Hale County State Bank v. Bray

97 S.W.2d 337
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 21, 1936
DocketNo. 4632.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 97 S.W.2d 337 (Hale County State Bank v. Bray) 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
Hale County State Bank v. Bray, 97 S.W.2d 337 (Tex. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

JACKSON, Justice.

At a regular term of the Ninety-Ninth district court of Lubbock county, in cause No. 6077, W. H. Bray on November. 26, 1934, recovered a judgment against A. L. Stovall for the sum of $1,551.25. In addition, the judgment foreclosed for W. H. Bray his equitable lien against five promissory vendor’s lien notes, aggregating the sum of $2,480, each dated May 1, 1934, and payable to A. L. Stovall one, two three, four, and five years, respectively, after date. The equitable lien of W. H. Bray was foreclosed subject to what the court decreed a lien on the notes held by the Hale County State Bank to secure it in the payment of $208 due the bank by A. L. Stovall. The judgment decreed that an order of sale issue to the proper officer directing him to sell the notes, and if the proceeds of such sale were not sufficient to satisfy the judgment “to make the balance thereof as under execution.”

The bank was not a party to this suit.

On December 1, 1934, W. H. Bray made application in said district court of Lubbock county for a writ of garnishment to be issued against the Hale County State Bank, alleging that he had recovered judgment against A. L. Stovall for the- sum of $1,551.25, that said judgment was still in full force, due and unsatisfied; that the defendant Stovall did not have, within the knowledge of plaintiff, property in his possession within the state, subject to execution, sufficient to satisfy the judgment; that plaintiff had reason to believe, and did believe that the Hale County State Bank, a private corporation, was indebted bo defendant, or had in its hands effects belonging to said defendant, and prayed for a writ of garnishment and for further proceedings as required by law.

The suit was properly filed, docketed, and numbered 6077A. A writ of garnishment was issued in statutory form.and served on the bank on December 1, 1934, requiring it to answer on January 14, 1935.

The bank negligently failed to answer, and on January 17, 1935, default judgment was rendered against it as garnishee for the sum of $1,551.25.

On July 18, 1935, the clerk of the district court of Lubbock county issued to said county, on the judgment in the garnishment suit, an execution which was returned nulla bona. On the same day an alias execution was issued to Hale county on said judgment, and placed in the hands of the proper officer, directing him to make out of the goods, chattels, lands, and tenements of the bank the sum of $1,551.25, with interest and costs of the garnishment suit.

After the issuance of the alias execution to Hale county, the bank, on July 30, 1935, filed in said Ninety-Ninth district court a petition seeking to enjoin the enforcement of the default judgment against it-, pleaded *a meritorious defense, and asked that said judgment be vacated and set aside, alleging that it was void.

After a final hearing on the petition to enjoin, vacate, and set aside the judgment, the bank was denied relief, and this action of the trial court is before us for review.

The appellant bank contends that the default judgment against it as garnishee was- and is void, since the judgment in the main case, cause No. 6077, the only basis for the default judgment, foreclosed a lien on certain notes fully described, directed their sale to satisfy the judgment in the main case, and ordered if the proceeds of such sale were not sufficient to satisfy said judgment “to make the balance thereof as under execution”; that since no order of sale was ever issued and no sale had, by virtue of the lien so foreclosed, the court was without authority to estimate in advance of such sale the amount of the deficiency, if any, in cause No. 6077 that would remain unpaid after such sale, and therefore the default judgment against it as garnishee was rendered without jurisdiction and was void.

Neither the affidavit, the application for, nor the writ of garnishment discloses that any order of sale was ever issued on the *339 main judgment. It is conceded that the record shows that no order of sale was ever issued thereon.

The record nowhere shows the value of the notes.

The judgment in the main case, No. 6077, was entered in compliance with article 2218, R.S.1925, as amended by Acts 1933, c. 92 (Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 2218), which is as follows: “Judgments for the foreclosure of mortgages and other liens shall be that the plaintiff recover his debt, damages and costs, with a foreclosure of the plaintiff’s lien on the property subject thereto, and, except in judgments against executors, administrators and guardians, that an order of sale shall issue to the sheriff or any constable of the county where such property may be, directing him to seize and sell the same as under execution, in satisfaction of the judgment; and, if the property cannot be found, or if the proceeds of such sale be insufficient to satisfy the judgment, then to make the money, or any balance thereof remaining unpaid, out of any other property of the defendant, as in case of ordinary executions.”

In giving the requisites of an execution, article 3783, R.C.S., among other things, provides:

“2. If the judgment be for money simply, it shall require the officer to satisfy the judgment out of the property of the debt- or, subject to execution.
“3. If the judgment commands the sale of particular property for the satisfaction thereof, the writ shall be framed accordingly.”-

Article 3831, R.C.S., provides: “The clerk of each court shall keep an execution docket in which he shall enter a statement of all executions as they are issued by him, specifying the names of the parties, the amount of the judgment, the amount due thereon, * * * the date of issuing the execution, to whom delivered, and the return of the officer thereon, with the date of such return. Such docket entries shall be taken and deemed to be a record.”

Article 5450, R.C.S., provides in effect that the satisfaction of any judgment, in whole or in part, may be shown by the return upon any execution issued upon said judgment.

In Studebaker Harness Co. v. Gerlach Merc. Co., 192 S.W. 545, 548, Judge Boyce, speaking for this court, says:

“While the garnishment suit is docketed separately, it is ancillary to and a part of the principal suit, and the court will take judicial knowledge of the proceedings in the main suit. Kelly v. Gibbs [84 Tex. 143] 19 S.W. 380, 563; Kreisle v. Campbell, 89 Tex. 104, 33 S.W. 852. So in this case, we think the proceedings in the main suit, and in the garnishment suit, should be considered together.”
“A court will take judicial notice of proceedings m an ancillary suit. So the court in an action in which property is attached must take judicial notice of the attachment proceedings, and in a garnishment suit the court has judicial- knowledge of the proceedings, orders and judgments in the main suit.” 17 Tex.Jur. 206, par. 29.

It appears from the above authorities that the court was charged with judicial knowledge of the facts that no order of sale had been issued in the main suit, that the notes on which the lien was foreclosed therein had not been sold thereunder, and that the amount of the deficiency, if any, had not been ascertained.

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