Dickerson v. Strauss

248 S.W. 833
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 9, 1923
DocketNo. 8254. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 248 S.W. 833 (Dickerson v. Strauss) 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
Dickerson v. Strauss, 248 S.W. 833 (Tex. Ct. App. 1923).

Opinion

CRAVES, J.

With only two interlinea-tions adding details, so much of the statement affecting this canse as is immediately hereinafter copied, and which both other litigants concede to be substantially correct, is taken from appellant’s brief.

“This action was originally brought by TV. H. Dickerson and I. P. Poynor against the Harrisburg Shipyard, a copartnership alleged to be composed of E. Strauss and Elbert Roberts, seeking to recover an indebtedness of approximately $16,600, with a foreclosure of a chattel mortgage lien and a deed of trust lien on certain property, and seeking the appointment of a receiver for the purpose of taking charge of one seagoing barge in an incompletod state and completing the same; the petition being filed on April 30, 1919. Upon this petition and application a receiver was appointed in the person of one Herman Parsons, and under the direction of the court receiver’s certificates were issued, and the construction of the barge continued until its completion, and was thereafter sold for a sum of money sufficient to discharge the receiver’s certificates and the lien of the Burton Lumber Company, who furnished material for the construction of the barge, but no other funds were realized. Subsequently a judgment was taken by the plaintiffs against the Harrisburg Shipyard, and E. Strauss for their claim, and a report of the receiver received and he discharged; that said case was continued on the docket -for the purpose of determining the rights of the defendant Elbert Roberts ajid certain interveners.
“The defendant Elbert Roberts filed an answer May 18, 1920, in which he urged a general demurrer, a general denial, and a special answer that the contract made and entered into between himself and E. Strauss with the plaintiff was in regard to a barge to be constructed, and that plaintiffs wore to advance a sum not in excess of $12,000, and that $4,500 of the amount to be advanced by .the plaintiff was to be applied to the payment of the obligation of the Harrisburg Shipyard, and that subsequently the plaintiffs and E. Strauss had, without the knowledge or consent of this defendant. changed the barge by building one of larger dimensions and one that required the advancement of a larger sum of money, and *834 that he was thereby relieved from said contract, and further pleaded that from and after the 1st of April, 1019, he was relieved of any liability in connection with or concerning the same, for on or about that date — pursuant to the terms of a letter of that date from him to E. Strauss, who was acting for plaintiffs — the plaintiffs had assumed certain obligations for which he was liable as one of the members of the partnership of the Harrisburg Shipyard, and that one of these debts was to the Texas Lumber Company and the other to the Burton Lumber Company, and that be was relieved of all obligations, and that under such agreement he was relieved of his obligation on those items (setting up the specific ones mentioned in his letter to Strauss of April 1, 1919), and that he had surrendered all right and interest he had in said Harrisburg Shipyard to them, and then pleaded by way of cross-action that he was entitled to recover over against the plaintiffs on such facts.
“The Texas Lumber Company filed its second amended intervening petition on May 26, 1921, in which it alleged that E. Strauss, I. P. Poy-nor, W. H. Dickerson, and Elbert Roberts were liable to defendant for the sum of two judgments obtained in the county court at law against E. Strauss and Elbert Roberts, one in the sum of $589.49 and the other in the sum of $359.72; and that after the rendition of said judgments and about the 1st day of April, ! 1939, the plaintiffs, I. P. Poynor and W. H. Dickerson, in consideration of the surrender and transfer by Elbert Roberts of his interest in the Harrisburg Shipyard, had assumed ..and contracted to pay the indebtedness of such in-tervener, and that they had thereby become liable,and bound to pay the same.
“The Burton Lumber Company also filed its first amended plea in intervention on May 23, 1921, in which it also alleged that it was the owner of certain notes executed by E. Strauss and Elbert Roberts, and that the plaintiffs, I. P. Poynor and W. H. Dickerson, had agreed, contracted, and bound themselves to assume and become liable for the payment of the same in consideration of the surrender and relinquishment by said Elbert Roberts of his interest in said Harrisburg Shipyard, and his interest in the copartnership venture in completing said barge, and that it was thereby entitled to a judgment against plaintiffs in said amount.
“The plaintiff, I. P. Poynor, filed an affidavit, denying the existence of any partnership between E. Strauss, W. H. Dickerson, Elbert Roberts, and himself, and specially denying under oath that he ever made or entered into any contract or agreement’ whereby he agreed to pay the Burton Lumber Company any sum or sums of money other than what sum of money that might become due for the construction of one seagoing barge.
“The plaintiffs filed a supplemental petition in reply to the pleading of the several defendants and interveners, urging a general demurrer to each of said pleadings as well as special exceptions, all of which were overruled. The case was submitted before a jury, in the form of two special issues, which, together with the answers thereto, are as follows:
“1. Did plaintiffs, X. P. Poynor and W. H. Dickerson, authorize E. Strauss to make an agreement with Roberts whereby Roberts would relinquish Ms interest in the Harrisburg Shipyards' and Poynor and Dickerson would assume the payment of the debts set out in the letter dated April 1, 1919? You will answer, ‘They did,’ or, ‘They did not,’ as you find the facts to be. To which the jury answered, They did.’
“2. Did said Poynor and Dickerson, or the-said Poynor, Dickerson, and Strauss, acting through Strauss, purchase the interest of Elbert Roberts in the Harrisburg Shipyard, and in payment therefor Poynor and Dickerson assume the payment of the debts listed in the letter of April 1, 1919? You will answer, ‘They did,’ or, ‘They did not,’ as you find the facts to be. To which the jury answered, ‘They did.’
“After the rendition of their verdict the court entered a judgment in favor of the plaintiffs against E. Strauss in the sum of $16,561, that plaintiffs take nothing as against the defendant Elbert Roberts, and, after stating a finding by the court to the effect that on, April 4, 1919, the plaintiffs, I. P. Poynor and W. H. Dickerson, purchased the interest of Elbert Roberts in the Harrisburg Shipyard, and in payment therefor the said I. P. Poynor and W. H. Dickerson assumed payment to the parties named of the debts listed in the letter of April 1st, from the said Elbert Roberts to E. Strauss, then adjudged that the Texas Lumber Company recover a judgment against the plaintiffs, I. P. Poy-nor and W. H. Dickerson, jointly and severally, in the sum of $1,012.83, with interest from date at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, and that the said Burton Lumber Company recover a judgment against the plaintiffs, X. P. Poynor and W. H. Dickerson, jointly and severally, in the sum of $2,703.06; and further adjudged that as to certain indebtedness due and owing to H.

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Bluebook (online)
248 S.W. 833, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dickerson-v-strauss-texapp-1923.