Jones v. Texas Farmers Telephone Co.

332 S.W.2d 378, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 1998
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 3, 1960
DocketNo. 10720
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 332 S.W.2d 378 (Jones v. Texas Farmers Telephone 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
Jones v. Texas Farmers Telephone Co., 332 S.W.2d 378, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 1998 (Tex. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

GRAY, Justice.

This appeal is from an order overruling appellant’s plea of privilege to be sued in Navarro County, the county of his residence.

Appellee, The Texas Farmers’ Telephone Company, Inc., a corporation domiciled in Bell County, sued appellant, J. Mack Jones, a resident of Navarro County, to cancel SO shares of its capital stock issued and delivered to appellant. Appellee alleged that by written contracts it employed appellant to perform engineering and mapping services for it and that it paid him, in money, for all work done and for all services performed. It further alleged that during the life of the above contracts appellant represented to its officers that he needed to borrow money and that if they would issue to him SO shares of the capital stock of appellee as an accommodation he would use the stock to obtain a loan and that the only reason he wanted such stock was to use it as collateral for said loan; that when he repaid the loan he would return the stock; that appellee’s officers believed said representations and relying thereon issued said stock to' appellant; that said representations were false and fraudulent, were at the time known to appellant to be false and that the same were made for the purpose of inducing said officers to issue said shares of stock to appellant; that but for such representations said officers would not have issued said stock, and that said fraud was committed in Bell County and that said shares of stock were delivered there. It alleged that appellant has not paid any consideration for said stock and has not performed any labor or services, or furnished any property, in payment therefor; that the issuance of said stock violated section 6 of Art. 12 of the Constitution of Texas, Vernon’s Ann.St., and is void; that the acquisition of the stock by appellant constitutes a fraud as to appellee and its stockholders, that it has made demand of appellant to surrender said stock which demand he has and still does refuse.

Appellee alleged, in the alternative, that appellant falsely and fraudulently represented to its officers that he had performed more work and services under the above mentioned contracts than he had performed and that he was entitled to receive more compensation than he was actually entitled to; that he knew such representations were false and intended that in reliance thereon the said stock would be issued to him; that appellee’s officers believed and relied on such representations and on the basis thereof the said stock was issued to appellant; that but for such false and fraudulent representations the said stock would not have been issued, and that said false and fraudulent representations were made in Bell County and said shares of stock were issued and delivered there.

Appellant filed his plea of privilege which was controverted and at a nonjury trial it was overruled.

At appellant’s request the trial court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law. He found that appellee was engaged in building rural telephone lines in Bell County under the R.E.A. program of the Federal Government and obtained a loan of $401,000 from the R.E.A.; that appellee was required to employ an engineer to perform engineering and mapping services for the construction of said telephone lines; that it employed appellant, an approved engineer; that inspectors for R.E.A. would periodically inspect the work and approve progress payments to the engineer and others; that payments were not to be made unless previously approved by the R.E.A. inspectors; that while the work under ap-pellee’s contracts with appellant was in progress appellant approached appellee’s officers

“ * * * and represented to them that he needed to borrow some money and that if they would issue him SO [380]*380shares of stock of the corporation as an accommodation and without his paying anything therefor, he would use this stock as collateral to obtain a loan and when he finished his work for plaintiff, he would either return the 50 shares of stock or he would pay for the stock, and that the only reason he wanted the stock was to use it as security for the purpose of obtaining the loan. The officers of plaintiff corporation believed said representations of the defendant and relied upon the same and issued to him on or about July 24, 1952, 50 shares of stock in the plaintiff corporation, each share being of the reasonable cash market value of $100.00 each and all of said shares being of the value of $5,000.00. The said representations were made by defendant to the officers of the plaintiff in Bell County, Texas and the shares of stock were delivered by plaintiff to defendant in Bell County, Texas.
“IV.
“That said representations so made by defendant to the officers of plaintiff corporation to the effect that if they would issue him 50 shares of stock of the corporation as an accommodation to him and without his paying anything therefor, he would use this stock to obtain a loan and that when he finished his work for plaintiff, he would either return the 50 shares of stock to the plaintiff or pay for the same and that the only reason he wanted the stock was to use it as collateral for the purpose of obtaining a loan, were, in fact, misrepresentations and were false and the defendant then and there knew they were false at the time he made them and he made them for the purpose of inducing the officers of the plaintiff to believe them and rely upon them. That the plaintiff's officers did, in fact, believe such misrepresentations and relied upon the same and issued defendant said stock. That the plaintiff, acting through its officers, would not have issued said shares of stock to defendant had it not been for such misrepresentations made by defendant to plaintiff’s officers.”

The trial court further found that ap-pellee paid appellant in full and in money for all services performed under the written contracts and for all extra work done by him, and that at the time appellant’s services were terminated nothing was then due him and nothing is now due him for extra work; that appellee has demanded the return of said shares of stock and that appellant has and still does refuse to return the same which stock appellee has in his possession.

The trial court also found:

“That at the time defendant made said misrepresentations to plaintiff’s officers to induce them to issue the 50 shares of stock to him as an accommodation so that he could borrow money thereon, he did not intend to return said shares of stock nor pay for the same as he agreed to do as a part of the misrepresentations to the plaintiff’s officers, but at that time and when said misrepresentations were made by defendant, he intended to claim that said shares of stock were issued to him in payment for extra work which he intended to claim he had done for plaintiff and which he intended to claim he had never been paid for. That pursuant to said fraudulent scheme on the part of defendant, when plaintiff made demand upon defendant to return said shares of stock, defendant claimed and he now claims, that said shares of stock were issued to him by plaintiff in payment for extra work done by him for plaintiff over and above and outside of said two written contracts and for which he had never been paid in money. That said claims of defendant that the shares of stock were issued to him for extra work done by him for plaintiff for which he had never been paid in money are [381]*381false and untrue.

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Bluebook (online)
332 S.W.2d 378, 1960 Tex. App. LEXIS 1998, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jones-v-texas-farmers-telephone-co-texapp-1960.