Davis v. National Bond & Mortgage Corp.

45 S.W.2d 272
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 17, 1931
DocketNo. 12546
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 45 S.W.2d 272 (Davis v. National Bond & Mortgage Corp.) 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
Davis v. National Bond & Mortgage Corp., 45 S.W.2d 272 (Tex. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinions

CONNER, C. J.

This suit was instituted by the appellee mortgage corporation against Sam Davis and wife, Olive Davis, and John W. Howell and wife, Minnie V. Howell, to recover upon a promissory note for $2,500, and to foreclose the lien securing the same by a deed of trust upon lot 2 in block 20, Westside addition to Ploral Heights addition in the city of Wichita Palls, Wichita county, Tex.

The trial was before the court without a jury, and the trial judge has filed his conclusions of fact and law upon which judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff mortgage corporation against Sam Davis and John W. Howell personally, and foreclosing the lien upon the property above described as against Mrs. Olive Davis. The Howells have not appealed from the judgment. Sam Davis and wife, however, have attempted to appeal by'giving an affidavit of inability to furnish an appeal bond or security for the costs, and we are first confronted with appellee’s motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the affidavit is fatally defective, in that it fails to sufficiently describe the judgment from which they seek to appeal. To this appellants reply that the motion comes too late, not having been filed in this court 30 days after the filing of the transcript as required by rule 8 promulgated for the government of Courts of Civil Appeals. The transcript was filed in this court on the 23d day of January, 1931, and the motion to dismiss on the 17th day of September, 1931, and the rule is to the effect that all motions relating to informalities in the manner of bringing a case into court shall be filed ¿nd entered by the clerk on the motion docket within 30 days after the filing of the transcript in the Court of Civil Appeals; otherwise the objection shall be considered as waived, if it can be waived. A violation of the rule authorizes a dismissal of the motion. Farmers’ State Bank v. Bell (Tex. Civ. App.) 176 S. W. 922; Hamlet v. Leicht (Tex. Civ. App.) 187 S. W. 1004. But the rule has no application when the question of jurisdiction is involved. See Zarate v. Cantu (Tex. Civ. App.) 225 S. W. 285.

In Foster v. Bunting, 19 S.W.(2d) 784, this court announced the rule well recognized in the authorities that an appeal bond defective in form or substance could be.amend-ed under the terms of article 1840, Rev. Statutes, and hence conferred jurisdiction upon this court. But we find no such provision relating to an affidavit of inability to pay costs. It hence follows that, in the absence of an appeal bond and in the absence of an affidavit of inability to pay costs or give security therefor, as required by the statutes, this court is wholly without jurisdiction. Rollins v. Hickey Estate (Tex. Civ. App.) 30 S.W.(2d) 599; Demonet v. Jones (Tex. Civ. App.) 42 S. W. 1033; Perry v. Scott, 68 Tex. 208, 7 S. W. 384; Vestal v. Reese (Tex. Civ. App.) 28 S. W. 54; McShirley v. Hoard (Tex. Civ. App.) 46 S. W. 373; Wesley v. Kuteman, 26 Tex. Civ. App. 365, 62 S. W. 1074; Bush v. Atwood (Tex. Civ. App.) 133 S. W. 924; Ford v. Johnston (Tex. Civ. App.) 164 S. W. 424. The 30-day period prescribed by rule 8, above referred to, therefore, is not available as a defense to the motion to dismiss ; the issue of our jurisdiction being involved. If in fact the affidavit under consideration sufficiently describes the judgment, our jurisdiction attaches.

The affidavit in question gives the number of the case in the lower court, the name of the plaintiff, and the names of the defendants, the court in which the ease was tried, to wit, the Seventy-Eighth judicial district court of Wichita county, and declares that Sam Davis and wife desired “to appeal from the judgment heretofore rendered in this cause to the Court of Civil Appeals,” etc. It further shows that the affidavit was presented to the trial judge, to wit, W. W. Cook, judge of the Seventy-Eighth district court; Wichita copnty, that he heard proof thereof, and, being satisfied that the defendants named were unable to pay the costs or any part thereof, or to make bond, that the following order was entered, to wit: “It is ordered that this affidavit be approved and filed with the clerk of this court in lieu of an appeal bond.”

This was done in open court on the 9th day of December, 1930, and filed by the district clerk of said county on the same date.

The judgment entered in this case covers some four typewritten pages, and is set out in the transcript on pages 85 to 88, inclusive, and the transcript fails to show any other judgment in the case. We think the axiom, “id eertum est quod certum reddi potest,” applies, and that the affidavit sufficiently describes the judgment appealed from, and the motion to dismiss is accordingly overruled.

We are thus brought to a consideration of the questions presented on the appeal.

The facts upon which we base our conclusions are substantially undisputed. Relating them in their chronological order, they are substantially as follows: Appellants Sam Davis and wife, Oliye Davis, were the owners [274]*274of lot 2, block 20, in the Westside addition to Floral Heights addition to the city of Wichita Falls, Wichita county, Tex. John W. Howell and wife, Minnie Howell, owned 20 acres of suburban property situated near the city mentioned. This 20 acres was the unsold part of 160 acres that had been owned by the Howells. On the 19th day of April, 1928, Sam Davis and John W. Howell entered into a written contract for an exchange of their properties. The contract recites that the agreed value of the Davis lot was $3,500 and subject to liens and incumbrances of $1,-200, including back interest payments and taxes. The agreed value of the suburban lot was $2,850, subject to an incumbrance of $700 of an existing lien note of $900 resting on the 160 acres. Davis was to assume this lien, and Howell was to assume the in-cumbrance of the liens upon the property of Davis. The contract provides that a new loan was to be placed upon the Davis lot by the Howells, and that Anglin & Oakes, a firm of land agents who had initiated the proposed exchange of property and to whom both parties to the contract were to pay a commission, were to “look after” the Same. Each party was to furnish the other with a complete abstract of title to the properties to be conveyed by them, showing a “merchantable title” free and clear of all incumbrance& except those named in the contract above specified. It was further provided that within 10 days of the receipt of the abstract the party receiving the same should accept title or return the abstract with written objections, but, in'the event the title was not good and could not be made good within a reasonable time, the contract was to be canceled; that “when title objections, have been cured each party agrees to deliver a good and sufficient warranty deed properly conveying his property to the other.” It was agreed that Anglin & Oakes should represent both parties in the transaction. The contract was duly signed by the parties but not acknowledged and never recorded. On the 9th and 12th days of May thereafter, the parties executed deeds to their several properties and deposited them with the agents named in the contract, to be by them held until an abstract showing merchantable title to the suburban lot was furnished by the Howells. The agents, however, without any instruction on the part of either Sam Davis or his wife to do so, deposited the deeds in the registry of the court and the same were recorded in due form, and thereupon arrangements were made for the construction of improvements on the Davis property in behalf of the Howells as contemplated by the contract.

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Bluebook (online)
45 S.W.2d 272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-national-bond-mortgage-corp-texapp-1931.