Bernard Gloeckler Co. v. Baker Co.

52 S.W.2d 912, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 784
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 14, 1932
DocketNo. 2700.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 52 S.W.2d 912 (Bernard Gloeckler Co. v. Baker Co.) 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
Bernard Gloeckler Co. v. Baker Co., 52 S.W.2d 912, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 784 (Tex. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

WALTHABB, J.

This suit, filed in the district court of Dallas county, Tex., by appellant, a corporation, and against' appellee, a corporation,, is based upon a judgment obtained in the court of common pleas, county of Allegheny, state of Pennsylvania, and the only question presented is whether or not the Dallas county district court should give full faith and credit to the Pennsylvania court judgment.

The Pennsylvania court judgment is based upon two promissory notes executed and delivered by the Baker Company, by E. J. Baker, its vice president and general manager. The two notes are of the same date, are for the same amount, and of the same verbiage, except that one note is due and payable in seventeen months after date, and the other note is due and payable eighteen months after date. The notes read as follows:

“$1111.12. Dallas, Tex., Oct. 20, 1925.
“Eighteen months after date (the other 17 months after date), for value received, we, or either of us, promise to pay to the order of Bernard Gloeckler Company, Eleven Hundred Eleven and 12/100 Dollars
Bernard Gloeckler Company, and in case of default of payment at maturity an additional five per cent, for the attorney’s fees for collection of the same. And we empower any attorney of record in this commonwealth or elsewhere, to appear for us and confess judgment against us for the above sum, together with the five per cent, additional, with the costs of suit release of errors, and without any stay of execution; and for value received do waive the rights and benefits of any law of this or any state exempting property, real or personal, from sale, and if levy be made on land, do also *913 waive the rights of inquisition and consent to the condemnation thereof, with full liberty to sell the same fi. fa. with release of error thereon, with interest at 6%.
“The Baker Company [Seal]
“[Signed] By F. J. Baker [Seal].”

The Baker Company answered by general denial and special answers; denied that Baker had authority to sign such note waiving right to be sued in Texas; pleaded that it had no notice or service of citation and that it made no voluntary appearance by attorney or otherwise, that plaintiff had filed suit in the Dallas county district court, but such suit had been dismissed without prejudice to either party, that the Pennsylvania court was without jurisdiction to try such suit, that the matters contained in the notes are contrary to the Texas laws where the notes were executed and the, place of their performance, and that the provisions of such notes should be governed by the laws of Texas, and that the purported judgment involved is unlawful, void and of no effect.

The case was tried to the court. The judgment recites that the court heard all the evidence and argument and, being of the opinion that the facts and the law are with the defendant, ordered that plaintiff take nothing' by its suit.

The trial court made and filed findings of facts and conclusions of law. The findings and conclusions are lengthy, and w.e refer briefly to such only as we think necessary to the disposition we make of the case. No notice, citation, or other service was had on defendant in the Pennsylvania court prior to the judgment entry, and everything done in the court was without the knowledge or com sent of the defendant other than such as is expressed in the notes. The court in the findings recites at length the laws of Pennsylvania and the jurisdiction' of the court. Entering the judgment sued on on, the application of the holder of the notes, and the authority of the court to appoint an attorney at law' to confess judgment, and to enter judgment such as was entered, and the proceeding had in this particular case in entering judgment, and the judgment entered.

From all of the facts found the trial court concluded that: “F. J. Baker had authority to sign these notes involved in this case, containing provisions permitting the confession of judgment. * * * That the purported judgment possesses the formal requisite of a valid judgment and, if void, is so because the court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, did not possess jurisdiction in this case to render such a judgment as is entitled to full faith and credit under the Constitution of the United States of America, and under the laws of the State of Texas.” The court further concluded that: “The notes here sued on were made in Texas; that under the facts in this case, as a matter of law, they were payable in Dallas, Dallas County, Texas, and that it was the intention .of the parties that the Texas law should govern this contract.” The court then refers to article 2224 of the Texas Civil Statutes and concludes that such agreement for confession of judgment as contained in the notes is void under the laws of this state, and therefore the agreement in the notes to confess judgment was void from the beginning; that the judgment rendered was without due process, and cannot be enforced in this state.

Without quoting at length from the evidence or from the trial court’s findings of fact, we think it sufficient to say that the Pennsylvania court had jurisdiction of the amount in controversy, as disclosed by the notes sued on, and had' jurisdiction of the person of the defendant by reason only of the provisions in the notes under the laws of Pennsylvania; that is, under the laws of Pennsylvania the court had jurisdiction to enter the judgment sued on'.

The findings of fact as found by the trial court are not challenged, and appellant in its brief states that the case here narrows the issues down to the single proposition of whether the district court of Dallas county, Tex., should give full faith and credit to the Pennsylvania judgment.

Article 2224 of our Texas Civil Statutes provides: “No acceptance of service and waiver of process, nor entry of appearance in open court, nor a confession of judgment shall be áuthorized in any case by the contract or writing sued on, or any other instrument executed prior to the institution of such suit, nor shall such acceptance or waiver be made until after suit brought.” Then follows article 2225, providing how confession of judgment may be had.

Section 1, article 4, of the Constitution of the United States, provides: “Full faith and credit shall be given.in each state to the public acts, records and judicial proceedings of every other state.”

As said by the Supreme Court of this state in Worsham v. Stevens, 66 Tex. 89, 17 S. W. 404, in a suit under similar conditions, two contracts, made by the defendant, are embraced in each of the two notes upon which the Pennsylvania judgment was obtained, one to pay money, the other authorizing any attorney to confess judgment as in the notes provided.

The promise in the notes to pay money is not affected by the other provision in the notes authorizing any attorney to confess judgment, but to have a judgment on the promise to pay the money it is essential, in order that the promisor may have his day in court, that he have notice of the suit, or *914 voluntarily enter liis appearance, or that by a valid agreement he waives such notice or appearance and authorizes the entry of judgment.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
52 S.W.2d 912, 1932 Tex. App. LEXIS 784, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bernard-gloeckler-co-v-baker-co-texapp-1932.