Court Opinion

ID: 9769410
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 14:49:56.620637+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:02.960912
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
In their motion for rehearing appellants strenuously argue that the trial court erroneously applied the law to undisputed facts and thereby abused its discretion. We agree that it is an accurate statement of the law that the trial court’s discretion is not unlimited. Southland Life Ins. Co. v. Egan, 126 Tex. 160, 86 S.W.2d 722 (1935). If the facts are such that only questions of law are presented, the trial court’s action is reviewable on appeal. Tall Timbers Corp. v. Anderson, 342 S.W.2d 452 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.]) rev’d on other grounds 162 Tex. 450, 347 S.W.2d 592 (1961). In this case the trial court was in error when it concluded that because the appellants failed to prove that they had no actual notice of the December 1, 1977 order that they were not entitled to a temporary injunction. We agree the December 1,1977 order was subsequent to the conveyance from Logan to Morris so would not have affected their status at a point several weeks prior. However, erroneous conclusions of law are ineffectual to destroy findings of fact and do not require reversal by the appellate court where the proper judgment is rendered. Tex.R.Civ.P. 434; Hoyt v. Geist, 364 S.W.2d 461 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1963, no writ); Keith v. Connally, 85 S.W.2d 788 (Tex.Civ.App.—Fort Worth 1935, no writ).
*894The trial court below rendered a proper judgment in denying the injunction. Looking at the trial court’s findings of fact, which essentially correspond to stipulations filed by the parties prior to the hearing on the temporary injunction, and applying the law to these facts, appellants were unable to demonstrate their entitlement to a preservation of the status quo pending a final trial on the merits. Even if we had wished to, this court had no reason to decide a factual question, as the parties’ stipulations and the findings of fact of the trial court show as a matter of law that the appellants had either constructive or inquiry notice. Neither was susceptible to being controverted at the hearing for temporary injunction and precluded the appellants from a showing of “probable right” which is necessary to entitle them to an injunction. It would have been an abuse of discretion for the trial court to grant the injunction in light of the undisputed facts.
Appellants’ motion for rehearing is overruled.