David v. Roe

271 S.W. 196
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 24, 1925
DocketNo. 10917. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 271 S.W. 196 (David v. Roe) 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
David v. Roe, 271 S.W. 196 (Tex. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

BUCK, J.

Walter David, plaintiff, sued W. W. Roe, a nonresident, in the district court of Stephens county on a rental contract under which it was alleged that defendant had agreed to pay rental for a building in Breekenridge owned by plaintiff, at the rate of $75 per month, amounting in the aggregate to a sum largely in excess of the minimum jurisdiction of the district court, and sought a foreclosure of his landlord’s lien against certain machinery located in said building. The Hughes-O’Rourke Construction Company, a corporation, intervened, setting up a claim of a chattel mortgage lien against the machinery in question, and alleging that its lien was prior or superior to the lien of plaintiff, and sought a foreclosure thereof. Plaintiff, by way of reply to said plea of intervention, set up a waiver of said intervener of the priority of its said chattel mortgage lien, and further alleged, in substance, that the chattel mortgage under which intervener claimed covered machinery attached to and situated on realty, and the said chattel mortgage had never been properly filed for registration, or registered in the office of the county clerk of Stephens county, and that plaintiff, before his rights accrued herein, though he had made diligent search of the records of Stephens county, had not found the record of intervener’s said chattel mortgage.and did not know thereof until after his said right had accrued.

A trial was had before the court without a jury and resulted in a judgment establishing the debt of both plaintiff and intervener and foreclosing the chattel mortgage lien of intervener, and foreclosing the landlord’s lien of plaintiff, but subordinating plaintiff’s lien to intervener’s lien, and directing that the property upon which both plaintiff and intervener claimed a lien be sold and the proceeds thereof be applied first to the payment of intervener’s debt, and any portion thereof remaining over should be applied to the payment of plaintiff’s debt. From this judgment plaintiff has appealed.

The first proposition in appellant’s brief is that the evidence shows conclusively that ‘that articles covered by both the lien of plaintiff and the iien of intervener were machinery attached to the realty, and that the chattel mortgage of intervener was not indorsed as required by law and was not registered in the office of the county clerk of Stephens county, and did not contain any description of, the realty to which said machinery was attached, and plaintiff never did learn and did not know of the existence of intervener’s chattel mortgage until after plaintiff’s right in the premises had accrued, and it was error for the trial court to render judgment subordinating the landlord’s lien of plaintiff to the chattel mortgage lien of the intervener.

The evidence in this case shows that the plaintiff owned merely the building, and that he did hot own in fee simple the land upon which said building is situated, and that he merely had a leasehold interest on the lot. On August 2, 1921, he bought the building at a bankrupt sale, paying therefor $400. The machinery involved in this case had been sold by the intervener to W. W. Roe on April 15, 1921, the purchaser giving his note for $3,883.35, payable on or before February 10, 1922, and also gave a chattel mortgage on the machinery, in which it was agreed that the title to said machinery should remain in the intervener and not vest in Roe until the full consideration had been paid. It was further agreed that as an additional consideration the purchaser should deposit with the intervener, as “collateral security for the payment of the above-recited consideration,- one certain promissory note in the principal sum of $4,500, executed to W. W. Roe, February 10, 1921, by J. M. B. Cowan *198 and nine others.” It was further provided that if said indebtedness was not fully liquidated by the proceeds from the sale of said collateral note, then, in that event, the intervener, its successors or assigns, should have the right to repossess itself _of said machinery and sell the same at public or private sale, with or without notice.

Article 5661, Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. Supp. 1918, provides that chattel mortgages and other instruments intended to operate as mortgages or liens upon personal property shall not hereafter be recorded at length as heretofore required; and, when deposited and filed in accordance with the provisions of this law, shall have the force and effect heretofore given to a full registration thereof, and all persons shall be thereby charged with notice thereof, and of the rights of the mortgagee. It further provides that when any machinery or other manufactured article is susceptible of being attached to the realty in such a way as to become a fixture thereto and is located upon real estate in such manner as the same may be deemed a fixture thereto, etc., and the mortgage contains a description of said machinery or other manufactured article as well as the real' estate upon which it is to bfe located, then the registration of such instrument shall be notice toi all persons thereafter dealing with or acquiring any right or interest in such machinery or other manufactured article, or the realty upon which such machinery is located, etc.

It is urged by the appellant that this article applies, and that inasmuch as the chattel mortgage of the intervener did not describe the real estate upon which was located the building in which the machinery was placed, and inasmuch as the evidence tends to show that the machinery was attached, or at least was intended to be attached, to the realty, that the filing of the chattel mortgage, without a description of the realty, was not constructive notice to the appellant of the lien sought to be foreclosed by the intervener.

Appellee urges that said amended article was passed for the protection of vendors of machinery sold for the purpose of being thereafter attached to the realty, and this purpose is indicated by the emergency clause of the original act as found in section 5661, Rev. Civ. Statutes of 1911. "We are of the. opinion that appellant is in no position to claim a priority of lien by reason of the facts stated, inasmuch as he did not own the realty upon which the building was located. The building was only personal property. Moreover, it is evidently intended by the wording of the chattel mortgage that the machinery should remain as' personal property until it was paid for.

In Murray Co. v. Simmons (Tex. Com. App.) 229 S. W. 461, it was held by the Supreme Court that where machinery was sold under an agreement that it should remain personalty and be subject to removal, and a chattel mortgage was given containing this agreement, and it was further shown that this machinery could be moved without damage to the realty, it did not become part of the realty under the doctrine of fixtures. This holding was under a contract made pri- or to the amendment of 1917 (Laws 1917, c. 158, § 1) to article 5661. It clearly appears from the emergency clause of the original article that it was not the intention of the Legislature in amending the article to take away any rights that the mortgagee of the machinery had at that time; but, on the other hand, the language used in the original as well as in the amended article clearly shows that the Legislature fully intended to extend further protection to the rights of such mortgagee. We believe that upon the authorities cited, as well as others to the same effect, the assignment should be overruled.

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Bluebook (online)
271 S.W. 196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/david-v-roe-texapp-1925.