Court Opinion

ID: 9830943
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:39:00.414431+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:28.533803
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Appellee insists that we erred in considering the statement of facts embodied in the transcript and showing all the evidence introduced upon the trial of appellant’s plea of privilege to be sued in the county of his residence. In his brief submitted on the original hearing, by way of counter propositions to some of appellant’s assignments of error, the contention is made that there is “no official statement of facts” showing the evidence heard upon the plea of privilege; while in his reply to other assignments ap-pellee refers to the statement of facts heard upon that plea and shown in the transcript, in support of his contention that the same .was properly overruled. But appellee made no motion at any time to strike out such statement of facts, and made no objection in his brief to a consideration of the same, other than as stated above, notwithstanding the transcript was filed in this court on August 17, 1914, and the cause was not submitted in this court until May 1, 1915.
In Royal Insurance Co. v. T. & G. Ry. Co., 102 Tex. 306, 116 S. W. 46, our Supreme Court said:
“It appears that the original statement filed in the trial court did not accompany, but was copied into, the record on apneal. No objection was urged to this by appellee, and the causa was submitted to the court for decision upon the record as presented. The law, it is true, required that the original, and not a copy, be sent up; but the difference between the two is so trivial, in comparison with the effect upon the right of appeal of a disregard of the statement, that it should be held that, if an appellee desires to insist upon the original, he should, in some way, make his insistence known before submission, so that the other party may perfect the record by carrying it up, and that when he fails to so do, and allows the cause to be submitted upon the copy, he should be held to have waived the objection, and the copy should be considered as containing the facts upon which the cause is to be decided.”
See, also, rule 8, 142 S. W. xi, which requires all motions relating to informalities in bringing a ease into the Court of Civil Appeals to be filed within 30 days after filing the transcript. Under that decision and rule and the facts stated above, the contention now under discussion is overruled.
The transcript contains the assignments of error which appellant filed on the first appeal from the order overruling his plea of privilege, one of which (fifth) reads:
“The plaintiff’s petition being admitted as true in its averments in the submission of and for the purposes of the pleas of privilege, and same being the only evidence as to the rental value of the Ft. Worth property, the court erred in its findings of fact that said property was renting for not exceeding $30 per week.”
And in the statement appearing in appellant’s brief under his second, third, and fourth assignments of error, all of which complained of the order overruling the plea of privilege, occurs the following:
“For the purpose of the submission of the plea it was admitted that the allegations of the petition were true, as on general demurrer, and the plaintiff introduced the alleged Allen & Rockwell letter of date November 1, 1910 (Tr. pp. 17 and 18).”
Appellee now insists with great earnestness that the assignment and statement copied above should be construed as admissions by appellant that the allegations of venue contained in plaintiff’s petition are true. That he did not make such admissions upon the hearing of the plea of privilege is shown by the statement of facts, which statement was agreed to and signed by counsel for both parties as—
“a true and correct statement of the facts and all the facts adduced in evidence in the matter of the pleas of privilege filed by the defendants in said cause.”
The assignment copied above is not embraced in appellant’s brief on this appeal, but if it could be invoked by appellee for the purpose of estoppel, neither the statements therein contained, nor the statement copied from appellant’s brief, could reasonably be construed as an admission in direct opposition to and destructive of the force of several assignments of error addressed to the order overruling the plea of privilege. While the language employed by appellant’s counsel in both of those instances was perhaps inapt, it is quite clear that it was used in the sense of a demurrer in the nature of a plea of privilege to the sufficiency of the allegations contained in the petition to show a right in plaintiff to sue the defendants in Parker county, when it was further alleged in the petition that they resided in Nolan county.
Appellee insists, further, that in view of the fact that the letter from Allen & Rockwell was in reply to a letter of inquiry from Coalson relative to what the Ft. Worth property was renting for, this court should presume that the trial judge found that Allen & Rockwell, by their letter, intended to lead Coalson to believe that the property was then renting for the prices which they said Holmes was willing to guarantee Coalson would realize as rentals from the property for 12 months. Appellee insists that if such was the intention of Allen & Rockwell in writing that letter, which was addressed to and received by Coalson in Parker county, then the allegation of fraud committed in Parker county was sustained, and the plea of privilege *638properly overruled. In the case of T. & P. Ry. Co. v. Purcell, 91 Tex. 585, 44 S. W. 1058, cited by appellee, it was held that in the absence of a statement of facts, it must he presumed that every issue of fact made by the pleadings and not determined in the court’s findings filed has been found in a manner to support the judgment, and that in the absence of a statement of facts, exceptions to findings of fact upon issues presented by the pleadings cannot be considered.
