Lumsden v. Jones

205 S.W. 375, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 766
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 29, 1918
DocketNo. 1385.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 205 S.W. 375 (Lumsden v. Jones) 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
Lumsden v. Jones, 205 S.W. 375, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 766 (Tex. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

BOVOE, J.

This suit was brought by ap-pellee, Jones, against appellant, Lumsden, to recover commission alleged to be due for services performed by appellee as broker in procuring a purchaser for certain cattle list *376 ed with him by appellant for sale. Such statement of the pleading and facts as is necessary will be made in connection with the questions discussed.

The first five assignments present in various ways objections to the sufficiency of the pleading to support the recovery and are based on the following facts:

[1] Plaintiff sued to recover on an express contract for the payment of commission at the rate of 50 cents per head on 3,330 head of cattle listed with him for sale. Euring the trial, the plaintiff was permitted by the court to file a pleading which he styled “Eirst Amendment of Plaintiff,” which is as follows:

“Defendant having denied an express agreement to pay 50 cents per head for sale of the cattle sold by him, comes the plaintiff and alleges that the reasonable value of the services rendered by plaintiff alleged in the petition, were 50 cents per head, or the sum of $1,665. Wherefore he prays for judgment as before.”

The jury found that Lumsden authorized Jones to find a purchaser for his cattle, that Jones was the procuring ca„use of the sale, that there was no express agreement to pay 50 cents per head commission, and that the reasonable value of the services was 50 cents per head, and judgment was based on the implied promise to pay a reasonable compensation for the services performed under the express listing for sale. Appellant contends that the pleading is insufficient to support such a recovery, because there is no allegation of “promise to pay” in connection with the allegations of reasonable value of the service performed under the contract of enlistment.

[2,3] Under the common-law system of pleading an allegation of promise to pay or its equivalent would be necessary under the circumstances. 5 O. J. p. 1393. The promise to pay is a fiction, being implied from other facts, and it is said that under the Code practice the petition is sufficient if it alleges the facts upon which the law raises an implied promise. 5 C. J. p. 1395. We believe that this is all that is necessary under our system of pleading. R. S. art. 1819; Milmo National Bank v. Cobbs, 53 Tex. Civ. App. 1, 115 S. W. 345, 348, par. 19; Patton-Worsham Drug Co. v. Drennon, 123 S. W. 705; Cart v. Dyer, 81 Tex. 339, 16 S. W. 1061, par. 5. The amendment was evidently intended to be in the nature of a trial amendment, for the purpose of supplementing the allegations of the original petition. The misnomer, and the failure to refer to the original pleading intended to he supplemented, ought not to destroy its real character and purpose. German Insurance Co. v. Norris, 11 Tex. Civ. App. 250, 32 S. W. 727. The filing of a trial amendment, properly styled and containing proper reference to the supplemented pleading, would not have been really proper. Rule 27 for District and County Courts (142 S. W, xix). However, wei do not think these irregularities ought to reverse the case. Mound Oil Co. v. Heitman, 148 S. W. 1187; American Warehouse Co. v. Ray, 150 S. W. 765.

[4] The sixth, seventh, and eighth assignments are based on the contention that there was such a fatal variance between the allegations and proof as to preclude a recovery. It is alleged that the defendant, Lumsden, listed the cattle with plaintiff for sale. The proof showed that the cattle belonged to a partnership known as Green & Lumsden, composed of Wm. Green and the said Lumsden, and the contract of sale was executed by Lumsden, acting for the partnership. There is no variance between the allegations stated and the proof. Lumsden personally listed the cattle with Jones, and it does not appear that the partnership ownership of the cattle was referred to at such time, nor that Jones knew that the cattle belonged to the partnership. The evidence simply shows that the partner, Green, would be jointly liable with Lumsden, perhaps; but appellant, not having pleaded such facts and asked that Green be made a party to the suit, is in no position to prevent plaintiff from proceeding to enforce the individual liability against himself, simply becausé some one else may be jointly and severally liable with him. Davis v. Willis, 47 Tex. 162.

[5] A variance is claimed on another ground: The petition alleged that plaintiff, in pursuance of the contract for enlistment, procured Robb, acting for himself and Huddleston, to meet the defendant, and that such procurement resulted in the sale of the cattle to the said Robb and Huddleston. The actual contract of sale as finally made was to Robb and Crocker Bros, and Huddleston & Sons; Robb and Orocker Bros, taking one half of the cattle, and Huddleston & Sons taking the other. The evidence, viewed in its most favorable aspect to the plaintiff, is sufficient to warrant the conclusion that Jones brought Robb and Lumsden together; that there were more of the cat-tie than Robb wanted to buy alone, and he interested Huddleston in the purchase of the cattle with him, and negotiations for the sale were conducted with Robb and Huddleston. It does not appear that Crocker Bros, or the sons of Huddleston were present at all during such negotiations. Under the contract of enlistment, plaintiff was to procure the sale of the cattle in order to earn his commission. The parties to whom the sale should be made were not material. If plaintiff procured the sale, he earned his commission. The only materiality or necessity for an allegation of the name of the purchasers procured was to identify the transaction. If plaintiff procured Robb as a purchaser, and he, for his own purposes, brought in others as his associates in the purchase, it ought not to affect the plaintiff’s right to recover his commission on the sale. It is not claimed that the defendant was in any way mis *377 led as to tlie basis of plaintiff’s cause of action. We do not think there was any fatal variance between the allegations and the proof under these circumstances. McClel-land v. Smith, 8 Tex. 210.

[6] The principal fact issue in the case was as to whether plaintiff, Jones, or W. G. Russell, another cattle broker, with whom Lumsden had listed the cattle, was the procuring cause of the sale. There is testimony that tends to show that W; G. Russell, having the cattle listed for sale for spring delivery, but with no price on them, on account of defendant Lumsden’s desire not to price the cattle so far in advance of the time for their delivery, called them to the attention of Bobb and one of the Crocker Bros., and arranged to take the matter of the sale up with them further, when Lumsden should put his price on the cattle, and at this time the said Robb and Crocker expressed a desire to come to look at the cattle when Lums-den had priced them. There is also an intimation in the evidence that there was some sort of a tacit understanding that the parties were to meet at the Buyers’ & Sellers’ Convention to be held at Amarillo in the following February. All of the various parties to this transaction were at the Buyers’ & Sellers’ Convention at Amarillo. Jones first saw Robb, and priced the cattle to him, and introduced him to Lumsden.

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Bluebook (online)
205 S.W. 375, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 766, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lumsden-v-jones-texapp-1918.