Creosoted Wood Block Paving Co. v. McKay

234 S.W. 587, 1921 Tex. App. LEXIS 1026
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 19, 1921
DocketNo. 8660.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 234 S.W. 587 (Creosoted Wood Block Paving Co. v. McKay) 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
Creosoted Wood Block Paving Co. v. McKay, 234 S.W. 587, 1921 Tex. App. LEXIS 1026 (Tex. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinion

VAUGHAN, J.

This cause originated in the district court of Dallas county, and is now before us on motion by appellees to dismiss the appeal on the ground “that the judgment entered herein is not a final judgment disposing of all parties tio the suit below, and that, as shown by the record in this suit, there is no final judgment from which appeal will lie.” The judgment appealed from is as follows:

“Creosoted Wood Block Paving Company v. A. C. McKay et ux.
“No. 21589-A.
“Friday, January 14, 1921. Entered as of January 10, 1921.
“On this the 10th day of January, 1921, this cause came regularly on to be heard, and thereupon came all parties by attorneys, and in open court announced ready for trial. And, a jury not being asked for, the matters in controversy of law and of fact were submitted to the court, who, after hearing and duly considering the same, is of the opinion that the defendants, A. C. McKay and wife, Mrs. A. C. McKay, are indebted to the plaintiff, Creosoted Wood Block Paving Company, in the sum of $294.71 principal, $136.62 interest, and $100 attorney’s fees, aggregating $531.33, and that the law is for the plaintiff in this respect.
“It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the court that the plaintiff, Creosoted Wood Block Paving Company, a corporation, do recover of and from the defendants, A. C. McKay and wife, Mrs. A. C. McKay, individually, jointly, and severally, the full sum of $531.33, with interest thereon from this date at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum, that being the rate stipulated for in the instrument on which this suit ;is founded, together with all costs of suit, but without foreclosure of the lien claimed by plaintiff, for all of which judgment, interest, and costs let execution issue.”

[1] The recitals of the proceedings as contained in the judgment entry are nob sufficient to disclose the issues determined and parties before the court. Therefore the pleadings of all parties to the suit will be considered in connection with the judgment as constituting the entire record. It is true the better practice would be for a judgment to be so framed as to disclose in detail each issue determined and, specifically, the parties to be affected thereby or whose rights are to be determined by the judgment of the court. However, in view of the fact that the practice in this country has never been to set forth the pleadings presenting the issues or the evidence introduced on the trial, and by which the rights of the parties litigant are determined in the judgment rendered, so as to disclose the issues presented by the pleadings and the facts on which the judgment may be based, it is necessary to look to the *589 pleadings in order to determine, not only tide questions involved, but also the parties whose rights have been determined.

As said in the case of Hamilton v. Ward, 4 Tex. 356:

“In our practice it has never been required to set out in the judgment itself the facts upon which it is founded. It is sufficient, if they be stated in the petition and ascertained by the judgment. * * * The petition and answer are, in our practice, as much a part of the record as the judgment itself; and it is only by a comparison with the former that the correctness of the latter can be ascertained. * * * Such, it is conceived, is the case in our practice, without distinction between cases at law and in equity.” '

In the case of Randon v. Cartwright, 3 Tex. 267, Judge Wheeler, delivering the opinion for the court, quotes approvingly from Story’s Eq. PI. as follows;

“For the purpose of examining all errors of law, * * * the bill, answer, and other proceedings are, in our practice, as much a part of the record before the court as the decree itself; for it is only by comparison with the former that the correctness of the latter can be ascertained.”

The above authorities fully justify us in considering the pleadings of the parties to this suit in connection with the judgment rendered in order to determine the issues settled by the judgment as well as the parties concluded thereby.

The original petition was filed against A. C. McKay and Mrs. A. C. McKay as original defendants on December 13, 1915, the appellant as plaintiff in said petition claiming an indebtedness against A. C. McKay and Mrs. A. C. McKay on account of a certain certificate of special assessment and the existence of a lien on certain real estate described in said petition, and on which foreclosure was sought. On the 14th day of July, 1916, appellant filed its first supplemental petition seeking to make the Investors’ Mortgage Security Company, Limited, and Maco Stewart parties defendant; and on the 29th day of November, 1919, appellant filed its second supplemental petition, seeking to make Seymour Wagner a party defendant.

The original defendants, A. C. McKay and wife, Mrs. A. C. McKay, filed answer to original petition January 3, 1916, and amended their said original answer by first amended original answer filed April 15, 1918.

The Investors’ Mortgage Security Company, Limited, filed original answer September 25, 1916, and first amended original answer April 15, 1918.

[2] The record fails to disclose the service of citation on the other defendants, Seymour Wagner and Maco Stewart, or that they were otherwise properly before the court by acceptance of service or answer duly filed. The judgment rendered in said cause contains the following recital: •' l-'-'

“On this, the 10th day of January, 1921, this cause came regularly on to be heard, and thereupon came all parties by attorneys and in open court announced ready for trial.”

And, there being nothing in the record to contradict or question the accuracy of said recital, we are to assume that all parties named in the pleadings were properly before the court, including Seymour Wagner and Maco Stewart. In the absence of a direct attack on the judgment for the want of service on Stewart and Wagner, we are authorized to hold that the above recital is sufficient to show affirmatively that the court had acquired jurisdiction by proper service of citation on appellees Wagner and Stewart. Davis v. Robinson, 70 Tex. 394, 7 S. W. 749; Martin v. Burns, 80 Tex. 676, 16 S. W. 1072; Gallagher v. Teuscher & Co., 186 S. W. 409.

[3] Although no question is raised in reference to the manner in which appellant sought to make additional parties defendant by supplemental petition, we are constrained, nevertheless, in the interest of proper practice, to call attention to the fact that the office of a supplemental petition is not to make additional parties, “add something to, or withdraw something from, that which has been previously pleaded,” but the office of a supplemental petition is to present general exceptions, general denials, and the allegation of new facts not before alleged by the plaintiff in reply to those which have been alleged by the defendant. See Rules 5 and 12 for the District and County Courts; article 1824, Vernon’s Sayles’ Civ. Statutes 1914; Jolley v. Oliver, 106 S. W. 1151; Williams v. Huling, 43 Tex. 113.

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Bluebook (online)
234 S.W. 587, 1921 Tex. App. LEXIS 1026, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/creosoted-wood-block-paving-co-v-mckay-texapp-1921.