Lott v. Lofton

280 S.W. 312
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 3, 1926
DocketNo. 2600.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 280 S.W. 312 (Lott v. Lofton) 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
Lott v. Lofton, 280 S.W. 312 (Tex. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

HALL, C. J.

On November 18, 1920, the appellant filed suit in the district court of Hall county against appellee, Lofton; said cause being numbered 1055 on the docket of that court. He sought to recover $1,800 which he alleged Lofton owed him; said indebtedness growing out of the lease by him to Lofton of a farm in Hall county for the rental year 1920. He alleged that Lofton owed him said sum for teams, cows, hogs, supplies, and money which he had furnished Lofton to enable him to raise, gather, and market a crop during that year. He prayed for judgment for his debt and foreclosure of his landlord’s lien upon all of the property, including the crops raised upon the leased premises.

On June 12, 1922, Lofton filed his answer in said cause No. 1055, denying the allegation that advances had been made to him, contesting Lott’s right to a landlord’s lien; alleged the payment of certain items of indebtedness ; and by way of cross-action sued *313 Lott for wrongfully and illegally issuing and Laving levied a writ of sequestration upon ■certain property.

H. N. Davis intervened in said cause No. 1055, claiming an indebtedness against Lof-ton for groceries and supplies, which he alleged he furnished Lofton, and prayed for judgment for his ■ debt, and the foreclosure of a chattel mortgage upon Lofton’s three-fourths interest in 60 acres of cotton grown upon the premises during the rental year, and also the foreclosure of his mortgage lien upon three mules and other live stock upon which Lott claimed to have a landlord’s lien. Lofton prevailed in that suit; but the judgment failed to make any disposition of the intervener, Davis. Thereafter execution was issued to Donley county and placed in the hands of the sheriff of that county by Lofton; dnd on the 30th day of August, 1924, Lott filed his petition in the nature of a bill of review in the district court of Hall county,' which was numbered 1290 on the docket of said court, praying for a temporary injunction against Lofton and against the sheriffs of Hall and Donley counties, restraining them from enforcing said judgment in cause No. 1055. He attacked said judgment and execution, first, because, as alleged, the judgment was secured by Lofton by fraud and perjury,- and by the introduction of false testimony at a time when he was not prepared to controvert it, and did not have time to procure witnesses to show the fraud and perjury; and further alleging that he did not know that such testimony was false until after it was too late for him to file a motion for new trial. He further attacked the judgment as not being final, because it failed to dispose of the intervener, Davis, and of his rights asserted in his plea of intervention. As a further ground for enjoining the execution, he alleged that it was the first execution issued on the judgment, and was issued to Donley county, contrary to the statutes of this state, without having prior thereto issued an execution to Hall county, that being the county in which the judgment was rendered.

The trial judge granted a temporary injunction restraining the sheriff of Donley county, who was about to levy the writ of execution, and also granted a temporary injunction restraining Lofton from having further executions issued upon said judgment.

On November 19, 1924, Lofton answered in said cause No. 1290, moving the court to dissolve the temporary injunction. The motion to dissolve was heard by the trial judge in chambers at Clarendon, and was overruled. From said ruling Lofton appealed to this court, and on the 21st day of January, 1925, this court affirmed the judgment, refusing to dissolve the injunction, in an unpublished «opinion, in which it was held that the petition for injunction was legally sufficient to warrant the court in granting the wtit in the first instance, and that Lofton was not entitled to have it dissolved because his motion or answer was not verified and did not attempt to swear away the equities of the bill, and was, in legal effect, nothing more than a general demurrer to the petition. It was further held that, if the judgment was based upon- perjured testimony, the trial court was, under the facts set out in the petition, warranted in enjoining its execution — citing McMurray v. McMurray, 4 S. W. 357, 67 Tex. 665; State ex rel. Bostick v. Stark (Tex. Civ. App.) 203 S. W. 371; Swearingen v. Swearingen (Tex. Civ. App.) 193 S. W. 454; Wagley v. Wagley (Tex. Civ. App.) 230 S. W. 495. This court also sustained the trial judge’s order refusing to dissolve the temporary injunction, because no execution had been issued to Hall county first, and because the judgment did not sufficiently describe the property — citing V. S. C. S. arts. 3726, 3729; Schneider v. Dorsey, 74 S. W. 526, 96 Tex. 544; Norwood v. Orient Ins. Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 44 S. W. 188. This court further held that, because the judgment failed to dispose of the intervener, Davis, and the issues presented by his plea of intervention, the judgment was not such a final judgment as would support an execution — citing Moore v. Toyah Valley Irrigation Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 179 S. W. 550; Miller v. Farmers’ State Bank & Trust Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 241 S. W. 540; McCarty v. Cray (Tex. Civ. App.) 158 S. W. 1154; Busby v. Schrank (Tex. Civ. App.) 174 S. W. 295. After this court had affirmed the judgment of the trial court in refusing to dissolve the temporary injunction, Lofton filed a motion on the 27th day of January, 1925, in said original cause No. 1055 in the district court of Hall county to correct the original judgment Which had been entered in the cause by a judgment nunc pro tunc which would dispose of the intervener, Davis, and contain a proper description of the property in controversy. In his motion to correct it was shown that at the time of the trial Davis had moved the court to permit him to withdraw his plea of intervention without prejudice, and that the court had, by an order entered upon the docket, permitted him to do so, but that through oversight in entering the judgment the order of the court noted upon the docket was not incorporated in the judgment. It appears that Lott contested the right of Lofton to amend the judgment in the particulars stated, but his pleading contesting the motion is not in the record before us on this appeal. The motion to enter a corrected judgment nunc pro tunc in cause No. 1055 was granted February 11, 1925. The corrected judgment properly disposed of the intervener, Davis, and described the property correctly which had been misdescribed in the original judgment. Lott did not appeal-from that proceeding, and on the 17th day of March, 1925, Lofton filed in cause No. 1290 his supplemental motion to dissolve the temporary writ of injunction, which, as stated, *314 had been issued in said cause on the 30th day of'August, 1024; and, in addition to the demurrers urged in his original motion to dissolve, he alleged in his supplemental motion as follows:

(1) That in addition to the matters and things set forth in. defendant’s original motion the defendant now states that heretofore, to wit, on February 11, 1925, this honorable court entered final judgment in cause No.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Carruth v. Allen
368 S.W.2d 672 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1963)
Butler, Williams & Jones v. Goodrich
306 S.W.2d 798 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1957)
Willis v. Willis
49 P.2d 670 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1935)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
280 S.W. 312, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lott-v-lofton-texapp-1926.