Burge v. Beaumont Carriage Company

105 S.W. 232, 47 Tex. Civ. App. 223, 1907 Tex. App. LEXIS 478
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 16, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 105 S.W. 232 (Burge v. Beaumont Carriage Company) 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
Burge v. Beaumont Carriage Company, 105 S.W. 232, 47 Tex. Civ. App. 223, 1907 Tex. App. LEXIS 478 (Tex. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

FLY, Associate Justice.

—This is a suit instituted by appellee against R. T. Burge and J. F. Burge, promissory notes signed “J. F. Burge, per R. T. Burge, attorney,” being the basis of the suit. It is alleged that R. T. Burge had the authority to execute the notes as the attorney of J. F. Burge, and “if he had such authority, then plaintiff seeks to recover against said J. F. Burge alone, but if no such authority existed, then plaintiff asks judgment against the said R. T. Burge.” After the original suit had been instituted, a writ of garnishment was applied for and obtained, against the German Alliance Insurance Company, to which-the garnishee filed an answer admitting that it was indebted to J. F. Burge in the sum of $1530. The funds held by the garnishee were replevied by J. F. Burge, the replevy bond being signed J. F. Burge, per R. T. Burge, attorney, as principal and Marvin Scurloclc and W. F. Keith as sureties. A motion to quash the garnishment proceedings was filed by J. F. Burge and R. T. Burge, which was overruled. The bond for garnishment was not attacked on the ground of insufficiency in amount. The cause was tried by jury and resulted in a verdict and judgment, in the original suit,, against J. F. Burge in the sum of $2416.64, and in favor of R. T. Burge. Afterwards the garnishment suit was tried and resulted in a judgment against the principal and sureties on the replevy bond in the.sum .of $1530, being the amount owing to J. F. Burge by the garnishee which was replevied by him.

The first contention of appellants is that the garnishment proceedings are invalid and should have been quashed for the reason that the garnishment bond is for a sum less than double the amount of appellee’s claim, and that such error is fundamental and should *227 be considered although not raised in the trial court, nor specifically assigned as error in this court. A calculation is made to show that the amount of appellee’s claim was $2302.90, and that the bond should have been for $4604.80 instead of $4600, the amount for which it was given. A calculation is made by appellee in which it appears that the amount claimed was $2296.79, and consequently that the bond was for $6.42 more than double that amount. This court can not be expected to enter into mathematical calculations to determine whether a bond is a few dollars below or above the amount required by statute, and should this be a duty devolved upon it, in a proper case, it can not be demanded in a case where a motion to quash on the ground of insufficiency in the amount is sprung for the first time on appeal. Seinsheimer v. Flanagan, 17 Texas Civ. App., 430. It may be that the bond lacks a few dollars in being double the amount of the sum claimed, but if that be true, it is not such error as goes to the foundation of the action and should not be considered unless properly assigned. Wilson v. Johnson, 94 Texas, 276.

The first assignment of error is as follows: “The court erred in refusing to quash the 'garnishment proceedings and writ in this cause and in overruling defendant Burge’s motion to quash said garnishment, for the reason that the plaintiff wholly failed to comply with the provisions of the Bevised Statutes of the State of Texas, and with the law relating to garnishment proceedings.” _ As general as that assignment of error is, it is followed by two propositions fully as general in their scope. They state abstract propositions of law and make no effort to specify the errors in the garnishment proceedings. In the motion to quash, eight grounds are set out, and an appellate court can not go into a consideration of all those grounds under a general assignment that the court erred “in refusing to quash the garnishment proceedings.” Falls Land Co. v. Chisolm, 71 Texas, 523; Hansen v. Yturria (Texas Civ. App.), 48 S. W. Rep., 795.

The second assignment points out as error the action of the court in refusing to sustain an objection to the statement in the affidavit that the “writ of garnishment is not sued out to injure either the defendant or garnishee,” the contention being that it should have stated that the writ was “not sued out to injure either of the defendants or the garnishee.” It will be remembered that the indebtedness was alleged in the petition to be that of J. F. Burge as evidenced by promissory notes executed by him through his attorney, B. T. Burge, and the latter was sought to be charged only in case it was shown that he had no authority to sign the name of J. F. Burge to the notes. In the affidavit for the writ of garnishment it is stated' that the affiant believed that the garnishee was indebted to “the defendant, J. F. Burge,” and that statement was followed by the further statement that the writ was not sued out to injure “either the defendant or garnishee.” It could not and should not have had any reference to any one except the person whose property was to be held by the writ of garnishment. The fact that the bond was made payable to both and that the *228 writ commanded that the garnishee make known what amounts he was indebted to either of the parties could not render the affidavit invalid. The property of but one man was sought to be subjected to the writ of garnishment and that man alone was to be protected by affidavit and bond, and had there been a dozen or more defendants the man whose property was to be seized was the only one concerning whom there was required a disclaimer as to an intention to inflict injury. If the parties had been sued on a joint indebtedness, and there had been an effort to secure the property of both, the affidavit would be defective, but not under the pleadings in the original action nor the application for the writ of garnishment. In the cases referred t) defendants had been sued on joint liabilities and the property of each was sought to be reached by the writ of garnishment. Perrill v. Kaufman, 72 Texas, 214; Gunst v. Pelham, 74 Texas, 586; Kildare Lumber Co. v. Atlanta Bank, 91 Texas, 95. An examination of those cases will show that in each there were two or more defendants and that attachments were sued out against the property of each one, and of course they have no application to a case like this. The law does not prescribe unreasonable requirements, and it would be unreasonable in a case where the liability of one man is sought to be established, to require that the plaintiff swear that another person, with no .joint liability, but who is joined in the suit on precautionary grounds alone, has no property, or that the garnishment is not sued out to injure him. The affidavit did not include him, and he could not possibly have been injured by the suing out of a writ of garnishment against another with whom he was not charged to be jointly liable.

There is no merit in the fourth and fifth assignments of error. In the petition the total amount due on the notes is not set out. The rate of interest is alleged in the petition. In the affidavit the amount claimed is described as “$1903 with 10 per cent, attorney’s fees thereon besides interest.” In the writ the amount is described as “$1903 with 1.0 per cent, attorney’s fees besides interest.” It seems that the amounts due on the different notes, as alleged in the petition, when added amount to a sum greater than the sums set forth in the affidavit.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
105 S.W. 232, 47 Tex. Civ. App. 223, 1907 Tex. App. LEXIS 478, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burge-v-beaumont-carriage-company-texapp-1907.