Hutchings v. Republic Supply Co.

295 S.W.2d 449, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1918
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 18, 1956
DocketNo. 13012
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 295 S.W.2d 449 (Hutchings v. Republic Supply Co.) 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
Hutchings v. Republic Supply Co., 295 S.W.2d 449, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1918 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

HAMBLEN, Chief Justice.

This is a suit upon two promissory notes. Appellant pleaded the four year statute of [450]*450limitation defensively. In reply to plea of limitation, appellee filed a supplemental petition alleging that the suit was filed within four years after the accrual of the^ cause of action and that plaintiff exercised due diligence in procuring service of citation upon the defendant. Appellee further alleged in such supplemental petition that the defendant had been absent from the State of Texas for extended periods of time which should, under the provisions of art. 5537, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St., be deducted from the four year period limited by the statute of limitation. Trial before the District Court of Harris County, sitting without a jury, resulted in a judgment for ap-pellee for the amount of the notes, interest, and attorney’s fees.

The facts are in large measure undisputed and may be summarized as follows:

On December 2, 1947, appellant, being then a citizen and resident of the State of Mississippi, executed and delivered to the appellee the two notes sued upon, one for the sum of $127,982.16 and one for the sum of $18,087.71, both being payable to the order of appellee six months after date. On January 5th or 6th, 1948, appellant became a resident of Texas, establishing his residence in the City of Houston which he maintained until approximately July 1, 1948. Prior to January 5th or 6th, 1948, appellant had never resided in Texas. On or about July 1, 1948, appellant ceased to be a resident of Texas and moved to the State of Indiana. He continued to be a nonresident of Texas and to maintain his residence in Indiana until June 4th or 5th, 1951, when he returned to Texas and established his residence in Dallas, where he has resided continuously since. Appellee instituted this suit on May 24, 1952. Citation was promptly issued but was not served on appellant until September 22, 1952, more than ninety days from the time of issuance. Alias citation was issued on May 7, 1953, was served on appellant on May 21, 1953, and filed with the District Clerk of Harris County on May 26, 1953.

In response to appellant’s request, the trial court made findings of fact and conclusions of law. In addition to incorporating the foregoing undisputed facts, the court found in Finding of Fact No. 11 that the plaintiff intended at all times after this suit was filed on May 24, 1952, that service of citation on the defendant should be completed and that said suit should be prosecuted to judgment. The court concluded that, as a matter of law, appellee’s cause of action is not barred by the four year statute of limitation, art. 5527, V.A. T.S., for two reasons: (1) suit was filed before the expiration of four years from the date the notes became due and payable, and plaintiff exercised ordinary diligence in procuring the issuance and service of citation on the defendant, and (2) since the defendant was a resident of Texas when on June 2, 1948, the notes became due and payable, the 712 days during which defendant was absent from the state between that date and the date of service of alias citation upon him on May 21, 1953, should not, under the provisions of art. 5537, V.A.T.S., be taken as part of the time limited under art. 5527, but should be excluded from such time, and when so excluded, less than four years elapsed between the date when said notes became due and payable and the date on which alias citation was served on defendant.

Appellant’s five points of error are directed to the asserted lack of support for the trial court’s Finding of Fact No. 11 and to the asserted error in Conclusions of Law Nos. 1 and 2, above set forth. We overrule such points.

Because we feel that it is so conclusively determinative of this appeal, we consider first the applicability of art. 5537 to the undisputed facts of this case. Article 5537 is as follows:

“If any person against whom there shall be cause of action shall be without the limits of this State at the time of the accruing of such action, or at any time during which the same might [451]*451have been maintained, the person entitled to such action shall be at liberty to bring the same against such person after his return to the State and the time of such person’s absence shall not be accounted or taken as a part of the time limited by any provision of this title.”

In view of the plain import of the language of this statute, it is difficult for this Court to conceive of any reasonable construction which might be placed on that language which would prevent its direct applicability to the facts of this case as concluded by the trial court. The notes sued upon became due and payable on June 2, 1948. Between that date and the date of service of alias citation, appellant was admittedly absent from Texas a total of 712 days. When that time is excluded, the alias citation was served well within the four year limitation period.

Appellant however, in unquestionable sincerity, contends that under the construction that has been placed on art. 5537, it has no application to this case. Factually his contention rests upon the undisputed fact that appellant was a nonresident of Texas at the time the obligation forming the basis of the suit came into existence, and had never been a resident of this state prior to that time. For legal support he relies upon the decision of our Supreme Court in the case of Stone v. Phillips, 142 Tex. 216, 176 S.W.2d 932, 934, addressing his argument to the following language employed by the Court in its opinion: “If the defendant has never been in the State and is absent from the State at the time the obligation forming the basis of the suit arises or comes into existence, then the running of limitation is not suspended by the statute in question; * * We are of the opinion that a proper construction of the opinion in Stone v. Phillips lends no support to appellant’s contention, despite the apparent support in the out-of-context quotation above.

In the very early case of Snoddy v. Cage, 5 Tex. 106, our Supreme Court held that the statute here in question was not applicable against a defendant who entered this state for the first time subsequent to the accrual of a cause of action against him. The Court reasoned that never having been previously in this state such a defendant could not “return” to the state within the meaning of the statute. The limitations of that decision and those wherein its philosophy was applied were later discussed by the Supreme Court in the case of Wilson v. Daggett, 88 Tex. 375, 31 S.W. 618, 619. In refusing to extend that philosophy to the extent of making the statute applicable only to a defendant who had “returned” to this state, the Court used the following language: “We think, in the construction placed upon the section in the earlier decisions of the court, the word has already been given all the effect which can be justified by sound reason; and we are unwilling to push this etymological construction further. The effect of these decisions is to hold that as to actions of debt the provisions contained in article 3216 do not apply as to those who were nonresidents of the state both when the debt was created and when the cause of action accrued; * *

Since the decision of Wilson v. Daggett it has been consistently held that in actions for debt art. 5537 has no application to a defendant who was a nonresident of the state both when the debt was created and when the cause of action thereon accrued. Appellee concedes that to be the law today.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
295 S.W.2d 449, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1918, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutchings-v-republic-supply-co-texapp-1956.