Goodwin v. Abilene State Bank

20 S.W.2d 1090
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 4, 1929
DocketNo. 602.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 20 S.W.2d 1090 (Goodwin v. Abilene State Bank) 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
Goodwin v. Abilene State Bank, 20 S.W.2d 1090 (Tex. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

FUNDERBURK, J.

This suit was brought by Abilene State Bank qgainst W. C. Goodwin and D. E. Cozart to recover upon a promissory note in the principal sum of $7,000, with interest and attorney’s fees. Goodwin alone defended, and from a judgment against both defendants has appealed. There is, therefore, only involved questions affecting •the correctness of the judgment against Goodwin.

Appellant’s defenses, in addition to a general denial, may properly be denominated as want of consideration, and, in the alternative, failure of consideration, claimed to have resulted from fraudulent representátions and concealments by A. E. Fool, in his capacity as president of the Guaranty State Bank of Abilene, about the time the original note, of which the note in suit is claimed to be a renewal, was executed and delivered by appellant and the said Cozart to said Guaranty State Bank. The said defenses were sought to be made available against the Abilene State Bank, upon allegations to the general *1091 effect that the last-named bank succeeded to all the assets and assumed all the liabilities of the Guaranty State Bank, with the said Pool as its president. No assignment is urged by either party, presenting airy question of the sufficiency of the pleadings, and hence it is deemed unnecessary to detail the allegations constituting either the defenses asserted as against the original note, or the facts designed to show that the Abilene State Bank, as to such defenses, occupies the same position as the Guaranty State Bank.

The appellee, in reply to appellant’s answer, pleaded waiver, estoppel, and that it was protected as a bona fide purchaser of the note. The plea of waiver consisted of allegations to the effect that, soon after the execution of the original note, appellant had knowledge of all the facts claimed to constitute fraud and to have resulted in a want or failure of consideration, or, by the exercise of ordinary diligence could have discovered such facts, and thereafter renewed the note and continued to renew same from time to time for some six to eight times.

The case was submitted to a jury* upon 12 special issues. Only 3 of the 12 special issues were answered. The 3 that were answered were as follows:

“(1) Was the Abilene State Bank organized for the purpose of taking over the assets and liabilities of the Guaranty State Bank?”
“(7) Within a short time after W. C. Goodwin signed the original note, did A. E. Pool apply $5,999.64 of the proceeds thereof .to the payment of indebtedness then due by Y. F. Matthews to the Guaranty State Bank?”
“12. By the exercise of ordinary diligence, could W. O. Goodwin have discovered, prior to September 8, 1923, that $5,999.64 of the proceeds of the original note had been used to pay off indebtedness of Y. F. Matthews to the Guaranty State Bank?”

The jury answered each of these questions “Yes.” Thereupon the court gave judgment for appellee.

We deem it unnecessary to set out the nine special issues that were not answered by the jury. It is sufficient to say that they undertook to elicit findings to support a judgment for the plaintiff, in accordance with the decision of this court upon a former appeal. Goodwin v. Abilene State Bank, 294 S. W. 883. Two or three of said special issues not answered called for findings upon issues tendered by appellee, among them being special issue No. 11, as follows:

“Did W. G. Goodwin, prior to September 8, 1923, discover that $5,999.64 of the proceeds of the original note had been used to pay off the indebtedness of V. F. Matthews to the Guaranty State Bank?”

We are of opinion that, if special issue No. 12 conclusively determined the existence of waiver or estoppel, as pleaded by appellee, it was immaterial that the nine issues were not answered. They may all be treated as though they had been answered in favor of appellant, and still the answer to special issue No. 12 would require that judgment be given in favor of appellee.

Outside of any question in regard to the sufficiency of the three special issues to support the judgment, or of the existence or sufficiency of evidence to support such findings, appellee contends that the judgment should be affirmed, because appellee was conclusively shown by the evidence to be a bona fide purchaser of the note and protected as such, and because the undisputed evidence showed that the note sued upon was a novation of the original note. Appellee presents no counter assignments complaining of any action of the court in refusing to render judgment for appellee based upon such grounds. To be available as support for the judgment, it was necessary for appellee to procure some authentic finding on such issues. Cisco Building & Loan Ass’n v. Mason (Tex. Civ. App.) 12 S.W.(2d) 1106. They were independent matters in avoidance of the defenses pleaded by appellant. In the state of the record as it comes to us, they must be regarded as having been waived. Ormsby v. Ratcliffe, 117 Tex. 242, 1 S.W.(2d) 1084; Kirby Lbr. Co. v. Conn, 114 Tex. 104, 263 S. W. 902; Bulin v. Smith (Tex. Com. App.) 1 S.W.(2d) 591.

In testing the sufficiency of the three special issues that were answered to support-the judgment, or the existence of any evidence or sufficiency of evidence to support such findings, in the absence of findings upon any of the other issues submitted, we must regard the fact to be that appellant did not, at the time of any of the renewals of the original note, know of the alleged misappropriation of the proceeds of the original note. The question presented for decision then is: Where there is no express waiver of a want of consideration, or failure of consideration, for the execution of a note, does a renewal of the note by one of the makers, without any knowledge of the facts claimed to have resulted in a want or failure of consideration, waive such lack of consideration or failure of consideration, when and if by the exercise of ordinary diligence he could have discovered such facts?

In support of the existence of a waiver under such circumstances appellee cites 3 R. C. L. § 321, and Fletcher American Co. v. Culbertson, 215 Ky. 695, 286 S. W. 984. Whatever the law may have been declared to be in other jurisdictions, we regard the question at issue to have been determined by our Supreme Court against the existence of the waiver in Labbe v. Corbett, 69 Tex. 503, 6 S. W. 808, 811. In that case the correct rule was held to be: “When once it is established that there has been any fraudulent misrepresentation, * ⅜ * jjy Wkich a person has been induced to enter into a contract, it is no answer to his *1092 claim to be relieved from it to tell him that he might have known the truth by proper in‘quiry.”

Is this rule applicable to this case? “Where a note is executed to a payee only in renewal of a prior note given to him, the real consideration is that for which the prior note was given, and the failure of same may be pleaded in an action on. the latter note.” 8 C. J. 251. If this be a correct statement of the law, as we'think it is, it necessarily follows that the fact of renewal alone does not constitute apy evidence of a waiver.

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20 S.W.2d 1090, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodwin-v-abilene-state-bank-texapp-1929.