First Baptist Church v. City of Fort Worth

17 S.W.2d 130, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 584
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 10, 1929
DocketNo. 3188.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 17 S.W.2d 130 (First Baptist Church v. City of Fort Worth) 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
First Baptist Church v. City of Fort Worth, 17 S.W.2d 130, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 584 (Tex. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

RANDOLPH, J.

The appellee in this cause has filed in this court a motion to correct the statement of facts filed in this cause, in order that the court may have before it the correct data and information concerning the certified copies- of the delinquent tax rolls of the city of Fort Worth, which were introduced in the trial of said cause by the city of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth independent school district.

A statement of facts filed in this court in time cannot be amended by agreement of counsel or .even by a supplemental statement, though authenticated by the court, if filed after the time for filing the original statement. Atascosa County v. Alderman (Tex. Civ. App.) 91 S. W. 846; Rodriguez v. Priest (Tex. Civ. App.) 126 S. W. 1187; Dorsey v. Olive Sternenberg & Co., 42 Tex. Civ. App. 568, 94 S. W. 413; Walker & Sons v. Allen, 42 Tex. Civ. App. 630, 95 S. W. 585; Texas, etc., Co. v. Brown (Tex. Civ. App.) 179 S. W. 1125; Witherspoon v. Crawford (Tex. Civ. App.) 153 S. W. 633; State v. Alcorn, 78 Tex. 387, 14 S. W. 663; Mason v. Rodgers, 83 Tex 389, 18 S. W. 811; Dietz v. State, 43 Tex. 371; Vaughan v. Bailey, 11 Tex. Civ. App. 34, 31 S. W. 531; Trinity & S. Railway Co. v. Lane, 79 Tex. 643, 15 S. W. 477, 16 S. W. 18; Carlton v. Krueger, 54 Tex. Civ. App. 48, 115 S. W. 619, 1178.

We therefore overrule the motion for permission to amend the statement of facts.

This suit was brought by the city of Fort Worth and -the Fort Worth independent school district to recover from appellant, who was defendant in the trial court, the amount of $827.75 owing to the city and $537.50 owing to the school district, aggregating $1,365.25. The case was tried before a jury, and, on, a peremptory instruction from the court, they returned a verdict for the plaintiffs, and the court thereupon rendered judgment for the plaintiffs as prayed for. From that judgment the Baptist Church has appealed to this court.

The errors assigned upon the action of the court , in refusing to sustain the general and special exceptions to the plaintiffs’ amended petition will not be considered by us, for the reason that there is no order or decree of the court in the transcript showing such action of the court, and therefore the presumption of law is that such exceptions were waived. Turner v. Clark, 18 Tex. Civ. App. 606, 46 S. W. 381; St. Louis South *132 western R. Co. of Texas v. Rollins (Tex. Civ. App.) 89 S. W. 1099; Cheek v. Nicholson (Tex. Civ. App.) 133 S. W. 707; Beadle v. McCrabb (Tex. Civ. App.) 199 S. W. 355 (writ denied); Cotton v. Cooper (Tex. Civ. App.) 160 S. W. 597. That there was no fundamental error in the matters complained of will appear from' the opinion following:

The appellant attacks the charter of the city of Port Worth, charging that the assessment of taxes for the year 1925 was made by virtue of a charter adopted at an election by the voters of Fort Worth on the 11th day of December, 1924, and that no proof having been made that said charter had been legally recorded in a well-bound book provided for the purpose of recording charters and amendments to charters by the city of Port Worth, and, there being no proof that said charter had been recorded in such a book by the city of Fort Worth and there being no proof that said charter had been recorded in a well-bound book in the office of the secretary of state or under the direction of the secretary of state, no presumption whatsoever was raised that such a charter had been legally adopted, as affirmatively alleged in plaintiffs’ petition, and there was no authority shown for the levy and assessment of taxes by any person against the property of defendant, and the trial court erred in taking judicial note and notice that a legal charter had been passed and adopted by the voters of Fort Worth.

In varied forms, these alleged errors are repeated in appellant’s propositions 1, 2, and 3, in such manner as to enable us to discuss the questions presented in connection one with the others.

The plaintiff^ alleged in their petition that the city of Fort Worth is a municipal corporation, organized and existing under and by virtue of a special charter adopted by the qualified voters within the said city on the 11th day of December, A. D. 1924, in accordance with the laws, and Constitution of the state of Texas, and that the Fort Worth independent school district is a corporation of Tarrant county, Tex., duly organized and existing under and by virtue of a special act of the Legislature of the state of Texas. The legal organization of the corporation known as the city of Fort Worth was attacked by the defendant, the First Baptist Church, in a special plea of nul tiel corporation. It is not necessary for appellant’s grounds of attack on the charter and the organization of the corporation to be considered, for the reason that such plea was not verified, as required by law, even if the charter and organization were subject to such attack. Article 2010, R. C. S., requires that a plea denying that a corporation has been duly incorporated should be verified. Heller v. City of Alvarado, 1 Tex. Civ. App. 409, 20 S. W. 1003, 1004; Steely v. Texas Imp. Co., 55 Tex. Civ. App. 463, 119 S. W. 323; Sovereign Camp, Woodmen of the World, v. Ruedrich (Tex. Civ. App.) 158 S. W. 170; P. J. Willis & Bro. v. Smith, 17 Tex. Civ. App. 543, 43 S. W. 325.

This attack upon the organization is a collateral attack and it has been held that the organization of a corporation cannot be so attacked; a direct proceeding must be instituted for that purpose. Cook v. Town of Putnam (Tex. Civ. App.) 283 S. W. 649; 650.

There is another ground upon which the appellant’s contentions that the corpo-rateorganization is void for the want of compliance with the law should be overruled. Article 1174a of the R. C. S. 1925 (Vernon’s) provides as follows:

“Validating Charter or Charter Amend ments.—That each charter, and amendment to a charter adopted by any city of more than five thousand inhabitants in this State, or where such city has amended or attempted to amend or adopt such charter, since the enactment of Chapter 147, Acts of the Regular Ses-, sion of the Thirty-Third Legislature of the State of Texas, 1913, and all proceedings had with reference thereto, are hereby validated, and are hereby declared to. "be in full force and effect, the same as if adopted in strict compliance with all the requirements of said • Chapter 147, Acts of the Thirty-Third Legislature, and this Act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.”

The appellant complains that the trial court erred in holding that judicial cognizance could he taken of the terms and conditions of the plaintiff city of Fort Worth’s charter. It appears from the record that the plaintiffs, as stated, pleaded the legal incorporation of the city by a vote of the people within the limits of the city and affirmatively relied on this pleading without introducing any evidence thereof; neither did it introduce the charter to establish its terms and provisions. The defendant, apparently in support-of its nul tiel corporation plea, introduced evidence to establish the noncompliance on the part of the city with the statutes regulating the incorporation of cities under the “Home Rule” Amendment.

From the testimony so introduced, it ap-' pears that I. L.

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Related

Davis v. Congregation Agudas Achim
456 S.W.2d 459 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1970)
First Baptist Church v. City of Fort Worth
26 S.W.2d 196 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1930)

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Bluebook (online)
17 S.W.2d 130, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 584, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-baptist-church-v-city-of-fort-worth-texapp-1929.