Heatley v. W. P. Ponder & Sons

40 S.W.2d 951, 1931 Tex. App. LEXIS 1255
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 24, 1931
DocketNo. 3637.
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 40 S.W.2d 951 (Heatley v. W. P. Ponder & Sons) 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
Heatley v. W. P. Ponder & Sons, 40 S.W.2d 951, 1931 Tex. App. LEXIS 1255 (Tex. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

RANDOLPH, J.

This suit was filed by appellant against ap-pellees in the district court of Collingsworth county, Tex. The trial court sustained a number of special exceptions to plaintiff’s petition, and the plaintiff declining to amend his petition, the court dismissed the case. Prom this action of the court appeal has been taken to this court.

We are confronted at the outset of the' consideration of this case with a number of objections to our consideration of the appellant’s brief. The appellees cite rules 23, 24, 25, 26, and 30, governing the Courts of Civil Appeals in the preparation of appeals to this court, and, among other objections, raise the question that appellant has failed to file assignments of error in the trial court or to bring such assignments forward in his brief in this court, and to support same with statements, as required by law.

The Forty-Second Legislature recently passed an act, namely, “H. B. No. 1002” (Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. arts. 1757, 1846), an act to amend articles 1757 and 1846 of .the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas, 1925, and declaring an emergency, in which it is provided, in all cases appealed to the Courts of Civil Appeals or taken to the Supreme Court, it shall be sufficient if said briefs contain the following:

“1. A statement as to the nature and result of the suit.
“2. The alleged error or errors upon which the appeal is predicated.
“3. The authorities relied upon.
“4. A statement or argument on the errors assigned.”

It is further provided in this act that the Supreme Court may adopt rules' with reference to the form and time of filing of briefs generally, but not inconsistent with the provisions thereof.

It was the evident purpose of the Legislature in the passage of this act to simplify the method of briefing a case in this court, and in furtherance of that purpose, we will give the act a liberal construction.

Appellant’s brief complies with the requirements contained in the act. There is a statement of the case contained in it; the alleged errors of the trial court are pointed out; .the authorities relied upon are given; a statement or argument follows the errors pointed out.

If it is true that no assignments of error were filed in the trial court, none are required. If it is only necessary that the brief point out the errors upon which the appeal' is predicated, what purpose would be served by the filing of assignments of error in the trial court? This act does not require that the errors pointed out in the brief be based upon an assignment of error duly filed in the trial court. This being true, what office has an assignment of error to perform? The “errors pointed out” are not to be designated by the time-honored term of assignment of error, but they are intended to be just as potent when pointed out. It may be said that this procedure as set out in the brief gives the trial court no opportunity of correcting its errors. Neither does the appeal from a judgment in a case tried before the court without the intervention of a jury. Trying a case before the court, when a judgment is rendered, all that is necessary to speed the case on its appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals is for the judgment to be duly excepted to. When this is done, the law presumes that the trial court has lost his interest in the case and the rule requiring assignments of error to be filed needs no approval of same by the trial court. The disposition of a case upon the law of' the case by the court, as in the case at bar, is on a like basis with,a judgment rendered upon the facts and law when a ease is tried before the court. Por that reason the trial court need not have his errors pointed out to him, but they are left to be passed on by the appellate courts.

We therefore overrule all objections to our consideration of the appellant’s brief.

The questions submitted on this appeal arise by reason of the rulings of the trial court upon the plaintiff’s pleadings.

The plaintiff’s second amended original petition alleges substantially as follows: That all matters and things transacted and done pertinent hereto were transacted in the state of Texas and principally in Collingsworth county, Tex., and that during all of said times since plaintiff’s cause of action accrued, the defendants and each of them have been nonresidents of the state of Texas until within approximately twelve months prior to this date, Plaintiff further alleges that on July 12, 1924, he entered into a written contract with the defendants W. P. Ponder & Sons, a copart-nership composed of W. P. Ponder, T. Heatley, I-I. Cawthon, Elmer Ponder, and Revis Ponder, by the terms of which the plaintiff was to buy cotton for the defendants on a joint account in the state of Texas and especially at Wellington, Dodsonville, Shamrock, and Wheeler, Tex., by the terms whereof plaintiff was to receive as compensation for his services one-half of the profits from the purchase and sale of said cotton during the *953 cotton season ending in the spring of 1925 (attaching thereto a copy of such contract).

Further plaintiff alleges that by virtue of said contract plaintiff did purchase cotton on said joint account during the cotton seasons of 1924 and 1925, and that therefrom there was a profit made of $19,000, of which this plaintiff is entitled to one-half, or the sum of $9,500, as well as interest thereon from June 1," 1)925, to this date, at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum.

That the defendants have failed and refused to give to this plaintiff an accounting of said transactions.under said joint account and that the defendants should be required to file in this court a verified accounting of all of said transactions; that all of the boohs of account are now in the possession of the defendants herein and notice is given to them to produce same on the trial of this cause, or secondary evidence will be offered to prove same; that plaintiff has made repeated demands of defendants for the payment of the amount due him and of and for an accounting of said matters hereinbefore alleged, but that defendants have failed and refused to imahe such accounting and have failed and refused to pay the amount due him, to his damage $9,500, as well as interest from June 1, 1925, thereon. .

Plaintiff prays for an accounting and for judgment for his debt, etc.

The appellees attached the plaintiff’s second amended original petition upon two grounds, briefly stated: (1) That “the contract which is the basis of this suit was not closed and terminated so that the rights of the plaintiff could be settled before November 27,1929, by reason of the fact that all claims growing out of the transactions under said contract had not been settled against the joint contract account" and no notice given,” as all this is a conclusion of the pleader and is surplusage and irrelevant in that plaintiff did not declare upon any right or sue for any amount growing out of any transactions that were settled on November 27, 1929, and because • said allegations did not form the basis of plaintiff’s suit, which is for profits made in buying cotton for the cotton seasons for the years 1924 and 1925.

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Bluebook (online)
40 S.W.2d 951, 1931 Tex. App. LEXIS 1255, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/heatley-v-w-p-ponder-sons-texapp-1931.