Burge v. Broussard

258 S.W. 502, 1924 Tex. App. LEXIS 79
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 1, 1924
DocketNo. 999. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 258 S.W. 502 (Burge v. Broussard) 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. Broussard, 258 S.W. 502, 1924 Tex. App. LEXIS 79 (Tex. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

HI.GHTOWER, Q. J.

This was a suit filed by the appellant, R. T. Burge, in the Fifty-Eighth judicial district court (Jefferson county) on October 13, 1921, to cancel a certain judgment rendered in that court in favor of some of the appellees against appellant on October 1, 1914, for $26,700, with interest on that amount from the date of the judgment until paid, at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum. In appellant’s petition, numerous attacks were made upon the judgment; the most material and vital ones being, in substance, as follows:

(1) That the judgment attacked was void because it was rendered in a scire facias proceeding in the Fifty-Eighth district court of Jefferson county to revive a judgment that had been rendered in the Sixtieth district court of Jefferson county against appellant in favor of the Port Arthur Rice Milling Company on September 16, 1907, and which ap-pellees claimed had been transferred to them; it being appellant’s contention in this connection that the Fifty-Eighth district court of Jefferson county was without jurisdiction to revive by scire facias a judgment that had been rendered in another and different district court, and that therefore the judgment rendered by the Fifty-Eighth district court in such scire facias proceeding was utterly and wholly void.

(2) That one of the plaintiffs, B. Hamshire, named in the petition in the suit in which the attacked judgment was rendered, was dead at the time the suit was filed, and at the time the judgment therein was rendered, and that this fact made the judgment in that suit null and void.

(3) That two of the plaintiffs in the suit in which the attacked judgment was rendered were married women, and that they were not joined by their husbands, with whom they were then living, and that the judgment rendered in that suit was in their favor as married women, and that, not being joined by their husbands in the suit, such married women had no right to prosecute the same and have judgment in their favor, and that therefore said judgment was null and void.

(4) That the judgment attacked was procured by fraud perpetrated upon the court by the plaintiffs in that suit, in that they joined with them as a plaintiff L. Hamshire, who they knew was dead at the time, and also joined with them two married women, Mrs. Lena Broussard and Mrs. Eunice Ar-ceneaux, without the joinder of their husbands, when said .plaintiffs knew that the husbands of such married women were living, and that they ought to have been joined with their, wives in said suit, and that such fraud practiced upon the court rendered the judgment in that suit void.

Appellant’s prayer was that the judgment attacked be wholly canceled, set aside, and held for naught.

Appellees answered by general demurrer, many special exceptions, general denial, and by a plea of the four years’ statute of limitation. Appellees then, by cross-action, set up, in substance, the recovery of the judgment against appellant of October 1, 1914, and further alleged, in substance, that appellant *504 had no property in Texas subject to execution sufficient to discharge and satisfy the judgment against him, but that appellees were informed and. believed that appellant owned property in the state of California of great value, and that a judgment against him in this suit might be satisfied out of his property in California, by proper proceedings against him in that state. Appellees then alleged that under the statutory law of California a judgment more than five years old could not be sued on in the courts of that state, and that, unless they were permitted in this suit to recover anew upon their debt against appellant, as evidenced by the judgment of October 1, 1914, they would have no way of obtaining satisfaction of same against appellant, and prayed that they be given judgment against appellant for the amount of their debt, as evidenced by their judgment of October 1, 1914, with interest from that date at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum.

Appellant replied by supplemental petition to the cross-action filed by appellees, interposing a general demurrer, some special exceptions, and a general denial, and prayed for cancellation of the 1914 judgment, as in his original petition.

A jury was taken in the case, but at the conclusion of the evidence the trial court instructed a verdict against appellant as to his cause of action, and in favor of appel-lees on their cross-action. After his motion for a new trial was overruled, appellant prosecuted an appeal to this court, and has presented in his brief numerous assignments of error, some of which are followed by propositions germane to the assignments, but others are not. ,

We think, in view of the nature of the assignments presented by appellant, some of which raise the same legal question in different form, they may be disposed of without taking them in their numerical order, and we shall so treat them. The contentions made by appellant by his several assignments relative to his cause of action may be summarized as follows:

(1) That the judgment of October 1, 1914, in the Fifty-Eighth district court of Jefferson county, and which is attacked by this suit, was wholly void, because that court was without jurisdiction to render it; that proceeding being merely a scire facias proceeding to revive a dormant judgment, and that ' such proceeding could only be prosecuted and revival had in the district court of the Sixtieth judicial district, where the dormant judgment sought to be revived was rendered.

(2) Because it was shown, without dispute, that L. Hamshire, one of the members of a concern known as the Beaumont Rice Mills, a copartnership, was dead at the time the judgment attacked was rendered in his favor, and that this fact rendered the judgment absolutely void.

(3) Because two of the plaintiffs in the suit in which the attacked judgment was rendered, Mrs. Lena Broussard and Mrs. Eunice Arceneaux, were married women, and were not joined by their husbands, and that therefore the judgment in that suit was void.

(4)Because the judgment of 1914 was obtained by fraud perpetrated upon the court, in that L. Hamshire, one of the plaintiffs named in the petition in that suit, was rep-, resented as being a living person, whereas, in fact, he was dead at the time the suit was filed and at the time the judgment was rendered, and also because a fraud was perpetrated upon the court, in that the two married women, as plaintiffs in that suit, could not sue and obtain judgment without tbe joinder of their husbands, and that the act of plaintiffs in that suit in making said married women plaintiffs without the join-der of their husbands, and taking judgment in their favor with a knowledge of the fact that said married women were not separated from their husbands, constituted such a fraud upon the court as rendered the judgment of 1914 void.

Before proceeding to dispose of appellant’s contentions relating to his cause of action, as we have just stated them in substance, we will state the undisputed facts upon which this controversy arose. The concern known as the Beaumont Rice Mills was a copartnership, of which J. E. Brous-sard, L. Hamshire, and some nine others constituted the members. By consent of all members of this partnership, J. E. Brous-sard was made the managing head and directed the business and affairs of the partnership.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
258 S.W. 502, 1924 Tex. App. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burge-v-broussard-texapp-1924.