Kenny v. Starnes

277 S.W.2d 919, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2590
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 7, 1955
DocketNo. 3249
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 277 S.W.2d 919 (Kenny v. Starnes) 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
Kenny v. Starnes, 277 S.W.2d 919, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2590 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

TIREY; Justice.

This is an appeal from an order granting a summary judgment in behalf of plaintiffs. It is the second appeal. See Kenny v. Starnes, Tex.Civ.App., 265 S.W.2d 639 (n. r. e.).

The judgment is assailed on three points. They are substántially: (1) the court erred in entering summary judgment for plaintiffs and issuing permanent injunction against defendant and cross-plaintiff because the evidence, pleadings and admissions on file tendered issues of fact; (2) because plaintiffs’ petition prayed only for a declaratory judgment and for the enjoining of defendant from prosecuting or filing suits in the Justice Court; and because plaintiffs’ petition does not state a cause of action for declaratory judgment; and (3) because the court adjudged the costs of the former appeal in this cause. We overrule each of these contentions.

Plaintiffs went to trial on their original petition and their trial amendment, which were the same pleadings on- which the former cause was tried. Defendant went to trial on his second amended answer and cross-action filed July 6,. 1954. It contains two exceptions but the record shows no action thereon. The mandate from the 8th Court of Civil Appeals at El Paso was filed with, the Clerk of the District Court in May, 1954, and in the same month plaintiffs filed their motion for summary judgment, duly sworn to, and the court set it for hearing on the 3rd of June, 1954. Appellant made no reply to the motion for summary judgment, but on July 6, 1954 he [920]*920filed his second amended answer and cross-action.' This' pleading was not sworn to.

The parties stipulated that “oh the 4th day of August, 1954, at the time the plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment was heard by the Honorable Court, that this case was at that time on the jury docket, same having been placed on the jury docket on May 7, 1953 and that on said August 4, 1954 the said case had not been set down for trial on its merits.”

On April 17, 1954, appellees filed their request for admissions and defendant seasonably answered such request.. The parties further stipulated that the Statement of Facts covering the evidence adduced at the former trial be filed as the Statement of Facts in this cause, and further stipulated to the effect that there are certain plaintiffs named in the plaintiffs’ trial amendment: on file that differ in ’ spelling or their initials from the list of the stockholders and that there are certain other plaintiffs not included in the stockholders as delivered to the defendant assignee and of the total 305 plaintiffs, 38 such individuals are named as co-plaintiffs and in addition there are three of the co-plaintiffs who have previously paid the assessment in full to the as-signee. It is also agreed that any injunc-tive relief that may be granted would necessarily be on behalf of the plaintiffs as they are named in the trial amendment'to plaintiffs’ original petition, and that said injunc-tive relief would apply only to thosé individuals named. ■ .

Going back to appellant’s Point' 1, and it is substantially: Does the plaintiffs’ original petition and the'trial amendment allege a cause of action against defendant entitling the persons therein named to in-junctive relief against the defendant? We think they do.

The original petition consists of almost seven typewritten, legal cap pages and necessarily we cannot state it. Suffice to say that it alleges that plaintiffs as individuals and as a class representing the shareholders hold shares of common stock of Postal Employees Merchantile Company, Inc., of Dallas, Texas, and that H. E. Kenny, Jr., is the assignee for the benefit of the creditors of said corporation; that plaintiffs are all residents of Dallas County and each is the owner of one share of stock in said corporation fully paid; that the first five are members of a class of defendants in certain causes wherein the assignee has filed suits against them in the Justice Court, Precinct No. 1, Place 2 in Dallas County, Texas, and they bring this action individually and -as a class under the provisions of Rule 42, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure; that the Postal Employees Mercantile Company, Inc., is a private corporation duly incorporated under the laws of the State of Texas and chartered under subd. 39 of Art. 1302, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.Stats.; that there are some seven hundred shareholders, each the owner of one share of common stock of said corporation of the par value of $15; that all of said capital stock, has heretofore -been fully paid in cash by each and all of the plaintiffs individually and by each and all of the shareholders of said corporation; that none of the plaintiffs are members of the class represented as having failed to pay in full for the subscription of such capital stock of said corporation; that after the assignment for the benefit of the creditors the defendant H. E. Kenny, Jr., and the officers and directors of said corporation, have been endeavoring to procure a contractural agreement with the shareholders of said corporation for a voluntary assessment for the benefit of the creditors against each shareholder in the approximate sum of $25 for each share owned and that the majority of such shareholders have declined to accept ’ the voluntary assessment and they are not liable thereon; that defendant H. E. Kenny, Jr., as assignee, and the officers and directors of such corporation have engaged in a course of conduct intended to coerce, intimidate and frighten the holders of shares of common stock into agreeing to such assessment, notwithstanding the refusal of these plaintiffs and a majority of the class they represent to agree to such voluntary assessment and notwithstanding the full knowledge on the part of Kenny that there is no legal obligation on the part of any shareholder for this assessment, the [921]*921said Kenny, assignee, in furtherance ■ of such campaign of coercion, intimidation and fright, has filed ten suits, separately and individually, in the Justice Court, Precinct No. 1, Place No. 2, Dallas County, Texas, wherein the assignee alleges that the defendants named in said suit are indebted to him in his capacity as assignee in the sum of $24.92 as an assessment against each shareholder. Plaintiffs further alleged under date of September 15, 1952, defendant Kenny joined the Board of Directors im making the following statement: “The Board of Directors and all parties who are expending their time and effort toward the settlement of accounts certainly want it well understood that at this time there.is no contention that there is a positive legal obligation on the part of any shareholder to pay this assessment, but rather it is a moral obligation which has been created in the name of Postal Employees Mercantile Co., Inc.” Plaintiffs further alleged that they brought this action to avoid a multiplicity of suits and they asked the court for a temporary injunction restraining the assignee from filing any other suits of like kind and character against any shareholder of said corporation and from prosecuting the suits already filed in the Justice Court, and from taking any other or further action in said suits than to dismiss the same.

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Bluebook (online)
277 S.W.2d 919, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2590, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kenny-v-starnes-texapp-1955.