Hart v. Fakes & Co.

19 S.W.2d 462, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 848
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 8, 1929
DocketNo. 12240.
StatusPublished

This text of 19 S.W.2d 462 (Hart v. Fakes & Co.) 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
Hart v. Fakes & Co., 19 S.W.2d 462, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 848 (Tex. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

DUNKLIN, J.

On March 22, 1928, Mrs. U. S. Davis executed to Fakes & Co. a chattel mortgage on certain furniture and fixtures located in a dwelling house in the city of Wichita Falls, Tex., to secure the payment of her promissory note in favor of the mortgagee in the sum of $2,830, with accrued interest, which indebtedness was incurred for the purchase price of the furniture and fixtures when they were sold to Mrs. Davis by the mortgagee.

A suit was instituted by Fákes & Co. against Mrs. Davis in the district court ’Of *463 Tarrant county; and plaintiff therein recovered a judgment for the amount of the debt with foreclosure of the chattel mortgage lien on the furniture and fixtures. Thereafter, an order of sale was issued out of that court, and the mortgaged property was levied on. and advertised for sale by W. G. Bralley, sheriff of Wichita county, in whose hands the writ was placed for execution.

The present suit was instituted by Lewis Hart in the district court of Wichita county, against Fakes & Co. and Mrs. Davis and W. G. Bralley, sheriff of Wichita county, to restrain the sale of the property that had been so levied on.

In Hart’s petition it was alleged that on December 31, 1927, which was some three months prior to the date of Fakes & Co.’s mortgage, Mrs. Davis executed to him a mortgage lien on the same furniture and fixtures to secure a promissory note she owed to him in the principal sum of $2,500. According to further' allegations in Hart’s petition, that mortgage lien was taken in the form of a bill of sale, which was duly filed for record in the records of bills of sale of Wichita county, find at the time Fakes & Co. took its mortr gage it had actual notice of his prior mortgage lien, although the record of it in the records of bills of sale in Wichita county was not constructive notice of that lien. Hart prayed for a personal judgment against Mrs. Davis and also for a foreclosure of. his mortgage lien against, her and Fakes & Co. • as a superior lien to that of Fakes & Co.

In Hart’s petition he further prayed for a temporary writ of injunction restraining Fakes & Co. and the sheriff from selling the property -so advertised for sale until the final disposition of his suit. The petition was duly verified by Hart, and upon an ex parte hearing thereof, the temporary writ of injunction prayed for was duly issued. Thereafter, upon a motion of Fakes & Co., the temporary writ of injunction was dissolved, and this appeal has been prosecuted by Hart from that order. . ■ ,

Upon the hearing of the motion to dissolve; evidence was introduced by both parties, which appears in a statement of facts filed with the record before us.

The evidence shows without controversy that Mrs. Davis did execute the two notes and mortgage liens mentioned above, and for the amounts already recited, both of which debts are now past-due and unpaid. But the testimony was conflicting as to whether or not Fakes & Co. had actual notice of the mortgage lien claimed by Hart; Mrs. Davis testifying that she notified the representative of Fakes & Co. of Hart’s lien at the time she executed the one in favor of Fakes & Co., and the representative of Fakes & Co. flatly denying that Mrs. Davis gave him any such notice of Hart’s lien. The evidence further showed that the lien claimed by Hart was in the form of a bill of sale which was recorded in the bill of sale records, and of which record Fakes & Co. had no actual notice. Hart testified that at the time he took- his lien he knew that Mrs. Davis had, in October, 1926, given her note to Fakes & Co. for the sum of $2,800, payable in monthly installments of .$150 each, but did not know that she was being pressed for payment at that time. He further testified that he and Mrs. Dayis had been associated together in business in the corporate name of Davis-Hart Company, and another corporation known as the Wichita-Seiberling Piano Company. He further testified that the bill of sale executed to him by Mrs. Davis was intended to have the effect of a chattel mortgage, and the reason-'.it was drawn in that form was upon the advice of his attorney. He further testified that he did not record the bill of sale for some time after it was executed; that he left it in his private effects in the home of Mrs. Davis, where he also resided as a boarder and where he eats and sleeps and' keeps his lock box; that the house in which Mrs. Davis and Hart both lived now belongs to Hart, he having purchased it from Mrs. Davis, and the furniture and fixtures in controversy are now located and being used in that house.

Hart further testified that after Fakes & Co. had procured the judgment against Mrs. Davis, he went to Fort Worth to interview ■Fakes & Co. for the purpose of trying to get some concession in Mrs. Davis’ favor on the judgment then held against her, but that he did not inform Fakes & Co. of the fact that he also held a lien upon the same property covered by the mortgage of Fakes & Co. His reason for not giving that information was that he desired first to consult his attorney before letting Fakes & Co. know of his lien. He further testified that. he did not let- anybody know he had a lien on the property until Fakes &'Co. had had the property levied on by the sheriff of Wichita county; find had advertised-the. sam'e for. sale; also, 'that the first time he learned of the Fakes &. Co. mortgage was when he went to see them.on a trip to Fort Worth, which was after they had obtained a judgment. The proof further showed that the furniture and fixtures is the only property now owned by Mrs. Davis, and that she is insolvent.

The bill of sale executed by Mrs. Davis to Hart bears date December 31, 1926, and that is the date of acknowledgment before a notary public, and it was indorsed as being filed for record in the office of the county clerk of Wichita county on February 23,1928. But Mrs. Davis and Hart testified that the instrument was executed on December 21, 1927, and that the date of the instrument was a clerical error. Hart also testified that he did not know of the suit against Mrs. Davis in Wichita county until after the judgment of that court had been procured.

The record further shows that the suit so instituted by Hart was instituted on March *464 .29, 1929, and that it is an appearance case to the July term of the Eighty-Ninth district court of Wichita county.

Appellant cites the following quotation from Hightower v. Price (Tex. Civ. App.) 244 S. W. 652, 655: “The rule to be followed in determining the allowance of a temporary injunction is that of whether there is a case of probable right and probable danger to the right, as alleged, without the injunction.”

Appellant also cites article 4642, Revised Civil Statutes of 1925, which is to the effect that an injunction may be granted to restrain some act respecting the subject-matter of pending litigation in violation of the rights of the applicant when said act would tend to render the judgment ineffective, or irreparable injury to the property is threatened. Also the decision in Lane v. Kempner (Tex. Civ. App.) 184 S. W.

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Bluebook (online)
19 S.W.2d 462, 1929 Tex. App. LEXIS 848, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hart-v-fakes-co-texapp-1929.