was married and had been for thirty years and had continued to live with his wife continuously since said time; that they have since 1928 or ’29, maintained their residence on Norwood Road, Austin, Travis County, Texas, and that he has never resided in any other place; that his wife lived at Austin, Texas and that he, during the time he was in Waco and maintained his room at the Roosevelt Hotel, went to Austin two or three times a week and that his wife, while visiting her son near Waco, did not spend one night in said Roosevelt Hotel or in McLennan County; that his residence is listed in the Austin telephone directory; that while he maintained his room at the Roosevelt Hotel, he would leave and be gone as high as three weeks at a time; that he was in Arkansas in January for three weeks; that he traveled about 70,000 miles during the last year; that he and his wife both pay their poll tax and vote in Travis County, Texas; that they own no home or property in Mc-Lennan Co., Texas, but they own their home and residence in Travis County, Texas; that he was here in McLennan County only for the purpose of looking after his contracts and that is the only thing that brought him here; that he did not come to Waco to stay here any length of time before he had the contract in Mc-Lennan County and that he did not expect to remain in McLennan County after these contracts are finished.”
Based upon the authorities cited in our original opinion and those hereinafter cit*736ed, we hold that the testimony of appellant does not establish as a matter of law that at the times relevant to this appeal he had a residence for venue purposes in McLennan County, Texas. Joy v. Marshall Field & Co., Tex.Civ.App., 51 S.W.2d 731; Bolton v. Alley, Tex.Civ.App., 25 S.W.2d 638; Houston Printing Co. v. Tennant, 120 Tex. 539, 39 S.W.2d 1089; Hausman Bros. Packing Co. v. Allen, Tex.Civ.App., 59 S.W.2d 246; Dixon v. McDonald, Tex.Civ.App., 130 S.W.2d 884; Caprito v. Weaver, Tex.Civ.App., 63 S.W.2d 1043; Agey v. Red Star Supply Co., Tex.Civ.App., 113 S.W.2d 212; Brown v. Boulden, 18 Tex. 431, 432.
Appellee’s motion for rehearing is accordingly overruled.