Burrage v. Hunt Production Co.

114 S.W.2d 1228, 1938 Tex. App. LEXIS 1004
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 19, 1938
DocketNo. 12476.
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 114 S.W.2d 1228 (Burrage v. Hunt Production 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
Burrage v. Hunt Production Co., 114 S.W.2d 1228, 1938 Tex. App. LEXIS 1004 (Tex. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinions

BOND, Chief Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of a district court of Dallas county, Tex., sustaining appellees’ pleas of privilege and transferring the cause to Smith county.

Appellants contend that the proceeding to which the pleas of privilege are directed has for its purpose the enforcement of a certain judgment rendered on April 4, 1932, and that the court rendering the judgment is the only court having jurisdiction to enforce it; therefore, that no plea of privilege will lie to said proceeding.

The judgment sought to be enforced by the proceeding, deleting all formal parts, is as follows:

“On this the 4th day of April, A. D. 1932, the attention of the court being called to the fact that the Master in Chancery heretofore filed a report approving the claim of Richard W. Burrage, which said report has not been acted on by the court; It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that Richard W. Bur-rage, have and recover herein the title to the following described property, in accordance with the report of the Master in Chancery heretofore made: 2 undivided acres in Syndicate No. 3, composing the 500 acres Daisy Bradford tract and described as follows: (description given). Together with an undivided 8/12000 interest in and to the 80 acres on-which the Joiner Well #3 was situated. It is further ordered that the title to the above described property be and the same is hereby quieted in the said Richard W. Burrage.”

Appellees contend that the proceeding instituted by appellants is a new suit, seeking recovery of a new judgment, on a new and independent cause of action from that adjudicated in the foregoing judgment. Appellees further contend that appellants, on hearing of the contest of said pleas of privilege, failed to offer any proof to show prima facie any cause of action against appellees, or to show appellants were entitled to the relief sought.

In order for the issues to appear in their true light, we will state the history of his controversy, much of which is not shown by the record in this appeal, but is shown by the records in other appeals which have been heretofore determined by this court, this being the fourth appeal which has -been lodged in this court regarding this controversy.

On October 27, 1930, one C. R. Adkins and others filed a suit in the Forty-fourth district court of Dallas county against C. M. Joiner and others, involving several tracts of land situated in Rusk county, including the 500 acres in question. The lands were placed in the hands of a receiver. The undivided 2-acre tract mentioned in the foregoing judgment is a part of this 500-acre tract of land.

Subsequent to the filing of said suit, H. L. Hunt, trustee and one of the appellees, purchased the interest of C. M. Joiner in the 500 acres, and he, together with several other persons claiming an interest therein, intervened in said suit. Richard W. Bur-rage also intervened in said suit, asserting some character of claim to be determined *1231 against C. M. Joiner, without specifying the kind of claim or the land to which his claim attached. On April 18, 1931, while Hunt and Burrage were parties to the suit, the court dismissed the cause of action in so far as it related to the 500 acres, releasing and discharging it from said receivership, the judgment reciting:

“On this the 18th day of April, A. D. 1931, came on to be heard the motion of C. M. Joiner, H. L. Hunt, W. B. Osborne, E. B. McDavid, W. A. Brookshire, John Malone, Mamie Smith, Chassie Buford, Leota Brannon, Mrs. Lake N. Bruce, John B. Rowland, M. R. Thomas, Alexander Smith Oil Company, G. O. Golightly, L. W. Capps, R. C. McElmurry, K. C. Miller, Leo V. Ryan, H. C. Miller, Murray Butler, Donna Buford, Ray Carter, J. W. Blanton, H. N. Lane, A. V. Lane, Vivian Duncan, R. J. Glass, to dismiss without prejudice the above styled and numbered cause, and the receivership ancillary to said cause, in so far as they affect the following described property, to-wit: (describing the 500 acres). And it appearing to the court from the findings of the Honorable Tom. C. Clark, Master in Chancery herein, and from the evidence adduced before the court, that said above named parties are the only parties of record claiming any right, title or interest in and to said above described property (italics ours), and that said motion should be granted, and said partition suit and receivership, in so far as it applies to them and the above described property, should be dismissed.
“It is therefore considered by the court and so ordered and decreed that the above styled and numbered cause in so far as it applies to the said described property, and to that extent only, is dismissed and the receiver is directed to release said property, together with all personal property located thereon from his custody and control as such receiver, and the right of possession thereto shall revert to and vest in the various owners thereof as their interests might appear, and said owners of said property shall be entitled to receive any and all oil taken from said land, now in storage in the tanks, and all oil and proceeds of oil run from said property since March 31, 1931, said dismissal being without prejudice to the rights of the various owners of and/or claimants to said property as among themselves, or with other parties, and without prejudice to the right of H. L. Hunt under and by virtue of his contract with Ernest R. Tennant, as receiver. * * !|; »

On April 4, 1932, practically one year later, without any character of notice to Hunt, the judgment which appellants seek to enforce by the proceeding here involved was entered in favor of Burrage, and became final, perforce of its affirmance by this court. Hunt. v. Burrage, Tex.Civ.App., 84 S.W.2d 1098.

While the appeal of Hunt v. Burrage, supra, was pending in this court, on September 2, 1933, appellants filed in the trial court what they denominated their “Motion to Enforce Judgment,” in which they asked for the enforcement of the judgment of April 4, 1932, a receiver to be appointed for the 500 acres of land, and an accounting by Hunt Production Company for all oil received and sold from the land in question since the date of the judgment.

Upon being served with citation, the defendants (appellees herein) H. L. Hunt, trustee, and Hunt Production Company, filed pleas of privilege in statutory form, alleging their residence in Smith county. On hearing of the pleas of privilege, the trial court denied the relief sought, the defendants then filed supersedeas appeal bond and, on appeal, this court affirmed the judgment, holding that the filing of the supersedeas bond rendered nugatory both the said motion to enforce said judgment and the pleas of privilege, leaving nothing before the trial court and the Court of Civil Appeals for determination. Hunt et al. v. Burrage, Tex.Civ.App., 95 S.W.2d 202.

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Bluebook (online)
114 S.W.2d 1228, 1938 Tex. App. LEXIS 1004, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burrage-v-hunt-production-co-texapp-1938.