Buchanan v. Jean

174 S.W.2d 98, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 550
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided March 4, 1943·No. No. 2489.·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinions

TIREY,'Justice.

The defendant, Annie Buchanan, has appealed from an order entered by the District Court of Ellis County overruling her plea of privilege to be sued in the County of Navarro, her residence.

The order is assailed substantially on the grounds (1) that appellant’s plea of privilege was wholly unchallenged by any controverting plea; and (2) the court erred in permitting appellee to amend his controverting plea by writing with pen and ink into the original a reference to his original petition and an adoption of the same over objections of appellant, because an amended controverting affidavit must be entire and complete in itself and operate as an entire substitution for the original, which original thereupon becomes an abandoned pleading. Appellant’s plea of privilege conforms to Rule 86 of Vernon’s Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.

Plaintiff alleged among other things the following: “That upon about May 9, 1941, while driving upon Federal Highway No. 75, which is a highway crossing Ellis County North and South, a car, under the directions and. control of Annie Buchanan, was driven into and did collide with the said E. W. Jean causing the hereinafter complained of injuries. That the said E. W. Jean was driving his car on the right hand side of the road while traveling South and had pulled his car off of said Highway, and that the defendant coming from the South and going North crossed over and left said Highway on the left side of said highway and ran into and collided with the plaintiff’s car herein in Ellis County, Texas. That said defendant, her servant or employee, was driving or causing to be driven said automobile carelessly and negligently as to cause said car to be driven on the wrong side of the road at an excessive rate of speed as provided by statute, to-wit: seventy (70) miles an hour, and causing same to strike the plaintiff’s automobile, whereby the plaintiff’s car was demolished, and injuring the plaintiff whereby the left side of his face was paralyzed, a bursted left ear drum, breaking his skull, also breaking a collar bone and a shoulder blade, and paralyzing the muscles in the left eye, which prevents the eye from closing, and causing the plaintiff to incur doctor bills and hospital bills and rendering him incapable of working since said accident. * * * Plaintiff would further represent to the court that the defendant was guilty of negligence at the time of and on the occasion of said accident in question in failing to use the- degree of care as required by law toward said plaintiff in the following manner, to-wit : * * * (b) in failing to reduce the speed of her automobile immediately pri- or to the collision in question; (c) in driving upon the wrong side of the road; (d) in driving her automobile at a rate of speed in excess of sixty (60) miles an hour on public highway No. 75, * * * all of which actions and conduct was negligence, and such negligence and acts thereof separately and collectively did cause direct and approximate and did contribute to the cause directly, the injuries and suffering of the plaintiff herein.”

The original controverting plea, duly sworn to, alleged in part: “That plaintiff *100 had filed a petition herein alleging that the defendant coming from the south and going north crossed over and left said highway-on the left side of said highway and ran into and collided with plaintiffs car herein in Ellis County, Texas, and that said acts in so driving said automobile by the defendant is in contravention of Article 801, Penal Code, Section B, and is a violation of the law, and is a crime or trespass as defined in Article 1995, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, Section 9, which would entitle said plaintiff to sue said defendant in Ellis County, Texas, where said accident occurred. The said plaintiff further alleges that said accident did occur in- said Ellis County, the county wherein said suit was brought. Plaintiff would respectfully show herein that said suit should be maintained in Ellis County, Texas, the county in which said suit was brought, and for such others herein as may be proper and necessary.”

At the hearing on the plea of privilege and the controverting affidavit appellant objected to the testimony offered as to the manner in which the accident happened, because the controverting affidavit was insufficient to support such testimony, which was overruled. At the conclusion of the testimony offered by appellee, appellant orally moved the court to sustain appellant’s plea of privilege and the trial court declined to do so and, over objection of appellant, permitted appellee to write into the controverting plea with pen and ink the following: “That plaintiff makes full reference to his petition on file herein and makes the same a part hereof as though fully copied herein with all of its allegations in toto.” Thereafter, when appellant’s bill of exception was presented for approval, the court qualified it as follows: “The plaintiff’s attorney stated that he thought his controverting affidavit had an allegation in it similar to the one he was allowed to make and it was through an oversight that same did not appear; and he was granted leave to write into said controverting affidavit with ink the allegation set out in quotation marks above. No point was made at the time about the same not resworn to before a Notary Public, which is now for the first time being made in the foregoing bill of exceptions upon being presented with said bill, said affiant and counsellor was allowed and granted leave as of this date to again make oath as to the controverting affidavit as amended.”

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Buchanan v. Jean, 174 S.W.2d 98, 1943 Tex. App. LEXIS 550 (Tex. Ct. App. 1943).

174 S.W.2d 98 (Buchanan v. Jean) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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