Hunley v. Garber

254 S.W.2d 813, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 2294
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 1, 1952
Docket6257
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 254 S.W.2d 813 (Hunley v. Garber) 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
Hunley v. Garber, 254 S.W.2d 813, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 2294 (Tex. Ct. App. 1952).

Opinion

LUMPKIN, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment entered under Rule 166-A, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Appellees, R. El Garber and C. C. Ritchey (a partnership d/b/a the Garber-Ritchey Agency), as plaintiffs sued appellant, Troy L. Hunley, as defendant, to recover $252.93, as principal, plus 5% interest per annum from its maturity, plus 10% attorneys’ fees and court costs on a promissory note executed by the defendant to the plaintiffs on February 7, 1951, and due 90 days after its date. The parties will be referred to as in the trial court.

The note was given by the defendant for the first premium on a policy of life insurance solicited by the plaintiffs as agents for the Life Insurance Company of America. As a defense, the defendant alleged that the note was procured by fraud, that its delivery was conditioned on the defendant’s acceptance of the policy within 90 days, that he did not accept it, but that on the contrary he notified the plaintiffs within 90 days that he did not wish to accept the policy. Both parties moved for summary judgment. The County Court of Dallas County overruled the defendant’s motion, granted the plaintiffs’ motion and rendered judgment in their favor for $281.96. From this judgment the defendant perfected his appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals at Dallas where it was transferred to this court by order of the Supreme Court of Texas.

Rule 166-A provides that a summary judgment shall be rendered if the pleadings, depositions and admissions show, together with the affidavits, that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. In this proceeding the burden of proof is upon the mov-ant; all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue as to a material fact must be resolved against him. Small v. Lang, Tex. Civ.App., 239 S.W.2d 441, writ ref. n.r.e.; De La Garza v. Ryals, Tex.Civ.App., 239 S.W.2d 854, writ ref. n.r.e. However, a genuine issue of fact is raised, so as to preclude a summary judgment, when the facts alleged, if proved, constitute a legal defense, King v. Rubinsky, Tex.Civ.App., 241 S.W.2d 220, and proof of a conditional delivery of a promissory note is, in law, a valid defense. Bynum v. Peoples State Bank of Turkey, Tex.Civ.App., 243 S.W.2d 190. We must, therefore, examine the tes *815 timony and determine whether it raises a legal defense. The defendant and both of the plaintiffs filed affidavits in support of their respective motions for summary judgment. These affidavits, when read in the light most favorable to the losing party, show that on February 7, 1951,, one of the plaintiffs, C. C. Ritchey, and -a sub-agent of plaintiffs’ partnership, Leon Pullen, called on the defendant at his place of business in Lubbock, Texas and sold him a $2500 life insurance policy. In payment of the first year’s premium, the defendant gave the plaintiffs a check for $252.93. Then the insurance agent and the defendant discussed the purchase of a second $2500 life insurance policy. According to the defendant’s affidavit, he stated that he did not want another policy. His affidavit continues:

“They then told me if I should wait any longer to buy the second policy, my age would change and a higher premium rate would apply; so they said I should make an application for a second policy which they would send in to the Company without any obligation on my part. They further stated that I could have 90 days within which to make up my mind whether I wanted this policy at the same premium rate if I would immediately apply for a policy of term insurance in the same amount which would cover me for such .period of 90 days, and that I would have the privilege within such period of converting such term insurance into a permanent policy of the same type and with the same premium rate as the first policy above mentioned. I then stated that I would apply only for the term insurance at that time, but they told me they had only a certain number of policies of that type left, and stated that I should go ahead and fill out an application for a second policy and ‘place it on term insurance’, until such time as I should decide to accept it. They stated that I would not be obligated to accept such policy, but that Pullen would later contact me within the 90 day period and would find out from me whether I had decided to accept it. My imp-ression from the-conversation was that if I did not accept and pay for the second policy within the 90 day period, same would lapse and would be of no effect.”

Relying on this statement, the defendant signed the application without reading it and, at the same time, signed a slip of paper which, he discovered later, was a promissory note in the sum of $252.93 payable to the plaintiffs in 90 days. He also gave the plaintiffs a check for $5.93, the premium on the 90-day term insurance. In due time the defendant received from the Life Insurance Company of America two insurance policies for $2500 each. Within the 90-day period he decided not to raccept the second policy of insurance and seeing Pul-len, he informed him of his decision. Pie has been willing to return the policy to either the company or the plaintiffs.

In his motion for-summary judgment the defendant had insisted that neither the second life insurance policy nor the note would become effective until Pullen contacted the defendant and secured an acceptance of the policy; that by agreement the formal acceptance was made a condition precedent to the ,effectiveness of both the policy and the note; and that since this condition was never fulfilled, neither the policy nor the note became effective.

As far as the note is concerned, Sec. 16 of the Negotiable Instrument Act, Art. 5932, Vernon’s Annotated -Civil Statutes, provides that “Every contract on a negotiable instrument is incomplete and revocable until delivery of the instrument for the purpose of giving effect thereto.” The statute provides that as between immediate parties delivery may be shown to have been conditional' and not for the purpose of transferring the property in the instrument.

A situation much like the one before us was passed on by this court in the case of McAdams v. Panhandle Mut. Hail Ass’n, Tex.Civ.App., 44 S.W.2d 1005. In that case, a suit on a note given for a premium on a policy of hail insurance, the maker of the note testified that when the note and application for the policy were delivered to the insurance agent, it was understood that he would not need the hail insurance un *816 less it appeared, by a certain date upon inspection by the parties, that his wheat crop would yield at least 10 bushels per acre. The inspection was never made. This court held that the trial court erred in directing a verdict for the plaintiff and in rendering judgment for the amount of the note.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

H. Hal McKinney v. Willard L. Ferguson
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2004
Armstrong v. G. A. C. Leasing Corp.
512 S.W.2d 708 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1974)
Shepherd v. Erickson
416 S.W.2d 450 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)
Maddox v. Oldham Little Church Foundation
411 S.W.2d 375 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)
Daugherty v. Gower
403 S.W.2d 535 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1966)
Kuper v. Schmidt
338 S.W.2d 948 (Texas Supreme Court, 1960)
Jones v. Gonzales
326 S.W.2d 634 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1959)
Schmidt v. Kuper
324 S.W.2d 307 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1959)
Gibler v. Houston Post Company
310 S.W.2d 377 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1958)
Wright v. Wright
274 S.W.2d 414 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1954)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
254 S.W.2d 813, 1952 Tex. App. LEXIS 2294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunley-v-garber-texapp-1952.