Cecil v. Fox

208 S.W. 954, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 182
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 18, 1919
DocketNo. 8039.
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 208 S.W. 954 (Cecil v. Fox) 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
Cecil v. Fox, 208 S.W. 954, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 182 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

RAINEY, C. J.

This suit was brought by appellee POx against C. W. Cecil and Cecil & Co., the latter a corporation, both alleged to be residents of Johnson county, Tex., to recover a forfeiture of $1,000 for the’ breach of a contract. O. W. Cecil filed a plea of .privilege to be sued in the county of his residence, which plea on a hearing was overruled, and from which ruling this appeal is taken.

Appellant’s plea of privilege recites, among other things:

“Pirst. That this defendant is now, and was at the time of the institution of this suit and service of citation, a resident of Johnson county, Tex., and that he is not now, and was not at the time of the institution of this suit or service of citation, a resident of Navarro county, Tex. Second. That none of the exceptions to exclusive venue in the county of one’s residence •mentioned in article 1830 or in article 2308 of the Revised Civil Statutes exists in this cause” ' — but omitted to allege “nor at the time of filing of such plea.” .

Appellee contested the plea of privilege 'by demurrers, general and special. The said plea came on to be heard ■ on the pleadings and evidence, and, after hearing the demurrers and evidence, it was taken under ad'visement pending the trial of case, and then the court rendered the following judgment:

“It' is therefore ordered and adjudged’ by the court that the general demurrer to the defend'ant’s plea of privilege be sustained. It is further ordered and adjudged by the court that, upon the evidence and merits of the case, said plea or privilege be, and the same is, overruled” —and adjudging costs against appellant.

The facts adduced on the hearing of the plea of privilege show that the district court of Navarro county had jurisdiction of C. W. Cecil to try this case. The contract entered into between appellant and appellee was reduced to writing, and provided for part of the contract to be performed in Navarro county, not in express words, but by implication, in the general agreement .as follows:

“The said Fox agrees and obligates himself to sell and convey to the said Cecil all and entire the stock of goods, wares and merchandise situated in a two-story brick building, No. 106, on the west side of South Beaton street, in the city of Corsicana, Tex., now owned by him, together with all fixtures in said building, and used in connection with said stock of merchandise, except the shelving and three box counters and one safe. The property conveyed constitutes a general dry goods stock of merchandise. The said Cecil now agrees "*to purchase and receive said stock of merchandise from said Fox, and pay him therefor the sum of twenty thousand ($20,000.09) dollars.”

[1, 2] This language says that this stock of goods is situated in a house in Corsicana, and we judicially know Corsicana is in Navarro county. The contract provides for ap-pellee to deliver the stock of goods and for appellant to receive them, and no other place is specified in the contract at which they are to be delivered; therefore we are forced to the irresistible conclusion that the contract was at least partly performable in Navarro county.

Another part of the contract provides:

“It is further agreed, that both the said Fox -and the said Cecil will and do put up as a forfeit, their certified checks, each in the sum of $1,000.00 payable to each other, and deposited with the Corsicana National Bank, as stakeholder, together with this contract to insure the performance of its terms.”

This part of the contract provides for something to be done in Navarro county; that is, to deposit a certified check for $1,-000 as a forfeit. This appellant .has failed to do and for which he is liable, and he in this, as well as in the other, section of the contract, waived his privilege to be sued in the county of Johnson and made himself subject to section 5 of article 1830, Rev. St., which provides :

, “Where a person has contracted in writing to perform an obligati.on in any particular coun'ty, in which case suit may be brought either in such county, or where- the defendant has his domicile.”

[3] Although a written contract may not plainly specify that it is to be performed in a certain place, ’ yet if the contract, by its *956 terms, leads to no other conclusion but that it is performable in that place, then jurisdiction will be given to that place.

The case of Brick Co. v. Cox & Co., reported in 33 Tex. Civ. App. 292, 76 S. W. 607, in principle applies to this case and we think is decisive of it, and we quote from it as follows:

“It will be seen that the contract does not, by express terms, upon its face, provide for performance in Bell county. This, however, is not necessary in order to confer jurisdiction under the article above referred to. ‘It is held that the question to be determined is whether the legal effect and purport of the written instrument is that it should be performed in the county where the suit is brought.’ Sayles’ Tex. Civ. Prac. vol. 1, p. 256; Henry v. Fay, 2 Willson, Civ. Cas. Ct. App. §§ 834, 835. In the case of Seley v. Williams, 20 Tex. Civ. App. 405, 50 S. W. 399, it is said: ‘It is to be observed that exception 5 to article 1194 does not provide that the contract in writing shall, by express words, require performance of the contract in a particular county; but if the contract be in writing, and must necessarily be executed in a county different from that of the domicile of the party contracting, then, for breach of the contract, he may be sued in either of these counties.’ See, also, Ry. Co. v. Browne [27 Tex. Civ. App. 437] 66 S. W. 343. We think the rule is correctly stated in the authorities cited. Applying them to the contract and the facts offered in evidence in this case, we are unable to escape the conclusion that the legal effect and purport of .the contract, interpreted in the light of the circumstances surrounding the parties and attending its execution, contemplated a delivery of the oil by ap-pellees in Bell county, Tex.”

[4] In the third, proposition, sixth assignment, the appellant claims:

“As the court did not dismiss the plea of privilege or enter judgment sustaining the demurrer and heard the plea of privilege on its merits and overruled it, the judgment on the plea on the merits prevailed over the entry of the order on the demurrer. Merely sustaining the general demurrer without the entry of a judgment thereon dismissing the plea was ineffective and did not have the result of dismissing the plea of privilege. It was necessary for the court to go further and carry into effect his actions in sustaining the demurrer. As this was not done and the plea of privilege was overruled on its merits, the last order prevailed over the first one.”

The court entered the following order:

“It is therefore ordered and adjudged by the court that the general demurrer to the demurrer to the defendant’s plea of privilege be sustained. It is further ordered and adjudged by the court that upon the evidence anS merits of the case the plea of privilege be and the same is overruled.”

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

Related

Butler Law v. Hon. higgins/winslow Memorial
410 P.3d 1223 (Arizona Supreme Court, 2018)
Yanta v. Davenport
323 S.W.2d 636 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1959)
Rorschach v. Polo Oil Co.
245 S.W.2d 1019 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1951)
Coffield v. Richter
229 S.W.2d 97 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1950)
Heid Bros., Inc. v. Smiley
144 S.W.2d 952 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1940)
White v. Perot
42 S.W.2d 1041 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)
Miller Cattle Co. v. Mattice
298 P. 640 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1931)
Gist v. Turner
32 S.W.2d 399 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)
Alexander v. Paschen
29 S.W.2d 430 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)
Pate v. Garrett
19 S.W.2d 353 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1929)
Strange v. General Motors Acceptance Corp.
2 S.W.2d 255 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1928)
Commercial Credit Co. v. Ballard
263 S.W. 1101 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1924)
Trapshooter Development Co. v. Whitton Oil & Gas Co.
263 S.W. 622 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1924)
Hill v. Wood
238 S.W. 309 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1922)
Metropolitan Loan Co. v. Reeves
236 S.W. 762 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1922)
Landa v. F. S. Ainsa Co.
231 S.W. 175 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1921)
Gambrell v. Tatum
228 S.W. 287 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1921)
Southern Plow Co. v. Dunlap Hardware Co.
221 S.W. 1020 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1920)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
208 S.W. 954, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cecil-v-fox-texapp-1919.