Henderson Grain Co. v. Russ

122 Tex. 620
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 1, 1933
DocketNo. 6224
StatusPublished
Cited by80 cases

This text of 122 Tex. 620 (Henderson Grain Co. v. Russ) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henderson Grain Co. v. Russ, 122 Tex. 620 (Tex. 1933).

Opinion

Mr. Judge CRITZ

delivered the opinion of the Commission of Appeals, Section A.

This case is before us on a certified question from the Court of Civil Appeals for the Seventh District at Amarillo. The certificate is as follows:

“The appellees instituted this suit in the District Court of Carson County against the U. S. Strader Grain Company, a Texas Corporation, to recover for the alleged conversion of approximately 106,000 bushels of wheat claimed to be of the value of 72<¡; per bushel, and against the several appellants, all domestic corporations, to recover the value of the number of bushels of said wheat claimed to have been converted by each of the appellants.
“The appellees alleged that the U. S. Strader Grain Company had its principal place of business at Miami, in Roberts County, but by its charter was authorized to do business at other places; that during the year 1930 it owned and operated grain elevators, at the towns of Panhandle and White Deer in Carson County; that it kept an agent at each of said towns for transacting its business and in connection therewith received wheat for storage as a warehouseman. That Appellees and'thirty-five other wheat growers each of whom had assigned his claim to the [624]*624appellees, severally delivered to and stored his wheat, giving the number of bushels thereof, with the U. S.. Strader Grain Company at its warehouses at Panhandle and White Deer in June and July, 1930, all of which aggregated about 106,000 bushels, and each agreed to pay l^c a bushel per month storage on his wheat so long as the wheat remained in storage; that the U. S. Strader Grain Company issued separate receipts to the several appellees and their assignors for the amount of wheat that each stored;.that each of appellees and their assignors owned the wheat stored in the proportion that the wheat he stored bore to the whole; that none of them authorized the Strader Grain Company to sell or dispose of the wheat; that each of the appellees and their assignors offered to surrender to the Strader Grain Company his warehouse receipt, pay the storage and receive his proportion of wheat, all of which offers were refused; that each of appellants had a local agent or officer who resided in a county (giving the name thereof) other than Carson upon whom service could be had.
“ ‘That the U. S. Strader Grain Company and the other defendants herein have converted to their own use and benefit all the above mentioned and described wheat and have deprived the owners thereof of the value thereof.
“ ‘That in the conversion of said wheat as aforesaid by each and all of the defendants, the defendants, other than the U. S. Strader Grain Company, received only a portion of said converted wheat, the exact amount thereof being known to each and all of said defendants and unknown to the plaintiffs herein and that the conversion of said wheat by the defendants occurred in Carson County and at the towns of Panhandle and White Deer situated in said county and state.’
“The appellees prayed for judgment against the defendants and. each of them for the value of the amount of wheat converted by them and each of them, etc.
“The U. S. Strader Grain Company answered to the merits, but each of the other defendants, who are the appellants herein, filed its separate plea of privilege, stating, among other statutory requirements, that no exception to exclusive venue in the county of one’s residence provided by law existed as to it. In addition, the Mullen-Brackett Grain Company and Bewley Mills severally stated that each and every allegation made by the appellees to the effect that it converted any wheat in Carson County was made fraudulently for the purpose of unlawfully conferring venue and jurisdiction over it in Carson County.
“In reply to the pleas of privilege filed by the appellants, [625]*625the appellees in due time filed their controverting affidavit, stating, in effect, that such pleas of privilege were incorrect and the District Court of Carson County had jurisdiction of the cause and venue of the person of each of appellants for the reasons: (1st.) That the defendant U. S. Strader Grain Company was a Texas corporation, doing business in Carson County, and had agents therein, and was a proper and necessary party to the suit under subdivision 4 of Article 1995 of the Revised Civil Statutes. (2nd.) That appellees’ suit was based upon a ' crime of trespass committed in Carson County under subdivision 9 of Article 1995, because appellees and their assignors deposited with the U. S. Strader Grain Company for storage, wheat in its warehouses and elevators in the towns of Panhandle and White Deer in Carson County, and while the wheat was so stored, said Strader Grain Company took said wheat without the consent of appellees, their assignors or either of them, and sold it to the appellants herein and thereby converted the wheat in Carson County and hence the court of said county had jurisdiction and venue to hear and determine appellees’ suit against the appellants. (3rd.) That appellees and their assignors delivered their respective wheat to the U. S. Strader Grain Company for storage either at Panhandle or White Deer in Carson County, Texas, as alleged in their petition, to which reference is here made, and agreed to pay said Grain Company l%c a bushel per month for storage so long as said wheat was stored; that said Strader Grain Company issued in Carson County to each of the appellees and their assignors its receipts for the grain delivered and that such grain was to be redelivered to said parties on demand and the payment of the storage; that the appellees and their assignors never authorized the U. S. Strader Grain Company to sell or dispose of any of said wheat and that said parties owned the wheat so stored in proportion to the amount deposited and each of them offered to surrender his warehouse receipt, pay the storage and accept wheat. That said U. S. Strader Grain Company and the appellants converted to their own use and benefit all of the above mentioned wheat to appellees’ damage in the value thereof, alleged to be 72c per bushel. That by reason of the premises the District Court of Carson County had venue of appellants and jurisdiction to try and determine the issues involved.
“A trial was had on the issues presented by the pleas of privilege and the controverting affidavit; all matters of fact and law were submitted to the court; each of the- pleas of [626]*626privilege was overruled and each of .the defendants, except the U. S. Strader Grain Company, prosecutes a separate appeal.
■ “The record discloses that each of the appellants' was a domestic corporation; that none of them had its principal place of business in Carson County, none of them had an agent, or was doing business in Carson County at the time of the institution of this suit on February 5, 1931; that the U. S. Strader Grain Company had done business and had agents in Carson County, but on November 4, 1930, the elevators of said Strader Grain Company were sold under the foreclosure of a deed of trust lien against said elevators. That it was authorized to do business in Roberts County and other places and the several appellees and their assignors had delivered wheat to the elevators of the U. S. Strader Grain Company either at Panhandle or White Deer in Carson County, for which the Company had issued to the depositors formal receipts or scale tickets.

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Bluebook (online)
122 Tex. 620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henderson-grain-co-v-russ-tex-1933.