Budd v. Halford

142 S.W.2d 368, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 554
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 11, 1940
DocketNo. 3671
StatusPublished

This text of 142 S.W.2d 368 (Budd v. Halford) 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
Budd v. Halford, 142 S.W.2d 368, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 554 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

O’QUINN, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment in a will contest case out of the District Court of Van Zandt County, Texas. George Blasingame died testate, and the contest was over the application of Adelle Hal-ford, the legatee in the will, to probate the will. In the probate court the will was contested by appellants, Leota Budd and her husband, D. D. Budd, and others denominated the heirs of George Blasingame. The grounds of contest were (a) that deceased Blasingame at the time he executed the will was of unsound mind and mentally incapable of making a testamentary disposition of his property; and (b) that in making the will he was unduly influenced and acted under the compulsion of. the proponent and legatee in the will, Adelle Halford. In the probate court the will was admitted to probate, and that order was appealed to the district court of Van Zandt County. There upon a trial before the court without a jury, the will was again admitted to probate and was duly probated. The appeal from the probate court to the district court was taken by F. A. Blas-ingame, Ollie Wimpey, joined by her husband, Clifford Wimpey, Josie Pamplin, joined by her husband, J. M. Pamplin, Della Nichols, a feme sole, Howard Blas-ingame, Callie Dodson, joined by her husband, C. H. Dodson, Jerome Blasingame, Annie Little Lamb, and Leota Budd, joined by her husband, D. D. Budd. The judgment of the district court admitting the will to probate was entered September 21, 1939.

On October 12, 1939, H. F. Blasingame, Ollie Wimpey, joined by her husband, Clifford Wimpey, Josie' G. Pamplin, joined by her husband J. M. Pamplin, and Leota Budd, joined by her husband, D. D. Budd, filed a motion for a new trial. As grounds for the new trial, it was alleged that contestants employed counsel to represent them in contesting the will, and when the will was admitted to probate in the county court, to appeal that order to the district court, “which their said attorney did with diligence” that when the case was called for trial in the district court “movants were not present in court, but that others of the contestants were present; that an offer of compromise was made to their attorney, and the offer was accepted by their [369]*369said attorney without their knowledge oí consent or authority, and an agreed judgment accordingly entered; that their said attorney was without authority to compromise their case, or to agree to the entry of said agreed judgment, and that they had not agreed to said judgment, but desired their case be passed upon by the jury and court after full hearing of the evi¡dence that the movants had been materially injured by such judgment in that the estate 'of said George Blasingame was reasonably ■worth the sum of $51,000.00, and that they, as heirs at law of said George Blasingame, were entitled to an interest therein of the reasonable value of $17,000.00.”

They further alleged that they had a good defense against the probate of the will for in that they were heirs at law of said George Blasingame, and as such entitled to a portion of his estate; that said .Blasingame at the time he executed the said will was of unsound mind and mentally incapable of executing a will, and because he was unduly influenced to make the will by Adelle Halford, the legatee and proponent of the will. The motion was duly verified.

The cause was regularly tried on September 21, 1939. The motion for a new trial was filed on October 12, 1939. The term of the court would adjourn on. October 14, 1939. The court overruled the motion, the order reading: “On this the 12th day of October, A. D. 1939, at a regular day and term of this Court came on to be heard a motion for New Trial filed herein by H. F. Blasingame, Ollie Wimpey and husband Clifford Wimpey, Josie’ G. Pamplin and husband, J. M. Pamplin, Leota Budd and husband, D. D. Budd, and it appearing to the Court that this cause was originally tried on the 21st day of September, 1939, and judgment was duly entered on said date, and that this motion was not filed for more than twenty days after the rendition of said judgment, and no excuse on behalf of the movants is shown for the failure to file said motion within the time required by law, the same is by the Court therefore in all things overruled, to which action of the Court the movants H. F. Blasingame, et al., objected and excepted, and gave notice of appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals for the Fifth Supreme Judicial District of Texas, at Dallas,. Texas.”

We gather from the record that after the motion for a new trial above mentioned had been overruled, and on the same day, appellants, Leota Budd and her husband D. D. Budd, procured new counsel and prepared and filed a second motion for a new trial which was in all respects similar to and a duplicate of the first motion which had been overruled, but to which second motion there was added the statement that this motion was not filed within two days after the rendition of the judgment because they did not know that the case had been set for trial and did not know of the adverse judgment until October 3, 1939, and did not know that anything could be done about it until October 11, 1939, whereupon Mrs. Leota Budd came to Canton to present and urge this motion. When the Court’s attention was called to this second motion, he overruled same for the reasons that the case was regularly tried and judgment entered on September 21, 1939; that on October 12, 1939, a motion for a new trial was. filed by “these movants together with other parties,” which was overruled by the court because said motion was not filed within the time required by law, and no excuse was shown for failing to file same within the time required; and “it further appearing to the Court that this motion (2nd) was not filed until more than twenty days after the entry of the final judgment in this cause, and the motion shows on its face that the movants were negligent and did not act with diligence, and no reasonable excuse is shown for the failure to sooner file said.' motion, the same is by the court therefore in all things overruled,” to which action of the court Leota Budd and her husband, D. D. Budd, excepted and gave notice of appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals at Dallas, Texas.

We have the case on an assignment of error that the court abused his discretion in overruling the motion. Appellants in their brief say that the case was set to be tried on September 21, 1939, and that they were not notified of such setting and were not present when the case was called. The case was set for September 21, 1939, and was tried and judgment entered on that day. The judgment recites that the proponent of the will, Adelle Halford, appeared in person and by attorney, “and came contestants (naming them, and among them were appellants here, Leota Budd and her husband, D. D. Budd,) in person and by their counsel, and announced ready for trial, and a jury being [370]*370waived by the parties, in open court, all matters of law and fact were submitted to the court, who after hearing all the pleadings, evidence and argument of counsel, and being fully advised as to the law,” etc., judgment was rendered admitting the will to probate. So the record shows that appellants and their counsel were present and participated in the trial of the case.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Metts Et Ux. v. Waits
286 S.W. 923 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1926)
Monarch Petroleum Co. v. Jones
232 S.W. 1116 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1921)
Glover v. Pfeuffer
163 S.W. 984 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 S.W.2d 368, 1940 Tex. App. LEXIS 554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/budd-v-halford-texapp-1940.