Anderson v. Oldham Ward

18 S.W. 557, 82 Tex. 228, 1891 Tex. LEXIS 1107
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 13, 1891
DocketNo. 3276.
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 18 S.W. 557 (Anderson v. Oldham Ward) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. Oldham Ward, 18 S.W. 557, 82 Tex. 228, 1891 Tex. LEXIS 1107 (Tex. 1891).

Opinion

STAYTON, Chief Justice.

Appellant sought to restrain by injunction the sale of land levied upon under an execution issued against him on a judgment for $123.07 rendered against him in favor of appellees on July 31, 1889. The judgment was rendered against appellant as garnishee to enforce a judgment against the Ellis County Fair Association held by appellees, and was rendered after he was served with proper process.

The petition bases appellant’s right to injunction on many grounds, but there are only some of them which with any plausibility might be relied upon for such relief. It is claimed that the judgment was en *230 tered in violation of an agreement made between counsel for the respective parties, to the effect that a judgment should be rendered against appellant as garnishee for $30, and that in violation of this agreement the judgment in question was rendered. The petition shows that the writ of garnishment was served on December 14, 1888, and that “after the service of said writ, he (appellant) requested Tom Whipple, an attorney at law, to look after said garnishment suit, and that he is informed and believes that the said Tom P. Whipple saw and consulted with M. B. Templeton, a member of a firm of lawyers doing business in the city of Waxahachie in the name of Groce & Templeton, and attorneys for Oldham & Ward in said garnishment suit, and agreed with said Templeton that in said garnishment suit Oldham & Ward should take a judgment against E. P. Anderson for the sum of $30, and for that reason plaintiff’s (E. P. Anderson’s) attorney did not examine the papers in said garnishment suit.” The affidavit of Whipple showing substantially such a state of facts was made an exhibit to the petition, from which it further appears that Whipple filed an “informal answer,” as to the contents of which the petition is silent. The petition further states as follows: “Plaintiff would further show, that on, to-wit, the 31st day of July, 1889, and before said judgment was rendered against plaintiff herein, he filed in the Justice Court of Precinct Ro. 1, where said garnishment suit was instituted, his answer, a copy of which is hereto attached, marked exhibit C, and made part hereof. That on the same day he filed an answer for J. G. Cole;” Then follows an averment of breach of the agreement. Although the petition alleged that the answer filed on July 31 was made an exhibit, this seems not to have been done, and we are not informed of the defenses set up by it, although it was alleged to have been filed by appellant on the same day the judgment of which he complains was rendered against him.

The petition does not allege that Whipple was authorized to make such an agreement, as it is claimed that he did make, and this can not be presumed, in a case like this, from an averment that he requested him “to look after said garnishment suit.” It is not averred that the attorney had authority to bind him by such an agreement, nor is it averred that the attorney for Oldham & Ward had authority to bind them by such an agreement; nor is there an averment that the making of such on agreement by attorneys was ratified by their clients or either of ■ them.

If the answer filed by appellant on the day the judgment was rendered set up the agreement, that fact should be made to appear, and it should have been further alleged that relying upon its observance plaintiff gave no further attention to the case, expecting the judgment to be entered in accordance with it. That answer may have attempted to set up a defense to the entire claim asserted through garnishment *231 and have operated as a repudiation of the very agreement now relied upon, and it may have denied the power of the attorneys to make it. The petition in the respects noticed was defective. If a judgment had been rendered in accordance with the alleged agreement, much might be presumed in favor of the attorneys’ authority to make it; but as all the parties were before the court, and a judgment other than that which it is claimed should have been entered by agreement was rendered, we think there should have been an averment of authority in the attorneys to make it, and that in the absence of this the petition was fatally defective. Williams v. Solan, 58 Texas, 713; Roller v. Wooldridge, 46 Texas, 495; Carter v. Roland, 53 Texas, 545.

If, however, the petition could be held to show a sufficient reason why appellant did not make the defense which he now practically seeks to make, the petition is fatally defective in another respect.

Appellant now seeks to enjoin the judgment rendered against him; and, as said in Freeman v. Miller, 53 Texas, 377, “The true rule in such cases is, that to entitle a party to relief in equity he must show, (1) that his failure to make full answer was not attributable to his own omission, neglect, or default; (2) that he has a good defense to the entire cause of action or to such part of it as he proposes by his petition to litigate. It is not enough to show that he was not guilty of neglect in permitting the judgment to go by default, but he must also clearly show that it is inequitable and unjust to permit it to be enforced. Hair v. Labuzan, 19 Ala., 224; Drake on Attachment, 658e; Kerr’s Injunc. in Eq., secs. 14-17.”

The petition in this case in effect admits an indebtedness to the Ellis County Fair Association of $40, but it contains no averment which can be construed into an allegation that plaintiff was not indebted to that association in a sum as large as that for which judgment was rendered against him as garnishee, and he makes no tender of any sum, though he does allege that he offered to pay to the constable who made the levy $30, and now prays that the sale of any part of the land levied upon be enjoined. If he was indebted to the Ellis County Fair Association as much as the judgment against him, it will not be inequitable or unjust for him to pay that sum to Oldham & Ward, and the judgment against him will fully protect him against any claim of the association.

Appellant is an attorney at law, was duly cited to appear and answer as garnishee, filed an answer for himself and another on the very day the judgment against himself and client was rendered, the judgment against both was in the same entry though several, and the court below on the averments might well have held that appellant’s negligence in not seeing what judgment was rendered before the time elapsed within which he could prosecute an appeal or writ of certiorari was such as to deny him equitable relief, even if he had shown that he was otherwise entitled to it.

*232 It is claimed, however, that the sale of appellant’s improved land should be enjoined because he had personal property and unimproved land which should have been first subjected to payment of the judgment, if his other grounds for injunction could not be sustained. The petition alleges that the officer who levied the execution knew that appellant had personal property within the county subject to execution, and that without demanding a levy he levied upon lands described, which, including improvements thereon, was of value largely in excess of the sum he was directed to collect. - It also alleges that another defendant in the execution was known by the officer to have personal property, but that no effort was made to subject the same to the execution.

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Bluebook (online)
18 S.W. 557, 82 Tex. 228, 1891 Tex. LEXIS 1107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-oldham-ward-tex-1891.