Kempner v. Huddleston

37 S.W. 1066, 90 Tex. 182, 1896 Tex. LEXIS 459
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 23, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by71 cases

This text of 37 S.W. 1066 (Kempner v. Huddleston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kempner v. Huddleston, 37 S.W. 1066, 90 Tex. 182, 1896 Tex. LEXIS 459 (Tex. 1896).

Opinion

BROWN, Associate Justice.

The Court of Civil Appeals, for the First Supreme Judicial District, has certified to this court the •following statement and questions:

“The above entitled cause is before this court on writ of error from the *184 County of Anderson. I. N. Singletary executed two promissory notes to C. E. Singletary, a feme sole, for the purchase money of land; each note is dated November 16, 1885, and payable twelve and twenty-four months after date respectively, to C. E. Singletary or order. Some time in December, 1887, these notes were delivered by the payee to F. M. Huddles-ton, for safe keeping as she testified. Afterwards she and Huddleston were married. On February 1, 1889, Huddleston endorsed and delivered the notes to H. Kempner as collateral security for money advanced to Huddleston in cash. At the time of the endorsement of the notes to Kempner each had written thereon the following transfer: Tor value received I hereby transfer the within note to F. M. Huddleston, December 15, 1887. (Signed) C. E. Singletary/ Mrs. Huddleston testified that she did not sign the transfers; that after their marriage Huddlestontold her that during a recent illness of herself he had transferred the notes to himself to enable him to collect them for her children in case of her death, and that afterwards he held possession of them for collection for herself and her children. On the other hand there was evidence tending to show that the signatures to the transfers were in the handwriting of plaintiff. Kempner took the notes without notice of any rights of Mrs. Huddleston thereto, relying on the transfers. He afterwards brought suit against the maker of the notes and obtained judgment thereon with foreclosure of the vendor’s lien. This suit was brought by Mrs. Huddles-ton to enjoin the collection of the judgment by Kempner and to have it enforced for her own benefit. ' '

“This is the second appeal of the case. The first appeal, which is reported in 3 Texas Civ. App., 252, was decided on the authority of Walker v. Wilson, 79 Texas, 185, but as in the latter case the note did not have a transfer endorsed thereon, it is deemed proper to certify the following questions for the decision of the Supreme Court:

“1. Is the decision of this court on the first appeal in this case conclusive of the question then decided and now again presented for decision? What is the effect of the first decision of the question upon the same question on the second appeal?

“2. If the plaintiff signed the transfers endorsed on the notes and delivered them to Huddleston for collection only, or if after the delivery of them to Huddleston, for safe keeping he wrote and signed the transfers himself and afterwards told her of it, and she permitted him to retain the notes for the purpose of collection only, would she be estopped td dispute the title of Kempner and set up her right to the proceeds of the notes?

“3. If Mrs. Huddleston did not write or execute the transfers before her marriage to Huddleston, but was informed of it by him afterwards and permitted him to retain them for collection only, would the fact that she was the wife of Huddleston at the time affect the question of estoppel?”

To the first question propounded, we answer that the former decision *185 of the court in this case constitutes no bar to the further consideration of the same question upon a second appeal. Burns v. Ledbetter, 56 Texas, 282; Railway v. Faber, 77 Texas, 153; Bomar v. Parker, 68 Texas, 435.

In Bailway v. Faber, cited above, the court said: “Upon a second or other subsequent appeal this court adheres to its former rulings unless clearly erroneous.”

The question as to whether the court will reconsider, upon a second appeal, what it has formerly decided in the same case, must always be addressed to the discretion of the court and determined according to the particular circumstances of that case.

The second and third questions propounded by the Court of Civil Appeals really embrace three questions, which, for convenience of answering, we wall divide and state as follows:

1st. If Mrs. Huddleston, before her marriage with her present husband, and while she was a feme sole, executed the transfer written upon the back of the notes, and delivered them to F. M. Huddleston to be by him collected for her, then did the transfer of tire notes by Huddleston to Kempner vest title in the latter?

2d. If F. M. Huddleston, before his marriage with C. E. Singletery, received the notes from Mrs. Singletery for collection, and without her consent endorsed upon them the transfer to himself, and afterwards, before their marriage, informed her of the fact, and she then permitted him to retain possession of the 'notes so transferred, did the transfer by Huddleston to Kempner pass the title of the notes to the latter?

3d. If the notes were by Mrs. C. E. Singletery placed in the hands of F. M. Huddleston for collection before their marriage, and he—either before or after marriage—without her consent, wrote the transfer upon the notes and signed her name thereto, and after the marriage informed her that he had made such transfer and signed her ñamé to it, is she estopped to recover the notes from the assignee of her husband, F. M. .Huddleston?

This case does not fall within the class of cases embraced in the decision of this court in Walker v. Wilson, 79 Texas, 185, and Weathered v. Smith, 9 Texas, 623, because the language used in the endorsement written upon the back of the notes is of a character which evidences ownership of the notes themselves in the person to whom they are transferred. The rule stated by Mr. Bigelow in his work on Estoppels, page 547, is—“that where the true owner of property holds out another or allows another to appear as the owner of or as having full power of disposition over the property, the same being in the latter’s actual possession, and innocent third parties are thus led into dealing with such apparent owner, they will be protected; or, where others are innocently induced to acquire rights in derogation of the secret or undisclosed nlaims of those who caused such action, the rights so acquired are secure, whether contested at law or in equity. Such rights do not depend upon the actual title or right or authority of the party with whom they *186 have directly dealt, but are derived from an act of the real owner which1 precludes him from disputing against them the existence of the title or right or power which he caused or allowed to appear to be vested in the party making the sale.” Moore v. Bank, 55 N. Y., 41; Armour v. Railway, 65 N. Y., 111; McNeill v. Bank, 46 N. Y., 325; Combes v. Chandler, 33 Ohio St., 178; Love v. Barber, 17 Texas, 312.

In Moore v. Bank, before cited, the plaintiff was the owner of a certificate of indebtedness of the state of New York, which he transferred by the following endorsement: “For value received, I hereby transfer, assign and set over to Isaac Miller the within described amount, say $10,-000.

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Bluebook (online)
37 S.W. 1066, 90 Tex. 182, 1896 Tex. LEXIS 459, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kempner-v-huddleston-tex-1896.