B. & A. Drilling Co. v. Norton

20 S.W.2d 413, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 963
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 20, 1929
DocketNo. 820.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 20 S.W.2d 413 (B. & A. Drilling Co. v. Norton) 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
B. & A. Drilling Co. v. Norton, 20 S.W.2d 413, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 963 (Tex. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

BARGUS, J.

Appellee filed snit in Freestone county against W. K. Henderson, a resident citizen of Louisiana, to recover unliqui-dated damages to the amount of $8,700, and had Henderson served by nonresident notice. Appellee had issued an attachment, which was returned “No property found,” and then had issued a writ of garnishment, which was served in Freestone county upon the agent of appellant, which was a corporation organized under the laws of Louisiana, with its principal office and place of business in said state. 'W. K. Henderson did not answer, and judgment by default in rem was rendered against him for $8,700. Appellant, through its local agent, filed a motion to quash the writ of garnishment, which was by the trial court properly overruled. Appellant, then, through such local agent, filed an answer to the writ of garnishment, which was in all respects regular, and which showed affirmatively that it did not owe W. K. Henderson any sum of money, and did not have any effects in its hands belonging to said Henderson, either at the time of the service or at the time the answer was filed, and, in so far as said inquiries were concerned, was sufficient to entitle it to a discharge. In answer to that portion of the writ of garnishment which required appellant, as garnishee, to state whether fienderson owned any shares of stock or had any interest in the corporation, the answer stated that the garnishee was a foreign corporation, organized under the laws of the state of Louisiana, with its principal office and place of business' 'in Shreveport, La. The answer stated further that, if W. K. Henderson did own any stock or have any interest in any shares of stock in said corporation, the same were in the state of Louisiana. The answer stated further that the agent served was the only agent said corporation had in Texas, and that he was only a limited agent, in that he was holding some drilling rigs which belonged to the garnishee. The trial court held that said answer was not sufficient, and that same did not in law amount to any answer, and by reason of there being no answer on file, under the provisions of article 4087, Revised Statutes 1926, the court rendered judgment against appellant as garnishee for the full amount of said $8,700 judgment.

Under appropriate propositions, appellant contends that the trial court had no jurisdiction over it, in that it appears from the answer filed by its agent that said agent only had limited powers, and was not authorized td enter an appearance for said garnishee or make answer for if. We overrule these propositions. It appears that appellant filed a motion to quash the writ of garnishment, and thereafter filed an answer. No issue was formed in the trial court, and no contention made in said court that the agent who filed the motion to quash, and who thereafter filed an answer, did not have authority or was not authorized to file the same. Appellant, having ai>peared and answered, could not thereafter, without filing some kind of pleading to raise the issue, question the authority of the party who entered an appearance for it in the trial court.

Appellant contends that, under the answer filed by it, the trial court was not authorized to render judgment, either against the original defendant, Henderson, or against it, on the theory that said answer Showed affirmatively that no property subject to sale or disposition by Texas courts was impounded in its hands or possession by virtue of said writ of garnishment; appellant’s contention being that stock owned by a nonresident defendant in a foreign corporation cannot be impounded in Texas by a writ of attachment or garnishment, and that, if it be conceded that Henderson owned stock in garnishee corporation, the service of said writ did not give the Texas court jurisdiction over same, or authorize our courts to render judgment in rem against Henderson, or against it as garnishee.

Our courts hold that, where a suit is filed against a nonresident and an attachment is issued, as provided by article 281 of the Revised Statutes of 1925, and thereafter a writ of garnishment is issued, as provided by article 4076 of the Revised Statutes of 1925, and property of the nonresident defendant is impounded thereby, the court can render a judgment in rem against the original defendant, and. at the same time render judgment against the garnishee for a suffi- *415 eient amount of the impounded property to satisfy said judgment. Atchison, Topeta & Santa Fé Ry. Co. v. Wells (C. C. A.) 285 F. 369 (afterwards reversed on other grounds by the Supreme Court of the United States, 265 U. S. 101, 44 S. Ct. 469, 68 L. Ed. 928), and authorities there cited.

It seems to be the universal holding of the courts that the situs of corporate stock is in the state which gave the corporation existence, and that the courts of one state cannot, by garnishment, attachment, or otherwise, impound, sell, transfer,’ or in any way incumber corporate stock in a foreign corporation. Smith v. Downey, 8 Ind. App. 179, 34 N. E. 823, 35 N. E. 568; 52 Am. St. Rep. 467, and notes on page 474; Ireland v. Globe Milling & Reduction Co., 19 R. I. 180, 32 A. 921, 29 L. R. A. 429, 61 Am. St. Rep. 756, and notes: 7 R. C. L. 197; 5 Thompson on Corporations (3d Ed.) 325; 14a C. J. 1393; Jellenik v. Huron Copper Mining Co., 177 U. S. 1, 20 S. Ct. 559, 44 L. Ed. 647; Saner-Ragley Lumber Co. v. Spivey (Tex. Com. App.) 238 S. W. 912.

It seems to be equally as well settled by the courts that, where a judgment can only be rendered in rem and depends entirely for validity upon the question of whether property had been impounded out of which said judgment, or a portion thereof, may be made, it must appear affirmatively that property has been impounded by legal process, out of which at least a portion of the judgment in rem may be collected. Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 714, 24 L. Ed. 565; Haggerty v. Ward, 25 Tex. 144; Richardson v. Busch, 198 Mo. 174, 95 S. W. 894, 115 Am. St. Rep. 472.

Article 4091 of the Revised Statutes of 1925 provides specifically that, where the garnishee’s answer shows a defendant owns stock in the garnisheed corporation, a sale of said stock shall be made as under execution. Article 3795 provides that the levy on corporate stock under execution shall be made by leaving a notice thereof with any officer of such company. Article 4086 provides, in effect, that where the garnishee has fully answered, and same shows nothing in his possession subject to the debt of the original defendant, the garnishee shall be discharged on its answer, unless the same is controverted.

The controlling question in this ease for determination, therefore, is whether the failure of the garnishee to answer relative to the shares of stock, if any, or the interest, if any, that Henderson had in the Louisiana corporation, authorized or justified the trial court in rendering a judgment against the garnishee for the full amount of the debt obtained in rem against Henderson by appel-lee. Unquestionably, under the authorities above cited, if appellant had answered that Henderson did own a large number of shares of stock in said Louisiana corporation, it would not have given the district court jurisdiction over same, nor have authorized the court to render a judgment in rem against Henderson.

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Related

Wirt Franklin Petroleum Corp. v. Gruen
139 F.2d 659 (Fifth Circuit, 1944)
Norton v. B. & A. Drilling Co.
34 S.W.2d 1095 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1931)

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20 S.W.2d 413, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 963, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/b-a-drilling-co-v-norton-texapp-1929.