Klugsberg v. State

89 S.W.2d 301
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 18, 1935
DocketNo. 8442.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 89 S.W.2d 301 (Klugsberg v. State) 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
Klugsberg v. State, 89 S.W.2d 301 (Tex. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

BLAIR, Justice.

The state of Texas sued appellant, Julius Klugsberg, to recover $117,829.23 as the tax due by appellant on cigarettes disposed of by him within Texas in a business he was conducting in Dallas as sole owner, but under the name of Texas Candyland; and to establish and foreclose the statutory tax lien on the properties belonging to and used by appellant in said business. Appellee also prayed for and the court appointed a receiver of the said Texas Candyland properties and business. The appointment was made upon the verified petition of appellee, ex parte and without notice to appellant, who within 20 days appeared and excepted to the action of -the court appointing the receiver, gave notice of appeal, and has perfected this appeal on a cost bond.

*302 Appellant contends that the court erred in appointing the receiver ex parte and without notice upon “a petition, which is verified only on information and belief in so far. as any allegations contained in the petition attempt to allege or set forth any reason for an appointment without notice.”

The verification of the petition reads as follows: “Before me, a Notary Public in and for Travis County, Texas, on this day personally appeared Sam -Kimberlin, Director of the Cigarette Tax Division of the Office of the Comptroller of Public Accounts, and known to me to be said person, and upon oath deposes and says that: T am Director of the Cigarette Division, Comptroller’s Office, State of Texas, and I have the authority to take this oath that I have read the foregoing petition and the facts alleged therein are true and correct, save and except those alleged on information and belief, and those I verily believe to be true.”

It clearly appears from this affidavit that affiant swore to all facts alleged to be true and correct as stated in the petition, and swore that he believed all facts alleged on information as stated in the petition to be true and correct. It also clearly appears from the petition which facts were sworn to as being true and correct and which facts were sworn to as being true and correct on information and belief; and it further appears that the facts alleged to be true and correct are in themselves sufficient to authorize the appointment of a receiver ex parte and without notice upon the verified petition. The rule is settled that a verification similar-in all respects to the one here involved is sufficient if the facts alleged to be true and correct can be separated or distinguished from the facts alleged on information and belief to be true and correct, and are in themselves sufficient to authorize the appointment of the receiver. Abilene Ind. Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Southwestern Tel. & Tel. Co. (Tex.Civ.App.) 185 S.W. 356.

Nor do we sustain -the contentions of appellant that the court erred in appointing the receiver ex parte "and without notice for the reasons that the verified petition (1) failed to allege facts showing the existence of any extreme or imperative emergency warranting the appointment without notice; (2) failed to allege that a temporary injunction or restraining order-would not afford the state an adequate remedy; and (3) failed to allege facts negativing the existence of adequate legal remedies, or equitable remedies less drastic than the appointment of a receiver.

In paragraphs 1 to 10, both inclusive, of the petition are alleged the specific facts upon which the state sought to recover each item of the tax sued for. Each paragraph was numbered and was prefaced with the allegation that the facts stated therein were true and correct. In these ten paragraphs are alleged the specific transactions on which each item of the tax was due, the amount due, and the specific act of fraud, scheme, or device used by appellant to evade the pertinent provisions of the taxing statutes; and that by certain acts of concealment of properties and assets and by the use of fictitious names to whom appellant made interstate shipments of cigarettes to himself, appellant practiced fraud upon the state and the taxing statutes under which the tax was due; that appellant failed to keep proper books and accounts of his cigarette transactions; and that he fraudulently concealed the properties and assets used in his business, and fraudulently concealed the true transactions of the Texas Candyland business, for the purpose of evading the tax due under the revenue statutes, being the pertinent portions of H. B. 547, c. 73, Acts Regular Session of the 42d Leg. (1931); H. B. 578, c. 153, Acts Regular Session 43d Leg. (1933); H. B. 20, c. 90, Acts First Called Session 43d Leg. (1933); H. B. 67, c. 52, Acts Second Called Session of the 43d Leg. (1934); H. B. 755, c. 241, Acts of Regular Session of the 44th Leg., 1935 (Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 7047c — 1, Vernon’s Ann. P.C. art. 131c — 1).

, In paragraph 11, attacked by appellant as being upon information and belief, it was alleged that because of the fraudulent acts, schemes, and devices alleged in the ten preceding paragraphs and sworn to as being true and correct, the state “believes” that appellant will continue to conceal his property and continue to sell and dispose of cigarettes in . the fraudulent manner theretofore practiced by him; and that appellant will dispose of the properties and assets used in his business, thereby jeopardizing or destroying the statutory tax lien on same unless a receiver were immediately appointed. In paragraph 12 the same inferences based upon the facts stated in paragraphs 1 to 10 were alleged, and it was further specifically alleged that appellant *303 “will” conceal or dispose of all properties known and unknown to the state and used in the Texas Candyland business, unless a receiver of such properties and business were immediately appointed.

From our analysis of the petition it clearly appears that it alleged specific facts of fraudulent transactions with regard to schemes, concealments, and artifices used by appellant to evade the taxing statutes; and that appellant fraudulently concealed the properties and assets of the Texas Candyland business, which were used in the prosecution of his cigarette business, and from which facts, alleged to be true and correct, it may be reasonably inferred or deduced that appellant would conceal or dispose of the properties so used and on which the statutes fixed a tax lien. The facts so alleged are not upon information and belief, but are reasonable inferences or deductions from the facts alleged to be true, although they relate to future acts of which the state could not have positive knowledge. Guthrie v. Speck (Tex.Civ.App.) 53 S.W. (2d) 318. The facts, inferences, and deductions so alleged to be true and correct clearly bring the instant case within the meaning of subdivision 4 of article 2293, R.S. 1925, which provides that a receiver may be appointed “in all other cases where receivers have heretofore been appointed by the usages of the court of equity.” The state also showed itself to be in the position of a mortgagee, with right of foreclosure and to have a receiver of the mortgaged property appointed under the terms of subdivision 2 of said article 2293, which provide as follows: “In an action by a mortgagee for the foreclosure of his mortgage and sale of the mortgaged property, when it appears that the mortgaged property is in danger of being lost, removed or materially injured.”

Under this subdivision of the article it is only necessary to allege facts from which it

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Bluebook (online)
89 S.W.2d 301, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/klugsberg-v-state-texapp-1935.