Court Opinion

ID: 9767046
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 05:07:07.940276+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:35:39.927561
License: Public Domain

TIJERINA, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The area of disagreement arises from the way we conceptualize and characterize the original proceeding filed in federal court, and the way we resolve the question of whether that first suit was an action in personam or an action quasi in rem. The majority is correct in its assessment that injunction proceedings are generally considered an action in personam, but there are exceptions to this rule which are applicable in this case. The injunctive relief sought in the first case filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court was filed in connection with a petition to modify the existing Bankruptcy Plan. The only objective of the injunctive relief sought was to stop the foreclosure of a lien on real property.
In this case the injunctive relief could not have been adjudicated without a determination of the parties' present interest to title and possession of the subject real estate. Questions concerning the nature of the suit are determined by the nature of the principal right asserted in plaintiff’s petition and the relief for the breach thereof. Brown v. Gulf Television Co., 157 Tex. 607, 306 S.W.2d 706, 708 (1957). The averments of fact must be read in connection with the prayer for relief. White v. Texas Motor Car & Supply Co., 228 S.W. 138, 140 (Tex. Comm’n App.1921). An action for title and possession of realty must be tested by the allegations of fact in the petition rather than by the form in which they are cast. Sanderson v. Sanderson, 130 Tex. 264, 109 S.W.2d 744, 748 (Tex.Comm’n App.1937). The supreme court in Renwar Oil Corporation v. Lancaster, 154 Tex. 311, 276 S.W.2d 774, 776 (1955), in a contract dispute over oil royalties stated:
Where the trial court, as between the parties, must either locate a survey on the ground (by either surveying data or estoppel or both) in order to determine a dispute as to the amount of royalty due, or must determine that one party is estopped to deny a certain location, the suit is essentially one for the recovery of land and to quiet title within subdivision 14 Art. 1995, even though cast as one for a declaratory judgment. (Emphasis added.)
Id. 276 S.W.2d at 776.
In the instant case the ultimate issue was whether appellee had a right to foreclose *420the lien on the subject real estate. This issue requires the trial court to inquire into the parties claims to title and possession of the real property. Appellants in their petition before the United States Bankruptcy Court prayed: “Movant would argue to this court that it would be grossly unfair and unjust for Guaranty Federal Savings & Loan Association and/or its assigns to be allowed to proceed with its foreclosure proceedings at this time.” fn this pleading appellants conceded that the bankruptcy court had exercised jurisdiction over the subject property by an order permitting them to sell the property to Green Oaks Associates. Their problem was that the prospective buyer could not get the necessary financing. After the Bankruptcy Court denied the relief sought, appellants filed a suit in the United States District Court and pleaded as follows:
Plaintiff is requesting this court issue a temporary restraining order restraining defendant Morris Cannan from proceeding with the foreclosure sale on certain property owned by debtor, more fully described in the attached exhibit ‘B’.
Exhibit “B” is a metes and bounds description of the real property at issue. This application was also denied. Subsequently appellants filed the cause of action before us and essentially prayed for injunctive relief to stop the foreclosure sale of the property, and to stop any action which would disturb their peaceful possession. Attached to this petition was a metes and bounds description of the subject property.
The question to be determined, after considering appellants’ pleading as a whole, is whether the nature of the principal right asserted essentially affected the status of the res. “Ordinarily the nature of a plaintiffs cause of action may be determined by his prayer for relief but courts are not limited thereto in determining the question.” W.B. Johnson Drilling Co. v. Lacy, 336 S.W.2d 230, 234 (Tex.Civ.App.—Eastland 1960, no writ). A proceeding is quasi in rem when the direct object is to reach and dispose of or to adjudicate the title or status of property owned by the parties, or of some interest claimed by them and duly put in issue by the allegations of the pleadings therein. 1 AM.JUR.2d Actions § 41 n. 20 (1962). The United States Supreme Court defined actions quasi in rem in Freeman v. Alderson, 119 U.S. 185, 7 S.Ct. 165, 30 L.Ed. 372, 373 (1886), stating:
