Harris v. Cain

91 S.W. 866, 41 Tex. Civ. App. 139, 1905 Tex. App. LEXIS 35
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 11, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 91 S.W. 866 (Harris v. Cain) 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
Harris v. Cain, 91 S.W. 866, 41 Tex. Civ. App. 139, 1905 Tex. App. LEXIS 35 (Tex. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

PLEASANTS, Associate Justice.

Appellee brought this suit against A. Olfenbuttel and Mrs. Augusta Olfenbuttel upon three pro *140 missory notes for the sum of $1,000 each, executed by said A. Olfenbuttel in favor of T. E. and J. H. Bonner. These notes were given in part payment of the purchase money of a lot and improvements thereon situate in the city of Tyler. They were endorsed by the Bonners in blank, and had passed through the hands of several owners before coming into the possession of appellee, and a renewal and novation of the contract as to the time and manner of payment had been endorsed thereon by the maker. The petition alleges that the amount due on the notes at the time suit was brought was $812.90 and that $1,606.65 would later become due thereon. The prayer is for recovery of said sum of $812.90 with foreclosure of the vendor’s lien against the maker of the notes and Mrs. Olfenbuttel, who the petition alleges is asserting some character of title or claim to the property. Plaintiff also pra)rs that the judgment foreclosing his lien be so framed as to protect the lien for the unmatured portion of the notes, and for equity and general relief.

The defendant Augusta Olfenbuttel, who prior to the time of the "filing of her answer had been divorced from Olfenbuttel and had mar? ried A. Schuh, joined by her husband answered by general demurrer and general denial, and by special plea in which it is averred in substance: That the notes sued on had been paid and discharged by the defendant A. Olfenbuttel long prior to the time that they came into the possession of plaintiff; that at the time said notes were so paid she was the wife of said defendant, and the property, in part payment for which the notes were executed, was the community homestead of said defendant and herself; that when said notes were so paid they were owned and held by the firm of Mayer & Schmidt and were by them delivered to Olfenbuttel for cancellation, but that without notice to her and in fraud of her homestead rights in said property, he negotiated and sold said notes to J. T. Harris and the East Texas Loan and Savings Association; that prior to the institution of this suit she had been divorced from said Olfenbuttel and that in the divorce proceedings the property in question had been set aside to herself and children as a homestead so long as she should elect to use it as such, and that it was her homestead at the time the answer was- filed, though she was temporarily residing in Dallas, Texas. She prayed that the lien asserted by plaintiff be held void and the property described in the petition discharged therefrom.

In reply to this answer the plaintiff filed a supplemental petition in which, after excepting generally ‘and specially and denying the truth of the facts averred, he alleges that he purchased the notes for a valuable consideration from J. T. Harris without any notice of the facts averred in said answer, and further, “that the said Harris warranted the genuineness of said notes and lien, and if it be true, as alleged by the defendants, that said notes had been paid off and discharged and said lien satisfied, that then and in that event he, the said J. T. Harris, is liable to plaintiff for such amount of money or the value of such proportion of said lien as may be lost by this plaintiff in case the said defendants should recover a judgment in accordance with their said allegations. To the end therefore that said J. T. Harris may defend the allegations made by the said defendants and respond to this *141 plaintiff in such damages as he may suffer in case such allegations are shown to be true, plaintiff prays that said Harris be made a party defendant to this suit; that he be served with process to answer herein, and in case plaintiff should fail to recover against the said defendant that he have a judgment over against the said J. T. Harris for his damages by reason of the premises, and for all costs of suit and such other and further relief, either in law or equity, as may be meet and proper.”

The defendant A. Olfenbuttel did not answer plaintiff’s petition but filed exceptions and a general denial to. the answer of his codefendant, Mrs. Schuh.

J. T. Harris answered by general and special exceptions and general denial, and by special pleas set up the statute of two and four years’ limitation in bar of plaintiff’s suit against him. This answer concludes with the following plea:

“And further answering herein, the defendant shows to the court that he never at any time for himself individually owned or sold the said notes sued on, to the plaintiff, W. G. Cain; that said notes were the property of the East Texas Loan and Savings Association, of which this defendant was secretary and treasurer, and that he did on or about the 7th day of December, 1898, negotiate, sell and deliver said notes to the said W. G. Cain acting in his fiduciary capacity for said Loan and Savings Association, and not for himself individual!)', wherefore the defendant having fully answered herein, prays that he be discharged with his cost.

“Defendant prays judgment over against A. Olfenbuttel for any judgment that may be rendered against him, the loan association having purchased from Olfenbuttel.”

In additional supplemental petitions filed by plaintiff he excepted generally and specially to the answers of Mrs. Schuh and J. T. Harris, and specially denied the truth of the facts averred in said answers. Ho amendment of the original petition was filed and no pleading filed by plaintiff asked for any relief against A. Olfenbuttel in addition to that prayed for in the original petition.

The cause was tried in the court below without a jury and judgment was rendered in favor of defendants Schuh denying a foreclosure of the lien claimed by plaintiff, and in favor of plaintiff against the defendants ■ A. Olfenbuttel and J. T. Harris for the sum of $2,342.04, with direction that execution thereon first issue against Olfenbuttel. Judgment was also rendered in favor of Harris against Olfenbuttel for such sum as he might be required to pay plaintiff upon the judgment rendered in his favor against Olfenbuttel and Harris. From this judgment Harris alone has appealed.

The evidence sustains the finding of the trial court that the notes sued on were paid and satisfied by the defendant A. Olfenbuttel and the vendor’s lien thereby discharged and were thereafter again put in circulation by said defendant and sold by him to the East Texas Loan & Savings Association. It further appears from the evidence that at the time the notes were sold by Olfenbuttel to said association the property upon which the vendor’s lien had theretofore existed was the community homestead of said defendant and his wife, Augusta *142 Olfenbuttel, and that it has continued to be Mrs. SchulTs homestead, having been set aside to her as such in divorce proceedings between her and said Olfenbuttel.

The plaintiff purchased the notes from J, T. Harris without any notice of the fact that they had been previously paid and upon the representation of both Harris and Olfenbuttel that they were valid and subsisting obligations secured by a valid vendor’s lien. The $2,342.04 for which plaintiff obtained judgment is the amount he paid Harris for said notes with interest thereon from the time of such payment, less the payments subsequently made on the notes by Olfenbuttel.

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Bluebook (online)
91 S.W. 866, 41 Tex. Civ. App. 139, 1905 Tex. App. LEXIS 35, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harris-v-cain-texapp-1905.