Dossey v. Oehler

359 S.W.2d 624, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2672
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 27, 1962
Docket3736
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 359 S.W.2d 624 (Dossey v. Oehler) 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
Dossey v. Oehler, 359 S.W.2d 624, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2672 (Tex. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

COLLINGS, Justice.

This is a plea of privilege case. T. O. Dossey and wife, Elizabeth Dossey, filed suit in the District Court of Erath County against Chester A. Oehler, Ferrell W. Beck and J. D. Thomas, Sheriff of Erath County, to set aside a certain purported sale of a royalty interest in 352 acres of land situated in that county. Plaintiffs also alleged that the purported levy and sale of such land was maliciously done by defendants Beck and Oehler and sought to recover alleged actual damages in the sum of $500.00 and an additional $500.00 as exemplary damages. The defendants, Chester A. Oehler and Ferrell W. Beck filed pleas of privilege to be sued in Dallas County, the alleged place of their residence. Such pleas were sustained and plaintiffs T. O. Dossey and Elizabeth Dossey have appealed.

Appellants present two points of error in which it is contended (1) that the court erred in sustaining the plea of privilege of Chester A. Oehler and, (2) erred in sustaining the plea of privilege of Ferrell W. Beck. We first consider the point concerning the plea of privilege of Ferrell W. Beck. In a pleading which Mrs. Beck denominated as her “plea of privilege and original answer”, the first paragraph contains the following:

“Defendant Ferrell W. Beck says that this court ought not to have or take *626 further action or cognizance of this suit as to her than to dismiss the same for the reason that plaintiff is seeking to make a collateral attack on the transfer of property that is not void in connection with an execution arising out of a duly created court in Tarrant County, Texas, and therefore says this case should be in all things dismissed.”

Immediately following the above quoted allegation, the instrument continues in paragraph 2 “without waiving the above and foregoing plea in abatement” with a statutory form of plea of privilege. At the end of such pleading Mrs. Beck closes with the prayer “that her plea in abatement be sustained and in the alternative that her plea of privilege be sustained.”

Appellee Beck invoked the jurisdiction of the district court by presenting her plea in abatement prior to her plea of privilege. The plea of privilege was therefore waived. It is well settled that the presenting of a plea in abatement or other pleading in which a defendant invokes the active jurisdiction of the court is a waiver of a plea of privilege. Reed v. Garlington, Tex.Civ.App., 233 S.W.2d 185; Leyendecker v. Harlow, Tex.Civ.App., 189 S.W.2d 706; Chapa v. Cox, Tex.Civ.App., 271 S. W.2d 486; Foster v. H. O. Wooten Grocery Company, Tex.Civ.App., 273 S.W.2d 461. Where the pleadings are filed simultaneously with, but subject to a plea of privilege, and the plea of privilege is first presented to the court for hearing, it is not waived. Royal Petroleum Corporation et al. v. McCallum, 134 Tex. 543, 135 S.W.2d 958. But that is not the fact situation here involved. Here the filing of the plea of privilege was subject to the plea in abatement which came first, and was therefore waived. Under these circumstances appel-lees’ contention that the controverting affidavit of the Dosseys’ was not timely filed is not material.

We next consider appellants’ point complaining of the action of the court in sustaining the plea of privilege of Chester A. Oehler. We cannot agree with appellee Oehler’s contention that the court properly sustained his plea of privilege because appellants did not timely file their controverting plea as required by Rule 86, Vernon’s Tex.Rules Civ.Proc., Rule 86 provides in part as follows:

“A copy of such plea of privilege shall be served on the adverse party or his attorney of record by actual delivery in person to him or by mailing a copy of such pleading to him by registered mail return receipt requested. If such adverse party desires to controvert the plea of privilege, he shall within ten days after he or his attorney of record received the copy of the plea of privilege file a controverting plea under oath, setting out specifically the grounds relied upon to confer venue of such cause on the court where the cause is pending.”

The record shows that the plea of privilege of Chester A. Oehler was filed on December 15, 1961. Oehler did not deliver or have mailed a copy of his plea of privilege to appellants or their attorney as provided for in Rule 86. However, he sent appellants’ copy of his plea of privilege to Judge Oxford and the District Clerk. The only showing of notice to appellants of the filing of Oehler’s plea of privilege was the Judge’s fiat which shows to have been filed and issued by the Judge on December 18, 1961. This fiat, directed to Hon. C. O. McMillan, attorney for appellants, purported to give notice that a hearing would be had on ap-pellees’ motions to sever, to disqualify Judge Oxford, and his plea of privilege on January 8, 1962. Appellants’ controverting plea to Oehler’s plea of privilege shows to have been filed on December 27, 1961, less than 10 days after the date of the Judge’s fiat. There was no showing of any notice to appellants or their attorney McMillan concerning the Judge’s fiat, but in any event, such notice must have been received after the issuance of the fiat which was less than 10 days prior to the filing of appel *627 lants’ controverting affidavit. We cannot agree with appellees’ contention that under these circumstances appellants’ controverting affidavit to Oehler’s plea of privilege was not timely filed.

In appellants’ controverting plea to Oeh-ler’s plea of privilege venue is claimed in the District Court of Erath County because the suit is one for recovery of land and to remove incumbrances upon the title to land and to quiet title to same. Subdivision 14 of Article 1995, Vernon’s Ann.Tex.Civ.St, provides as follows:

“14. Lands.- — Suits for the recovery of lands or damages thereto, or to remove incumbrances upon the title to land, or to quiet the title to land, or to prevent or stay waste on lands, must be brought in the county in which the land, or a part thereof, may lie.”

Two requirements are necessary to bring a case within the provisions of Subdivision 14: (1) the nature of the suit must come within the terms of the statute and (2) the land must be situated in the county in which venue is claimed. The question whether the nature of the suit complies with the statute is determined by the allegations of the plaintiffs’ pleadings.

Appellants, the plaintiffs below, as basis for their cause of action alleged that an agreed judgment had been entered against them in favor of Ferrell W. Beck in the County Court at Law of Tarrant County on July 24, 1961, for the sum of $20.24, plus court cost; that, thereafter, on August 29, 1961, without notice to plaintiffs or their attorney, defendant Beck through her attorney caused an execution to be issued on the agreed judgment and delivered it to the Sheriff of Erath County, J. D.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

in Re Harvey Bramlett, Relator
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009
In Re Stroud Oil Properties, Inc.
110 S.W.3d 18 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Bristol v. Placid Oil Co.
74 S.W.3d 156 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2002)
Grozier v. L-B Sprinkler & Plumbing Repair
744 S.W.2d 306 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Mercantile Mortgage Co. v. University Homes, Inc.
663 S.W.2d 45 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1983)
Edgar v. Bartek
507 S.W.2d 831 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1974)
Stewart v. Whitworth
453 S.W.2d 875 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1970)
Morgan v. Box
449 S.W.2d 499 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1969)
Best Investment Company v. Parkhill
429 S.W.2d 531 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Dyer v. Metallic Building Company
405 S.W.2d 119 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1966)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
359 S.W.2d 624, 1962 Tex. App. LEXIS 2672, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dossey-v-oehler-texapp-1962.