Angleton State Bank v. Texas Hay Ass'n

285 S.W. 941, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 996
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 10, 1926
DocketNo. 8764.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 285 S.W. 941 (Angleton State Bank v. Texas Hay Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Angleton State Bank v. Texas Hay Ass'n, 285 S.W. 941, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 996 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

GRAVES, J.

A sufficient statement, adopted by the defendants in error; is thus made in the brief for plaintiff in error :

“This is an appeal from a judgment rendered by the district court of Brazoria county, Tex., in a statutory trial of right of property suit, involving the title to 220 tons of prairie hay. On December 8, 1022, a writ of attachment was issued in a. suit styled ‘Angleton State Bank v. J. W. Doper, Mrs. M. A. Doper, and J. M. Turner, No. 17594,’ pending in the district court of Brazoria county, Tex., directing the sheriff or any constable of Brazoria county, Tex., to forthwith attach so much of the property of the defendants named in the writ as should be of value sufficient to make the sum of $1,233 and costs of suit. The writ was placed in the hands of the sheriff of Brazoria county, Tex., and was by him executed on December 12, 1922, by levying the writ upon 220 tons of prairie hay as being the property of J. M. Turner.
“On February 8, 1923, defendant in error made and presented to the sheriff its written affidavit claiming the above-mentioned hay, and at the same time made and presented to the sheriff its bond, with Hartford Accident & Indemnity Company as surety, in the sum of $4,-840, the sheriff having valued the hay at $2,-420, which bond was duly approved by the sheriff. On February 10, 1923, the sheriff, by virtue of such affidavit and bond, delivered the hay to defendant in error.
“The suit between the parties hereto having been docketed in the name of plaintiff in error, with defendant in error as defendant, thereafter the parties made up the issues between them, in writing, as follows:
“Plaintiff in error alleged the issuance of the writ of attachment, the levying of same on the hay, the execution and presentation by defendant in error of the bond and affidavit, the value placed by the sheriff on the hay, and the delivery of the hay, under and by virtue of the affidavit and bond, to defendant in error. Plaintiff in error further'alleged that, at the time the writ of attachment was levied on the hay, J. M. Turner was the owner of and in possession thereof, and that by virtue of the levy plaintiff in error acquired an attachment lien upon the hay, and thereby became entitled to subject the hay and the proceeds thereof to the payment of its debt against Turner. Plaintiff in error further alleged that its attachment lien was prior and superior to any right, claim, or title of defendant in error, and prayed for judgment against defendant in error, and the surety on its bond, for the amount of its claim against J. M. Turner, together with ten per cent, damages, and costs of suit.
“Defendant in error alleged: That J. M. Turner was a member of the Texas Hay Association and a stockholder thereof; that the Texas Hay Association was and is a co-operative marketing association, organized and chartered under the laws of the state of Texas; that, at the time Turner became a member of the Texas Hay Association, he made and entered into a contract in writing with the association, wherein he bargained, sold, and conveyed to the association all of the hay grown or to be grown, made or to be made, saved or to be saved, and stored and to be stored, or in any manner acquired by him during the years 1921, 1922, and 1923; that under this contract in writing the title to the hay, when same was made and stored by Turner, passed to the association; that the hay embraced in this litigation was stored by Turner in his warehouse on his farm; that same was declared by Turner to the association; and that the association advanced thereon to him the sum of $8,900.97, and became the exclusive owner of all right, title, and interest in the hay, with the right to sell same and to account to Turner therefor at the average net sale price of all hay of similar grade and quality contained in the pool for the year 1921, 1922, or 1923, which same has been duly and truly accounted for by such association, and which has been accepted by Turner. Defendant in error prays that plaintiff in error take nothing by its suit, and that its title to the hay be in all things confirmed by the judgment of the court.
“Trial was had before the court, resulting, on September 29, 1924, in judgment in favor of de-. fendant in error. The suit is now properly before this honorable court for review.”

In this court, as was clone below, the bank contends that at the time the attachment was levied J. M. Turner was the owner of and in possession of the hay, which made it subject to the writ, while the hay association asserts that it was then the owner and in possession thereof, and for that reason the levy got the bank nowhere. The determination of that issue is all the appeal involves.

The bank advances three grounds for its position that the title to Turner’s hay had not then passed, to the association: (1) The hay grown and stored in Ms barn by Turner was a mingled and undivided portion of a large mass or bulk of hay, in which others in like manner were interested with him, no part thereof having been segregated' or otherwise identified, as being his particular part. (2) He had not, pursuant to the terms of his. contract with the hay association, segregated or otherwise identified, from the whole of what he had produced and stored, the several portions he intended to reserve for his own use and to sell to his neighbors. (3) No such delivery of the hay as was required under Ms contract with the association had been made by him.

The undisputed evidence showed:

(1) That J. M. Turner, who was a member of the hay association for that year under the written contract between them, through Joe Oswald, made and stored in his own barn near Chenango, Tex., 590 tons of hay out of the 1921 crop; Oswald had an undivided one-fifth interest in it with him, and it was mingled in his barn with other hay belonging *943 severally to his son and another person, the son having possession of the harn containing all the hay. Turner had in February before sold some of 500 tons, but on December 12, 1922, there was a residue of this hay, so stored and mixed with that belonging to others, of between 200 and 300 tons, and on such balance, while still in the barn, the writ was levied on that date. He had drawn advances of $3 per ton from the hay association under their contract along as he put the hay in his barn, turning over to Oswald one-fifth thereof, his practice in that respect having been to draw at that rate for 100 tons whenever he made that much or more, but there was each time an over-plus left on which he had received no advances, this in the first instance amounting to 14 tons. Finally, however, the association had not desired him to ship some of the hay because it had spoiled, which left him in the attitude of having drawn the $3 on a little more hay than he shipped, but the high price obtained by the association for what he did ship left it owing him $73. He had also reserved some of his hay, the particular amount not being disclosed, for his own use and to sell to his neighbors, which, he had the right, unrestricted as to quantity or otherwise, to do under his contract with the association.

(2) That Turner and the hay association, during 1921, made a contract in writing, the main provisions of which were these:

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Bluebook (online)
285 S.W. 941, 1926 Tex. App. LEXIS 996, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/angleton-state-bank-v-texas-hay-assn-texapp-1926.