Jagoe Const. Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

58 S.W.2d 503
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedMarch 22, 1933
DocketNo. 1402—6030
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 58 S.W.2d 503 (Jagoe Const. Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jagoe Const. Co. v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 58 S.W.2d 503 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1933).

Opinion

SHORT. Presiding Judge.

This suit had for its basis in the pleadings an application for the issuance of a writ of temporary injunction, which was thereafter, upon a hearing, dissolved by the trial court, whose judgment was thereafter affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals at Texarkana, 38 S.W.(2d) 824. The Supreme Court granted the application on the first assignment therein, which reads as follows:

“The liability of the principal to his surety arises solely by reason of the contract implied by law from the request made by the principal to his surety for his signature; and since the appellant never at any time requested the appellee to act as his surety and would not have done so, not desiring to appeal said cause, and preferring that- the judgment be discharged by the Southern Casualty Company, no obligation upon the part of the appellant ever arose to reimburse the appellee for any amount that it might pay on said judgment, and the appellee had no right of execution against the appellant thereon, and the trial court erred in dissolving the injunction.”

Since the re'cord is comprised chiefly of the pleadings of the parties, the facts tendered by the plaintiff in error, both in the form of an affidavit and an accepted statement by counsel as being true, and since the statement of the case in the application for the writ of error appears in harmony with-the record, we adopt it as correct. That statement is as follows:

“On June 6, 1927, Southern Casualty Company, a corporation, authorized to write casualty insurance in the state of Texas, but not surety business, issued to your petitioner, Ja-goe Construction Company, a policy of liability insurance, insuring it against liability for damages on account of personal injuries alleged to have been sustained by any person as a result of negligence on the part of your petitioner, said, policy having as its limits $10,000 for any one person on account of any one accident, the policy covering by its terms for a period of one year from June 6,1927.
“On or about the 12th day of February, 1928, and while the policy was in full force and effect, an accident occurred in which one Hersehel Harrison, a minor son of Lena Harrison, was injured. Your petitioner gave notice of the accident to the casualty company. When suit was brought by Lena Harrison, as next friend, against your petitioner, in cause No. 7704, in the district court of Hopkins county, Tex., it forwarded the petition to the casualty company. The casualty company upon receiving notice of the accident investigated the same; and when suit was filed it took charge of the litigation, and conducted the same at all times by its attorneys. On a [504]*504trial being had, a judgment was rendered against your petitioner for $6,000, which was appealed by the casualty company to' the Court of Civil Appeals at Texarkana, which court reversed the judgment and remanded the ease for a new trial [17 S.W.(2d) 861].
“Upon a retrial of the case, judgment was again rendered against your petitioner for $5,000. The casualty company again filed a motion for new trial; and the same being overruled, it procured the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company to execute for it a supersedeas bond, upon which it again appealed the case. Upon this appeal the judgment of the district court was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals at Texarkana [28 iS.W.(2d) 232], and a judgment was thereupon rendered against your petitioner and the guaranty company as surety on its supersedeas bond. Mandate having issued to the district court, an execution was obtained by the plaintiff, Harrison, and the guaranty company, as surety, paid the judgment. Southern Casualty Company having in the meantime become insolvent and gone into the hands of a receiver, the guaranty company applied to the district clerk for, and obtained, an execution against your petitioner, and placed the same in the hands of the sheriff of Tarrant county, Tex., for levy upon certain road machinery belonging to your petitioner and with which it was at that time fulfilling certain road contracts had by it with the county and state.
“Upon notice of intention to levy an execution by the sheriff of Tarrant county, your petitioner applied to the Honorable Hal S. Uattimore, judge of the Ninety-sixth judicial district court of Tarrant county, Tex., for a writ of injunction, on the ground that your petitioner had never requested the surety company to execute a supersedeas bond, that the bond was executed by the guaranty company at the request of the Southern Casualty Company and solely in reliance upon its financial responsibility, and its agreement to indemnify the surety company; and in pursuance to a treaty or standing agreement between it and the casualty company whereby it executed all bonds required by the casualty company in any litigation, wherein the casualty company was defendant, or wherein it was obligated for the judgment by reason of its contract with its assured; by reason of all of which your petitioner claimed that no obligation ever arose whereby it became Bound to reimburse the surety company for the amount paid by it in satisfaction of the judgment.
“Injunction was issued by the aforesaid judge of the Ninety-sixth judicial district court of Tarrant county, returnable to the dis trict court of Hopkins county, Tex. The surety company made a motion to dissolve the injunction, challenging the sufficiency of the allegations to authorize the relief granted, and, in part, denying the allegations. Upon a hearing on the motion to dissolve, your petitioner tendered, by way of proof, the special agent of the casualty company, as a witness, and, in the alternative, his affidavit in detail to all of the facts concerning the execution of the bond, which the trial court refused to hear, on the ground that on the pleadings it appeared that the surety company was entitled to have the injunction dissolved.
“It might be mentioned here, parenthetically, that the facts alleged and offered to be proven in connection with the execution of the bond established a custom on the part of the special agent of the casualty company, upon any judgment being rendered against the casualty company, or one of its assureds, to communicate with the home office of the casualty company at Alexandria, La., advising of the necessity of the bond, whereupon the home office of the casualty company would obtain said bond from the general agents of the surety company at Alexandria,- La., with directions from said general agents to a local executing agent of said company in Texas to execute the same on behalf of the general agents in Alexandria, La. The president and vice president, respectively, of Southern Casualty Company was one Alexander and one Bolton. These two gentlemen operated an insurance agency at Alexandria, La., styled Alexander & Bolton Insurance Agency. In this specific ease the special agent df the casualty company at Dallas sent a form of bond required to his home office who in turn requested its execution by Alexander & Bolton Insurance Agency, as general agents of the surety company, which agency thereupon wrote a letter to the Dallas agent of the surety company, asking that he execute this bond as local executing agent in Texas, or, that it be done by the. Sulphur Springs agent. At the same time, .the home office of the casualty company wrote its special agent that arrangements had been made for the bond, and that ■the letter from Alexander & Bolton Insurance Agency might be presented to the local agent in Texas and the bond executed.

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Bluebook (online)
58 S.W.2d 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jagoe-const-co-v-united-states-fidelity-guaranty-co-texcommnapp-1933.