Hugh Cooper Co. v. American Nat. Exchange Bank of Dallas

30 S.W.2d 364, 1930 Tex. App. LEXIS 688
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 13, 1930
DocketNo. 10623.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 30 S.W.2d 364 (Hugh Cooper Co. v. American Nat. Exchange Bank of Dallas) 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
Hugh Cooper Co. v. American Nat. Exchange Bank of Dallas, 30 S.W.2d 364, 1930 Tex. App. LEXIS 688 (Tex. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

VAUGHAN, J.

Appellant, Hugh Cooper Company, a limited copartnership composed of Hugh Cooper and F. E. Simms, on May 23, 1928, filed a suit, hereinafter referred to as cause No. 74298-0, against W. H. Worden and Bert C. Henry, individually and as partners, composing the copartnership of Worden-Henry Company, and the Standard Building & Investment Company, a private corporation, as defendants, on a contract providing for the payment of $2,340, and for the foreclosure of a •chattel mortgage lien alleged to exist in favor of appellant on certain frigidaire equipment stored at 2007 South Ervay street, in the city and county of Dallas, to-secure the payment of said sum, and. interest thereon. On December 13, 1928, judgment was rendered in said cause in favor of appellant for the sum of $2,713.40 against the Standard Building & Investment Company, and foreclosing said chattel mortgage lien as to all of the defendants to said suit on the following described property: 3 model N compressors, Nos. 171611, 123835, 123583, 18 model No. 4 two tray coils.

On February 15, 1929, appellee bank filed in said cause No. 74298-C what is termed a petition of intervention to enjoin appellant and Louis Brown, constable of precinct No. 1, Dallas county, from selling on February 16, 1929, under an order of sale, the above-described property, in satisfaction of the judgment rendered in said cause, and for the establishment of the lien asserted by it on said frigidaire equipment as paramount and superior to any right, claim, or lien asserted by appellant thereon. On February 15, 1929, appellee bank presented its said petition of intervention to Hon. T. A. Work, judge of the Forty-Eighth judicial district court of Texas, for and obtained a temporary writ of injunction enjoining appellant and said constable *366 from selling said equipment under said order of sale.

On May 22, 1929, appellant filed what is styled a supplemental petition in answer to appellee bank’s plea of intervention, containing, among other pleas, a general denial, a special plea (a) that “the mechanic’s lien contract referred to in the original petition called intervention filed herein by the American Exchange National Bank was not foreclosed by the American Exchange National Bank prior to the time these defendants delivered actual notice to its officers, agents, servants, employees and attorneys, and was not foreclosed by the American Exchange National Bank prior to the time these defendants filed the original of Exhibit ‘A,’ in the Chattel Mortgage or Realty Records of Dallas County, Texas, and is not now foreclosed, and has never been foreclosed by the "American Exchange National Bank, and that up to the present time, the American Exchange National Bank is only a lien holder on the property described in their original.petition in .which is located the personal property of these defendants,” and a special plea (b) that “the American Exchange National Bank, its officers, agents, servants, employees and attorneys, had actual notice of the contents of the contract styled Exhibit ‘A’ hereto attached, prior to the time suit was filed in- this cause, and prior to the time of any foreclosure of any mechanic’s lien, if any, that may have been had by the American Exchange National Bank,” and by way of cross-action alleged that, under and by virtue of the acts and conduct on the part of appellee bank, in asserting its alleged superior claim to said frigidaire equipment and obtaining a writ of injunction enjoining the sale thereof under the order of sale issued to enforce the collection of the judgment rendered in appellant’s favor in said cause No. 74298-0, that appellee bank had converted said frigidaire equipment to its own use and benefit and had become liable to pay appellant, by virtue of said conversion, the value of said equipment, to wit $2,500.

On May 25,1929, a trial-was had before the court, without intervention of a jury, which resulted in the temporary writ of injunction being made permanent and the lien asserted by appellee bank on said frigidaire equipment to be paramount and superior to. any rights, liens, or claims of appellant thereto; said judgment further decreed “that the judgment heretofore rendered herein on the 13th day of December, 1928 in favor of plaintiff, Hugh Cooper Company, and- against Worden-Henry Company and Standard Building <& Investment Company, shall be and it is hereby modified so ás to provide that the rights and liens of plaintiff shall be suib-ject and inferior to the rights and liens herein adjudged in favor of intervenor, the American Exchange National Bank of Dallas.” .

We will now consider what appears to be fundamental error, raised by appellant’s spe'cial exception No. 3, viz.: “These defendants especially except to the intervenor’s so-called petition for the reason that .same is insufficient to constitute a legal intervention in any pending suit on the docket of this court in which an intervention might be entered as is patent from the face of said petition in that intervenors allege that judgment has already’been taken in this cause, and for this reason the petition should be stricken out.” Although this exception was not presented to and acted upon by the trial court, nevertheless same is presented to this court for review by the following assignment of error: “The court erred in awarding judgment in favor of intervenor, American Exchange National Bank of Dallas, and in holding that an intervention could be properly filed and maintained in a cause -that had already been adjudicated and judgment become final therein,” and appellee’s proposition No. 5 based thereon: “Intervention is precluded after the original parties to a cause have determined the issues therein.”

If.the judgment rendered on December 13, 1928, was final, appellee bank’s intervention was in contravention of the law as a plea of intervention provided for by article 1998, R. O. S. 1925, can only be filed in a cause undetermined on its merits, pending on the docket of a trial court. Was the judgment of date December 13, 1928, final, in that it determined all of the matters in controversy between the parties to said cause No. 74298-0 without having adjudicated the asserted rights of appellee bank. The petition filed by appellant, as plaintiff, named as defendants thereto W. I-I. Worden and Bert C. Henry, individually and as copartners composing the copartnership of Worden-Henry Company, and the Standard Building & Investment Company, a private corporation, and alleged that on March 20, 1926, defendants, W. I-I. Worden and Bert C. Henry, individually and as partners composing the aforesaid copartnership, executed to appellant their written contract containing, among other things, the following: “Should there be any failure to pay any deferred payment when due, the entire unpaid balance shall become due and payable at once. That the/ purchaser assumes the risk of loss or damage to the said equipment after delivery. That the purchaser agrees to pay any and all public charges that may be assessed against the equipment after its purchase. That this order shall not be countermanded. That said seller does not relinquish his title to said equipment and that title shall not pass to the undersigned purchaser until the purchase price, whether represented by account, trade acceptance, note or other instrument or judgment, and all extensions and renewals for same is paid in full, and that -until such pay *367 meat, such equipment shall be and remain tbe property of said seller.

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Bluebook (online)
30 S.W.2d 364, 1930 Tex. App. LEXIS 688, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hugh-cooper-co-v-american-nat-exchange-bank-of-dallas-texapp-1930.