Curry v. Dell Publishing Company

438 S.W.2d 887, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2558
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 5, 1969
Docket6003
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 438 S.W.2d 887 (Curry v. Dell Publishing Company) 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
Curry v. Dell Publishing Company, 438 S.W.2d 887, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2558 (Tex. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

OPINION

FRASER, Chief Justice.

As stated in the appellant’s brief, in October, 1961, the appellee published an article in its publication called “Front Page Detective” magazine, entitled “When the Window Peeper Comes to the Door”. Appellant states that the article imputed that Nathan Curry, appellant, was guilty of the murder of Florence Hussey, and that the article contained many statements which were false, untrue and defamatory. Appellant also points out that subsequent to the publishing of the article, labeled “libelous” by the appellant, the appellant was tried and found not guilty of the murder of Florence Hussey by a jury in the District Court of Palo Pinto County, Texas. Appellant then instituted this suit in the District Court of Ector County, Texas against the appellee and Basin News Agency (the Basin News Agency was subsequently dropped from the lawsuit), alleging that the article was libelous and was an invasion of privacy, and prayed for actual and punitive damages. The cause was removed by appellee to the Federal District Court for the Western District of Texas, Pecos Division, April 7, 1964. The cause was remanded to the 70th District Court of Ector County, Texas on September 28, 1964, on the ground that the Federal District Court found that it did not have jurisdiction. Then, on February 22, 1966, the defendant Basin News Agency was dismissed as a defendant. On June 10, 1968, the 70th District Court of Ector County, Texas found that it did not have jurisdiction over the appellee and entered its order dismissing this cause for want of jurisdiction. Appellant accordingly brings this appeal, complaining of the court’s above described action in dismissing the cause.

The only citation which was issued for service upon Dell Publishing Company, Inc. was delivered to Hon. Crawford C. Martin, Secretary of State of Texas, on March 19, 1964. We should like to point out here that it must be continually borne in mind that the appellee bought the article from a freelance writer and included it in its magazine as heretofore stated. It then sold this issue of the magazine and others to the Dell Distributing, Inc.

Appellee points out in its brief that interrogatories were submitted to and answered by appellee by and through the executive vice president of the publishing company, William F. Callahan, Jr., and states that the answers to the interrogatories were presumably found credible by *889 the trial court and are in this record without challenge, objection or suspicion. Ap-pellee further states that it has no distributors in Texas, nor other employees who call upon the distributors or purchasers of its magazine in Texas, and that there have been no employees of the company who have transacted business for it in Texas during the year 1961 or otherwise. Appellee further asserts that Dell Publishing Company, Inc. and Dell Distributing, Inc. are entirely separate and different corporations, and that Dell Publishing Company has not attempted to control the distribution of its magazines or other publications by Dell Distributing, Inc., and that appellee has no right to control any of such operations of the distributing company. Appellee also sets out that all of the stock of Dell Distributing, Inc. is owned by Dell Publishing Company, Inc., but appellee asserts that Dell Distributing, Inc. is an entirely separate corporation, operated and controlled by its own officers and directors, and there are no financial arrangements and no contracts in writing between the two companies. Appellee further alleges that the magazines of Dell Publishing Company, Inc. are printed in New York and are there sold and delivered over to Dell Distributing, Inc., and that thereafter ap-pellee Dell Publishing Company exercises no control over distribution, sale or otherwise disposition of the magazines purchased by the Dell Distributing Company. Further, appellee points out that the publishing company does not have any agent or place of business in Texas and does not engage in any business in Texas, and has never itself distributed the magazines in Texas, nor does it have any employees, agents or representatives who work in any state other than New York. Appellee carefully emphasizes that appellee has no financial arrangements with any dealers or distributors of its magazines or periodicals, and it does not give any dealer or distributor credit for any items not sold. It appears that some 13,-800 copies of this particular issue of the magazine which contained the allegedly libelous article were sold in Texas. Appel-lee further maintains that it does not make any decisions or determinations as to how many of the magazines or other publications are to be sent to Texas, nor does it control the method of delivery. In short, appellee alleges that it simply sells its issue in package form to the Dell Distributing, Inc. and exercises no further control. Ap-pellee further asserts that the author of the article, one Paul McClung, of Wichita Falls, Texas (writing under the pseudonym of Stanley Harris) either orally or in writing solicited the appellee’s acquisition of such article from him; in other words, solicited the appellee for the purpose of selling his article to it for delivery to ap-pellee in New York. Appellee further maintains that it did not send any agent to Texas to publish the article and argues that there is nothing in the record to substantiate appellant’s assertion that payment for the article occurred in Texas. Appellee also contends that the replies to the interrogatories establish that the appellee publishing company has never sold any of its publications to Texas residents, but that its magazines and other publications were sold and delivered by appellee to Dell Distributing, Inc. in New York, and thereafter Dell Publishing Company had no control over the other company or any of its agents, representatives or employees. Appellee argues this in spite of the fact that it (the publishing company) owned all of the stock of the distributing company. No suit was filed by appellant against the distributing company.

Appellant has presented two points of error, but, after reviewing the briefs and the record, it is our opinion that the holding on Point No. 2 is decisive of the case, so we will take it up accordingly. In this point appellant argues that the trial court erred in dismissing this cause for want of jurisdiction for the reason that appellee waived its special appearance and entered a general appearance when it removed this cause to the Federal District Court and after removal appeared and participated in proceed *890 ings unrelated to its special appearance. We think that this point must be overruled and that we must hold that appellant did not obtain proper service on appellee in this case.

It appears that appellee, upon learning that service had been had upon it by serving citation on the Secretary of the State of Texas by appellant, removed the matter to the Federal court. Following the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. § 1446, appellee filed verified petition for removal with the Federal court and filed copy of the same with the Clerk of the State court. Appellee also filed a proper bond in line with the procedure outlined by the Federal statutes. Therefore, it appears that appel-lee took the necessary steps to remove the matter to the Federal court under the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1446, 1441, and 1447.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
438 S.W.2d 887, 1969 Tex. App. LEXIS 2558, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/curry-v-dell-publishing-company-texapp-1969.