Clayton v. Clayton

297 S.W.2d 255, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2435
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 6, 1956
DocketNo. 6934
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 297 S.W.2d 255 (Clayton v. Clayton) 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
Clayton v. Clayton, 297 S.W.2d 255, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2435 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

DAVIS, Justice.

This is an appeal from the order of the District Court of Gregg County, Texas, from an order dismissing an attempted appeal from a judgment of the County Court.

Appellant brings forward one point of error complaining of the action of the trial court in dismissing the appeal because none of the original papers, or a transcript, was filed with the Clerk of the District Court within 30 days from the date of the judgment of the County Court.

Counsel for appellees have so ably and correctly stated the facts and the law in the case that we adopt the following portion of said brief (with minor changes) as part of the opinion of this court in the easel:

“The County Court rendered its judgment on February 28, 1956; the record as made in the County Court was not filed in the District Court until April 19, 1956, 51 days after rendition of judgment by the County Court, and 42 days after the judgment was filed with the County Clerk.

“The District Courts of Gregg County, Texas, are governed by Rule 330 (Rules of Civil Practice and Procedure in the [256]*256certain District Courts) of the Rules of the Civil Procedure for Texas Courts.

“Rule 330(a):
“ ‘Appealed cases. In cases appealed to said district courts from inferior courts, the appeal, including transcript, shall he filed in the district court within thirty (30) days after the rendition of the judgment or order appealed from. * '* * ’ (Emphasis supplied.)

“It is now settled law that the filing of ‘the appeal, including transcript shall be filed in the district court within thirty (30) days after the rendition of the judgment. * * * >

“The Courts of Civil Appeals, approved by the Supreme Court by its refusals of writs of error, has held that it is mandatory and jurisdictional to file in the district court the ‘appeal, including the transcript’ as provided in Rule 330(a), T.R.C.P.

“In Callahan v. Stover, 263 S.W.2d 630, 636 (writ refused) the Court of Civil Appeals, among other things, said:

“‘(7, 8) We have no doubt, therefore, that, in this kind of case the filing in the district court of the “appeal, including the transcript”, as provided in Rule 330(a), is an essential element of “taking an appeal” from the county or “trial” court to the “higher” district court, within contemplation of Rule S. It follows, we think, that "the appeal, including transcript, shall be filed in the district court” is one of the periods which Rule 5 prohibits enlargement of. In other words, we are of the opinion that Rule 5 has had the effect of the making mandatory and jurisdictional the provision of Rule 330(a) regarding the filing of the appeal and transcript, whereas in statutory form, and before adoption of Rule 5, the same provision was construed as being directory only. (Emphasis supplied.)
“ ‘Unless * * * We are not to suppose that in adopting such provision of the rule the Supreme Court employed language which clearly embraces appeals of this kind without intending that the language to do so; * *.
‘The foregoing conclusion is also invited by the fact that in adopting Rule 334, T.R.C.P., the Supreme Court omitted therefrom a provision which as a part of the rule’s source — statute, Art. 3702, had been a tacit invitation to county clerks to procrastinate in transmitting records to district clerks,
“ ‘(9) Having concluded, as already stated, that provision of Rule 330(a) which requires, that the appeal and transcript be filed in the district court within thirty days after rendition of the judgment or order appealed from is mandatory or jurisdictional, and since the rule contains no provision for an enlargement of such period, we are of the opinion that in the case at bar Mrs. Stover, sole contestant in the county court, lost her right to prosecute her appeal in the district court, and that the district court’s jurisdiction of the appeal automatically terminated, at the expiration of thirty days after rendition in the county court of the order admitting the Will to probate; none of the papers in the cause, the appeal bond nor a certified copy of the order appealed from having been transmitted to or filed by the district clerk within such period of thirty days. Being without jurisdiction, the district court was without power to proceed to a valid trial de novo of the merits of the case, and should have dismissed the appeal at whatever stage of the proceedings the matter was brought to its attention.’

“The facts in the above case and in the instant case are as near alike as one will find and the opinion in the above cited [257]*257case has answered every contention of the appellant set forth in his brief.

“The appellant argues that which is not in any Rule nor has ever been in any statute — that there was a necessity that the appellant should have and was not notified by the County Clerk that he did not intend to prepare the record.

“That argument has been answered in the Callahan v. Stover case, supra [263 S.W.2d], on page 638:

“ ‘(10, 11) While it may be primarily the duty of the county clerk to prepare and transmit the proper papers to the district clerk, and of the latter to file them and to docket the cause in the district court, the appellant is not without responsibility in the matter. In the case of In re Ritchie’s Estate, Tex.Civ.App., 133 S.W.2d 591, 593, it was said: "Undoubtedly, the duty rests upon a party appealing from an order of the probate court to see to it that the clerk of that court timely prepares and forwards the record to the district court, * * *. When it is sought to transfer a case from one court to another by an appeal, or other authorized procedure, the burden rests upon the party against whom the judgment stands in the lower court, and who is seeking to avoid it by appeal to a higher court, to see to it that everything is done which is necessary to make it affirmatively appear that the higher court has jurisdiction of the case” ’. (Emphasis supplied.)

“The appellant did not discharge this burden and cannot be heard to complain.

“The case of Richards v. National Bank of Commerce of Houston [Tex.Civ.App.], 274 S.W.2d 761 (writ refused) is a chilling answer to the contentions of the appellant in the instant case.

“In that case, the Court, among other things, said:

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Related

Clayton v. Clayton
308 S.W.2d 557 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1957)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
297 S.W.2d 255, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 2435, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clayton-v-clayton-texapp-1956.