Hunt v. Employers Reinsurance Corp.

219 S.W.2d 483, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1655
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 4, 1949
DocketNo. 15017
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 219 S.W.2d 483 (Hunt v. Employers Reinsurance Corp.) 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
Hunt v. Employers Reinsurance Corp., 219 S.W.2d 483, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1655 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

' SPEER, Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation case. On May 3, 1948, plaintiff, Frank H. Hunt, instituted this suit in the District Court of Archer County against “Employers Reinsurance Corporation, a corporation organized and doing business under the 'laws of the State of Texas,” to recover compensation on account of an accidental injury sustained while in the employ of Shell Oil Company, Inc.

Plaintiff sued the above named corporation charging that it was the carrier of the employer’s workmen’s compensation. Citation was served on a person in Dallas, Texas, alleged to be the agent of the named defendant. The record reveals that the party served was the agent of “Employers Reinsurance Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri,” a Missouri corporation. Around this situation hinges the principal controversy presented by this appeal. Without determining the legal effect of the involved questions, but for clarity only we shall refer to the three parties (if there be three) as follows: Frank H. Hunt as plaintiff, “Employers Reinsurance Corporation, a corporation organized and doing business under the laws of the State of Texas” as the “Texas Corporation” and “Employers Reinsurance Corporation of Kansas City, Missouri,” as the “Missouri Corporation.”

Prior to July 15, 1948 the Missouri Corporation procured the transfer of this case to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas. On the date last mentioned, the United States District Court remanded the cause to the District Court of Archer County by an order declaring it was “without jurisdiction on account of want of diversity of citizenship.” This was a finding by that court that both plaintiff and defendant, the Texas Corporation, were residents of Texas.

On August 26, 1948, after this cause had been remanded to- the State court by the Federal Court on July 15, as above pointed out, the Missouri Corporation filed a motion to dismiss the case as against it, because, (1) Plaintiff had sued a Texas, corporation (naming it) and that movant was ' a Missouri corporation, (2) process was served on movant’s agent and not upon the agent of the Texas corporation named, and (3) the petition charges no cause of action against movant (the Missouri Corporation).

• The transcript before us does not contain a separate order overruling the Missouri Corporation’s motion to dismiss it from the case but the judgment entered at the trial on the merits recites that “on the 18th day of September, 1948 such motion to dismiss came on for hearing * * * and coun-

sel for plaintiff advised the court it (he) was desirous of having the court overrule such motion so as to enable plaintiff to have a trial on the merits before there existed any necessity of appeal and, acquiescing to the wishes of counsel for plaintiff this court thereupon overruled such motion.”

On September 28, 1948 the Missouri Corporation, without waiving its motion for dismissal (which had then been overruled) but still insisting upon it being sustained, filed a lengthy verified answer, controverting all the material allegations in plaintiff’s- petition, including “good cause” for not filing claim sooner, and specially plead a previous injury to plaintiff while in the army and his disabilities thereunder. Thi-s answer had attached, with appropriate references, copies of the motion to dismiss it from the case and the judgment of the United States District Court, both of which are mentioned above.

There was a trial to the court without a jury, and the judgment recites substantially that trial was had on October 4, 1948; that plaintiff appeared and announced .ready for trial; no one appeared for the Texas Corporation named as the sole defendant in plaintiff’s petition and no showing of service upon it was made; it did not waive service by pleading or otherwise; that the Missouri corporation appeared by attorneys who expressly stated in open court that they were not appearing for the defendant named in plaintiff’s petition and were objecting to the introduction of any evidence on the ground that plaintiff’s petition stated no cause of -action against it, the Missouri Corporation. That the plaintiff elected to stand on his petition, the case proceeded to trial, etc. The judgment further recites that the court having heard the pleadings and evidence, “finds that plaintiff has not [485]*485proven a cause of action, by competent evidence, as against the ‘Missouri Corporation.’ ” Judgment concludes in short form “that plaintiff take nothing by his suit as against said ‘Missouri Corporation’ and that it go hence” etc. The court must have announced his judgment but did not have it written up and filed until October 18, 1948.

No motion for new trial is required in instances of this kind, yet it was done and acted upon by the court; indicative that judgment was rendered or at least announced before the date shown, plaintiff filed motion for new trial on October 11 and an amended motion on October 20, and on November 20, 1948 the amended motion was overruled; plaintiff excepted, gave notice of and perfected this appeal.

Reversal is sought on two points of error ; they are:

“1. The defendant was named in the petition as ‘Employers Reinsurance Corporation, a corporation organized and doing business under the laws of the State of Texas.’ The evidence showed that the insurer was incorporated under the laws of the State of Missouri, although it was admittedly doing business under the .laws of the State of Texas. The court held that because of the defective description of the defendant in the pleadings, no judgment could be rendered against it.

“2. The court erred in refusing to permit plaintiff to file his First Amended Original Petition.”

The first point is a mere statement of what the court is said to have done, but we construe it to mean as stated in the second ground for new trial, which reads: “The court erred in rendering judgment against plaintiff and in favor of the defendant.”

If we properly construe plaintiff’s (appellant’s) contention made in support of his first point of error, it is that when he ■sued the “Texas Corporation,” naming it as such, there was no misnomer because he says “the petition with certainty identifies the person sued.” All this, we think, is quite true but we also think it refutes his contention that he really su'ed a Missouri corporation. He argues' (and correctly so we think) that the petition as a whole must be' looked to in determining who was sued. We have thus examined his whole petition and find that he sued “Employers Reinsurance Corporation, a corporation organized ■ and doing business under the laws of the State of Texas.” If he had omitted that part which so definitely described the named defendant’s particular identity, there would have been better reason to contend that he meant to sue some other corporation of a similar name from some other state. Unlike individuals bearing the same name and even the same initials in a given jurisdiction, such corporations may not be found in this state; yet corporations in different states may have the same or similar names as in this case and their respective identities are distinguished in courts by the limitation and description employed by the pleader.

Looking further to the whole petition, we fail to find anything indicating that any other corporation was intended to be sued than the one which plaintiff carefully designated as a Texas corporation. We also note that he plead that the corporation named by him carried the employer’s workmen’s compensation insurance.

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Bluebook (online)
219 S.W.2d 483, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1655, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunt-v-employers-reinsurance-corp-texapp-1949.