Court Opinion

ID: 9828544
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 18:28:58.435988+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:50.267130
License: Public Domain

Appellees’ Motion for Rehearing.
Upon a former day of the present term of this court we reversed this case as to ap-pellee E. E. Millican, for the reason that the record did not show a judgment by default against him. Appellee has filed a motion for certiorari to bring up a record showing that since our decision herein a judgment by default has been entered by the trial court nunc pro tune against said Millican.
[10] The issue as to whether the judgment shown by the record was a judgment by default was presented in the trial court, and was again presented in this court. Our opinion on this issue having been adverse to appellee, it, in effect, now comes, and says that the judgment which it sought to have us uphold was not in fact the judgment rendered by the trial court. The courts of this state have been very liberal in awarding writs of certiorari to perfect the record, but we think that a proper limit to such practice was indicated in Railway Co. v. Cannon, 88 Tex. 314, 31 S. W. 499, wherein it was said that such writ should be awarded “provided the attention of counsel has not previously been called to the omission.” Under the circumstances of this ease we decline to order the writ prayed for.
[11] We reversed this, case as to the appellants, other than E. E. and C. H. Millican, for supposed errors (a) in not submitting the special issue set out in subdivision six of the opinion heretofore rendered herein, and (b) in permitting the witnesses Walton and Landers to testify as shown in subdivision nine of said opinion. The record in this ease is voluminous, embracing 369 pages. Appellee in its motion for rehearing has called our attention to matters which escaped our notice when this ease was under investigation, excusing itself for its failure to do so prior to the submission herein, upon the ground that the failure of appellants to sooner file their briefs deprived them of the opportunity to examine the record prior to such submission. The written and oral arguments of ap-*301pellee on submission hereof dealt principally with its motion to strike out appellants’ brief. What we meant to hold in subdivision 6 of said opinion was that inasmuch as the guaranty contract sued on was for the debt then owing appellee by the Robert Lee Mercantile Company, and such as might thereafter be incurred for merchandise sold to said Mercantile Company by appellee, it was incumbent on appellee to show that the debt sued on was of this character, and therefore this issue should, upon request of appellants, have been submitted to the jury. But it appears from the record that this issue was submitted to and passed upon by the jury as follows: Special issue submitted: “Q. Were the notes sued upon and described in plaintiff’s petition given for goods, wares, and merchandise sold and delivered by Walker-Smith Company to Robert Lee Mercantile Company.? A. We, the jury, find that the notes sued on were for the purchase price of goods, wares, and merchandise sold and delivered by Walker-Smith Company to the Robert Lee Mercantile Company.”
Appellee contends, .and we think correctly so, that there was really no issue of fact as to this. Blackwell, the manager of the Walker-Smith Company, testified as follows: “The indebtedness of the Robert Lee Mercantile Company was created by the purchase of merchandise by the former from the latter. Walker-Smith Company never loaned the Robert Lee Mercantile Company any money. The only business transactions between the two companies were purchases and sales of goods, wares, and merchandise by us to them.” He further testified that the notes sued on were given for such indebtedness, and that the sales made after the execution of the guaranty contract were made on the faith of the same. McFarland, the president of the Robert Lee Mercantile Company, testified that the notes sued on were given for merchandise purchased by the said Mercantile Company from the Walker-Smith Company. There is no evidence in the record to the contrary, and nothing to indicate any. fraud or collusion as to this matter between Walker-Smith Company and the Robert Lee Mercantile Company. In this state of the record we do not think that there was reversible error in refusing to submit the special issue requested by appellants.
[12,13] As to the testimony of Walton and Landers referred to in the ninth subdivision of the opinion herein, it appears that the fact that Walton had previously signed a $1,000 note for the Robert Lee Mercantile Company was first brought out by appellants in the cross-examination of the witness Green, and the fact that Walton and Landers claimed to have’ signed a recommendation of the Robert Lee Mercantile Company was testified to by several other witnesses without objection. Such being the fact, the admission of said testimony as complained of by appellants was not reversible error.
For the reasons herein set out, the motion of appellee for a rehearing is granted, and the judgment of the trial court is affirmed, except as to the Millicans, as to whom the said judgment is reversed, and the cause is remanded for a new trial.