Bailey Bros. v. Lochman

241 S.W. 626, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 898
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 20, 1922
DocketNo. 1313.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 241 S.W. 626 (Bailey Bros. v. Lochman) 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
Bailey Bros. v. Lochman, 241 S.W. 626, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 898 (Tex. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

WALTHALL, J.

This suit was brought by J. H. Loehman and wife, Mrs. J. H. Lock-man, against J. F. Bailey and Melton Bailey, and Bailey Bros., a partnership composed of J. F. and Melton Bailey, to recover upon an alleged agreement to pay for the reasonable value of services rendered as nurse and expenses incurred and furnished by Mrs. J. H. Loehman for Oscar Helton; the value of the services rendered and the items of expense incurred amounting in the aggregate to the sum of $457.60.

It is alleged that Mrs. Loehman entered into an agreement with defendants with the consent of her husband and as the agent of her husband, and thereafter ratified, adopted, and confirmed as his contract; that thereupon and by virtue of said contract with defendants, . Mrs. Loehman, took charge of Oscar Helton and waited upon, nursed, and cared for him night and day from March 23 until and including April 16, 1920; that,during said time she furnished him and herself meals from her own funds; that it was the custom that nurses in caring for patients be furnished their meals. The items were sufficiently itemized and aggregated in amount the sum of $457.60, for which she sued.

Defendants answered by special exceptions, and filed a plea in abatement setting up the provisions of the Employers’ .Liability Act (Vernon’s Sayles’ Ann. Civ. St. 1914, arts. 5246h-5246'zzzz); alleged that, if they ever promised Mrs. Loehman anything in connection with the nursing of Oscar Helton, it was to see that the insurance company paid her for her services; that said promises were verbal, and not binding in law. They further pleaded general denial. The case was tried before a special judge and with the aid of a jury, and submitted upon special issues.

The jury found that Bailey Bros, instructed R. P. Bailey to employ, or have employed, a nurse to wait on Oscar Helton on or about March 23, 1920, and that they would pay for same; that Mrs. Loehman entered into a contract with Bailey Bros, in which it was agreed that she should nurse and care for Oscar Helton through his illness, and agreed with her to pay for all necessary food furnished Oscar Helton during his illness and while under her care; that the reasonable value of the food furnished Helton by Mrs. Loehman during his period of illness was $47.75; that J. H. Loehman agreed and consented to Mrs. Lochman’s nursing Oscar Hel-ton after she had made said contract and notified her husband of the terms and conditions of said contract; that it was customary and habitual that nurses be furnished with their food while nursing patients at the time and place Mrs. Loehman nursed Helton; that the reasonable total value of the necessary services rendered by Mrs. Loch-man in nursing Holton during his illness amounted to $457.60; that the contract entered into by Mrs. Loehman with Bailey Bros, was entered into by her as the agent of her husband and in his behalf and for his benefit; (submitted at request of defendants) that Jim Bailey (of Bailey Bros.), in employing Mrs. Loehman to nurse Helton, had the authority to bind Mel. Bailey (of Bailey Bros.) in making said contract.

The first proposition presented suggests a want of jurisdiction in this court to hear this case, on the ground that the record shows that Hon. J. W. Darden was the regular county judge of Stephens county, and that the ease was tried and judgment rendered by O. J. O’Conner, special judge, while tlie record does not show that Judge Darden was disqualified, nor that O’Conner was agreed upon as special judge, nor that he took the oath prescribed by law.

The record does show that Darden was the regular county judge, and that O’Conner tried the ease and rendered judgment in the case as special judge, and the record is silent as to facts pointed out.

In Shultz & Bros. v. Lempert, 55 Tex. 273, in passing upon that case with a record similar to the one here, the Supreme Court said:

“This objection presupposed that the special judge was selected by agreement, or appointed *628 by the Governor * * * for this particular case. He may have been elected by the practicing lawyers present, because of the absence or inability of the judge of that district. In the latter case the statute contains no requirement that the facts showing the election and qualification shall be a part of the record of each case tried by that judge, although they are required to be entered on the minutes of the court. * * * Properly the record should in all cases show how the special judge had authority to act; but we are not of the opinion that a party who has, without objection, participated in a trial before one purporting to be special judge, but not purporting to be so by agreement of parties, or by appointment for the special case, can afterwards be heard to object, on appeal, that 'the authority of the special judge does not appear.”

In Brinkley v. Harkins, 48 Tex. 225, where the record showed that the case was tried by a special judge without showing how he became so, and where no question was raised upon his authority to hear and determine the case,,the Supreme Court said that it was not thought necessary to do more than call attention to the condition of the record, thus assuming jurisdiction, and passed upon the merits of the case.

We have found no case in which the Supreme Court has changed that holding. In Heidelberg Amusement Club v. Mercedes Lumber Co., 180 S. W. 1183, the San Antonio Court of Civil Appeals held that, where defendants made no objection until application for writ of error filed to proceeding with the case on the ground that the proper entries had not been made in the minutes, but made application for a continuance and entered the rule for costs, defendants waived the failure to make said entries. Here appellants made a motion for a continuance, which was overruled, and, so far as the record shows, made no objection to trying the case before the special judge, and the only suggestion made now is that the record here fails to show the disqualification of the regular judge and the qualification of the special judge. We have reviewed the cases referred to by appellants, and think they are not in point.

The second ground of error is based on the action of the court in overruling defendant’s motion for a continuance, in which motion it is stated that there was no regular jury paneled for the week at which the case was called for trial, and defendants were required to try the case before a jury not regularly drawn, but summoned by the sheriff. There is nothing in the record to show that either party had' made an application for a jury and deposited a jury fee, or made the affidavit of inability to make such deposit. The record does not show that appellants made any objection to the trial of the case before the jury summoned by the sheriff other than as found in the motion for continuance. The bill of exceptions approved by the court states that there was no regular jury for that week of the term; that at a prior term appellants had agreed to set the case for the day on which it was called for trial, but that in setting the case appellants did not know there was no jury for that week. It does not appear when during the term appellants first knew that there was no regular jury for that week, nor that appellants made any effort to have the case reset for a time when there was a regular jury. The court seems not to have acted arbitrarily in the matter. To us it seems I the appellants have no just ground of complaint. Tex. & Pacif. Ry. Co. v. Coggin et al., 44 Tex. Civ. App.

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Bluebook (online)
241 S.W. 626, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 898, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bailey-bros-v-lochman-texapp-1922.