There is, however, a large class of cases which are not strictly actions in rem, but are frequently spoken of as actions quasi in rem, because, though brought against persons, they only seek to subject certain property of those persons to the discharge of the claims asserted. Such are actions in which property of nonresidents is attached and held for the discharge of debts due by them to citizens of the State, and actions for the enforcement of mortgages and other liens. Indeed, all proceedings having for their sole object the sale or other disposition of the property of the defendant; to satisfy the demands of the plaintiff, are in a general way thus designated. (Emphasis added.)
In the case at bar, appellants’ pleading asserts a claim to title and possession of the real property at issue.
[I]n a strict sense, a proceeding in rem is one taken directly against property, and has for its object the disposition of property, without reference to the title of individual claimants; but in a larger and more general sense, the terms are applied to actions between parties, where the direct object is to reach and dispose of property....
BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY 938 (3d ed. 1933). In Morris v. University of Texas, 337 S.W.2d 169, 172-73 (Tex.Civ.App.—Austin 1960) rev’d on other grounds, 162 Tex. 60, 344 S.W.2d 426 (1961), the court, quoting from Kline v. Burke Construction Co., 260 U.S. 226, 227, 43 S.Ct. 79, 80, 67 L.Ed. 226 (1922), reiterated the undisturbed rule in this regard:
... a controversy over a mere question of personal liability does not involve the possession or control of a thing, and an action brought to enforce such a liability does not tend to impair or defeat *421the jurisdiction of the court in which a prior action for the same cause is pending.
⅜ ⅝ * * * sjc
The rule, therefore, that the court first acquiring jurisdictions shall proceed without interference from a court of the other jurisdiction is a rule of right and of law based upon necessity, and where the necessity, actual or potential, does not exist the rule does not apply. Since that necessity does exist in actions in rem and does not exist in action in personam, involving a question of personal liability only, the rule applies in the former hut does not apply in the latter. (Emphasis added.)
Id. at 172-173.1 A suit to foreclose a mortgage is considered an action quasi in rem. See McCorkle v. Hamilton, 150 S.W.2d 439, 442 (Tex.Civ.App. —Fort Worth 1941, writ ref’d). In Roberts v. Carlisle, 4 S.W.2d 144, 151 (Tex.Civ.App. —Dallas 1928, writ dism’d), the court determined that a suit to foreclose a lien on property was an action quasi in rem, saying:
We are of the opinion that, though Minnie Belle Plummer has been personally served within the state, a judgment in personam could not have been rendered against her. A judgment based on the proceedings as instituted by defendant could not require the performance of anything at the hands of Minnie Belle Plummer that would invade any of her individual rights, but could only adjudicate the rights of defendant against the estate of F.G. Osborne, deceased, represented by the said Minnie Belle Plummer as executrix, establishing defendant’s demand as a claim against said estate, and foreclosing here statutory lien against the property of said estate_ (Emphasis added.)
The majority concludes that defendant did not file a plea in bar or request dismissal of plaintiffs’ cause of action. However, the record clearly shows that motion to dissolve the temporary restraining order and the answer to plaintiffs’ original petition did attack the jurisdiction of the court, based on the pendency of the prior suit in federal court.
Accordingly, the nature of the right asserted, and the direct object of the suit, essentially affected the status of the property at issue. The original suit filed in federal court constituted an action quasi in rem and the bankruptcy court had assumed jurisdiction of the res. See Wilson v. Alliance Life Insurance Co., 108 F.2d 150, 152 (5th Cir.1939). Therefore, the trial court was without jurisdiction and correctly dismissed plaintiffs’ cause of action. The judgment of the trial court should be affirmed.

. Thus, the Morris court makes clear that actions in personam involve questions of personal liability only.