But it is also well settled that if there is a statement of facts in the record, a party may, upon appeal, assail, as unsupported by the evidence, any finding of fact by the trial judge, either expressly stated, or which the opposing party contends should be presumed, and that in the absence of evidence to support any such express finding, the same will be given no effect, and that no finding will be presumed for which there is no support in the evidence. In our original opinion we set out substantially all the evidence and admissions adduced upon the hearing of the plea of privilege. It will be noted that Coalson did not testify at all upon that trial, and no evidence was introduced to sustain his allegation that by the letter of Allen & Rockwell he was induced to believe that the Et. Worth property was then being rented for the prices which according to the letter Holmes was willing to guarantee would be realized thereon for 12 months. The court made no such finding, and none can be presumed because of a lack of any evidence to support it. As noted before, there was no finding filed relative to the alleged fraudulent intent of Allen & Rockwell in writing the letter. We seriously doubt whether such a finding would have been warranted, even if that letter be read in the light of Coal-son’s letter of inquiry to which it was a reply, since it clearly avoided a direct answer to the inquiry, and merely offered to guarantee rents for 12 months. It contained no representation of fact, nor even an expression of opinion on the subject covered by the inquiry, and, aside from the contents of the two letters, there was no evidence of any intention on the part of Allen & Rockwell to induce Coalson to believe that the property was then rented for the prices proposed to be guaranteed. 20 Cyc. 14. But even if it should be presumed that the court found, and was warranted in finding, the alleged fraudulent intent on the part of Allen & Rockwell in writing the letter, still there was no proof nor finding of actionable fraud committed at all, since there was no evidence that the fraud intended ever accomplished the desired effect. In other words, there was no proof, upon the hearing of the plea of privilege, that Coalson was ever deceived by the letter into believing that the property was renting for the prices mentioned in the letter, and that by reason of such belief, he was induced to make the trade with Holmes. 20 Cyc. 12, 13. Nor does the statement of facts show any proof that the property was not renting for the prices mentioned in said letter.
No reason is perceived why appellant should be deprived of his valuable statutory right to be sued in the county of his residence, when he is properly asserting that privilege, upon a mere allegation without proof, while upon trial of the merits of his suit the burden is upon plaintiff to sustain by proof all material allegations in his petition.
There is a material distinction between statutes fixing the jurisdiction of courts and those upon the subject of venue. The latter statutes are for the benefit of defendants alone, who can waive the rights therein given, while the question of jurisdiction goes to the authority of the court to determine the controversy.
Appellee complains that at all events the case should have been remanded for another trial upon the plea of privilege, and that we erred in rendering judgment sustaining that plea and directing a transfer of the case to Nolan county. As noted already, we have held that the evidence submitted upon the issues raised by the plea of privilege was insufficient, as a question of law, to support the order overruling the plea. In other words, if the trial of the plea had been before a jury, it would have been the duty of' the court to instruct a verdict sustaining the plea. Having reversed the judgment upon that issue, we proceeded to render judgment here sustaining the plea, in conformity with the provisions of article 1626, Vernon’s Sayles’ Texas Civil Statutes, and the many decisions based upon that statute cited in notes thereunder, including Henne & Meyer v. Moultrie, 97 Tex. 216, 77 S. W. 607; Eastham v. Hunter, 98 Tex. 560, 86 S. W. 323. We still adhere to those conclusions.
In one paragraph of the opinion we referred to the plea of privilege as a plea in abatement. That designation was incorrect, in view of the present statute requiring the suit to be transferred to the proper county in the event the plea of privilege is sustained. But the error in so designating the plea was in no manner material to the views expressed in disposing of the assignments relating thereto.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.