Carpenter v. First Natl. Bank of Sour Lake

114 S.W. 904, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 23, 1908 Tex. App. LEXIS 652
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 18, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 114 S.W. 904 (Carpenter v. First Natl. Bank of Sour Lake) 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
Carpenter v. First Natl. Bank of Sour Lake, 114 S.W. 904, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 23, 1908 Tex. App. LEXIS 652 (Tex. Ct. App. 1908).

Opinion

PLEASANTS, Chief Justice.

This suit was brought by appellee against the appellants, H. J. Carpenter and Alma M. Carpenter, as *25 principals, and J. M. Carpenter, Joseph Mobray and Steve Jackson, as sureties, upon an injunction bond executed by said appellants in a suit for injunction brought by F. H. and Alma M. Carpenter to restrain the sale of land under an execution issued upon a judgment for $2500 obtained against them by appellee in the District Court of Hardin County.

The cause of action alleged by plaintiff is, in substance, that the injunction issued in the suit in which the bond sued on was filed was dissolved upon final hearing, and that appellants, F. H. and Alma M. Carpenter, in violation of the obligations of said bond, did not abide the result of said decision, but, without appealing therefrom, thereafter brought suit in the District Court of Jefferson County for an injunction to restrain the sale of the land involved in said first suit, under a second execution issued upon said original judgment; that said second suit for injunction was decided against appellants in the District Court and was appealed by them to the Court of Civil Appeals, which court affirmed the judgment of the District Court; that the bringing of said second suit for injunction greatly damaged plaintiff in that it caused it to expend the sum of $350 in the payment of attorney’s fees to the attorneys employed to defend said suit, and the further sum of $50, expenses incurred in attending court in Jefferson County on the trial of said suit. Plaintiff further alleged that said suit for injunction, in which the bond sued on was executed, was brought by said appellants for the purpose of delaying the collection of its judgment against them, which judgment was for the sum of $2500, and therefore defendants were liable to it for statutory damages of ten percent upon the amount of said judgment, for which sum, $250, judgment was also asked.

The defendants answered by general and special exceptions and general denial, and further pleaded as follows:

“And further answering herein these defendants say that plaintiff ought not to have and maintain its suit herein against these defendants, nor either of them, for the reason that all of the matters and things involved in this suit were involved in a certain suit heretofore had in District Court in Hardin County, Texas, in cause No. 1375, styled Mrs. Alma M. Carpenter et al. v. The First National Bank of Sour Lake; that all of the issues involved in this cause were subjects of adjudication in said cause in the said District Court; that the said District Court then had jurisdiction of all of said issues; and that the judgment of said District Court in said cause No. 1375 was conclusive of all of the issues, if any, now involved in this cause, and these defendants here now specially interpose the plea of res judicata in bar of plaintiff’s pretended cause of action herein.”

The cause was tried by the court without a jury and judgment rendered in favor of plaintiff for $250 statutory damages, $350 for attorney’s fees paid by plaintiff in defending the second suit for injunction and $25 expenses of attending court in Jefferson County on the trial of said suit.

The case was tried upon an agreed statement of facts which is as follows:

“It is agreed by the parties to this suit that the bond set out in *26 plaintiff’s second amended original petition is the bond which was executed by the defendants in this suit and filed in suit No. 1375 in the District Court of Hardin County, Texas, on the 30th day of September, 1905; that said suit No. 1375 in the District Court of Hardin County was a suit by Alma M. Carpenter joined by her husband, F. H. Carpenter, brought against Bas Landry, sheriff of Jefferson County, First National Bank of Sour Lake and Geo. W. Armstrong, president of said bank, to restrain them from selling certain property in Jefferson County, claimed by said Alma M. Carpenter to be her separate property; that said execution so restrained was issued out of the District Court of Hardin County on a valid judgment rendered in said court on the 20th day of April, 1905, in cause No. 1276, entitled First National Bank of Sour Lake v. .F. H. Carpenter; "that said judgment was against said F. H. Carpenter, who is and was the husband of Alma M. Carpenter, and that at the time of the institution of said injunction suit, to wit: cause No. 1375, there was due and unsatisfied on said judgment in cause No. 1276 the full sum of $2500.

“That on the 19th day of October, 1905, said injunction suit No. 1375 was heard in the District Court of Hardin County on demurrers interposed by the defendants in that suit and the injunction theretofore issued was dissolved and plaintiff’s suit was dismissed. From this judgment no appeal was prosecuted and no motion for new trial made. That in said cause No. 1375 the defendants did not pray for damages of any kind.

“That after the dissolution of said injunction in said cause No. 1375, another execution was taken out on the judgment in cause No. 1276 and the same was levied on the real estate in Jefferson County as the property of F. H. Carpenter, being the same property levied on under execution which was restrained in said cause No. 1375. That thereupon said Alma M. Carpenter and F. H. Carpenter sued out an injunction in the 58th Judicial District of Jefferson County against said Bas Landrjr, the First National Bank of Sour Lake and Geo. W. Armstrong, restraining the further execution of said writ against said property; said suit in said Jefferson County being No. 5466. That in said injunction suit in Jefferson County there were the same parties plaintiff and the same parties defendant and the .same subject matter as in cause No. 1375 in the District Court of Hardin County.

“That said injunction suit so brought in Jefferson County in said cause No. 5466 was tried on the 3d day of February, 1906, and the injunction theretofore granted was dissolved and the suit dismissed, from which said judgment the said Alma M. Carpenter and F. H. Carpenter appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals of the First Supreme Judicial District of Texas, at Galveston, Texas.

“That the judgment in said District Court of Jefferson County in said cause was by the Court of Civil Appeals in all things affirmed by an opinion delivered in said Court of Appeals upon the 28th day of February, 1907.

“That in defending said cause No. 5466 in Jefferson County the plaintiff paid out attorney’s fees to the amount of $250, and for *27 defending said suit in the Court of Civil Appeals the sum of $100, and plaintiff paid out in other expenses attending the Jefferson County- Court the sum of $25.

“That after cause No. 5466, appealed from the District Court of Jefferson County, had been affirmed by the Court of Appeals, the defendant, F. II. Carpenter, paid off and satisfied the judgment in cause No. 1276 in the District Court of Hardin County, the same being the judgment on which the several executions had been issued.”

Under appropriate assignments of error the appellants assail the judgment of the court below upon the ground that the agreed facts upon which the cause was tried fail to show any liability on the part of defendants and, therefore, judgment should have been rendered in their favor.

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Bluebook (online)
114 S.W. 904, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 23, 1908 Tex. App. LEXIS 652, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carpenter-v-first-natl-bank-of-sour-lake-texapp-1908.