Mansfield v. Ramsey

196 S.W. 330, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 673
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 9, 1917
DocketNo. 246.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 196 S.W. 330 (Mansfield v. Ramsey) 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
Mansfield v. Ramsey, 196 S.W. 330, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 673 (Tex. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

BROOKE, J.

This was a suit in injunction in the Eleventh district court of Harris county, filed on February 1, 1915, by one W. R. Williams, styling himself the agent of one D. D. Ramsey, who resided in Richmond, Ind., against M. P. Hammond as sheriff of Harris county, and H. P. Mtansfield, and in this suit it is correctly alleged that H. P. Mansfield was the owner and holder of a certain judgment theretofore obtained by him as plaintiff against W. R. Williams, being in the Eleventh district court of Harris county. In this cause, being numbered 56,345 in said above-mentioned court, H. P. Mansfield recovered a judgment against W. R. Williams in the sum of $1,150, and costs of court in the sum of $111.29, and under this judgment caused M. F. Hammond, sheriff of Harris county, to make levy on the property mentioned in plaintiff’s petition in this cause, to satisfy said judgment. W. R. Williams makes affidavit for injunction under the petition prepared by his attorneys, to restrain the sale of the land to satisfy the judgment obtained as aforesaid, by I-I. P. Mansfield. The honorable judge of the Eleventh district court of Harris county, being the same court wherein the judgment against W. R. Williams had been obtained by PI. P. Mansfield, upon being presented with the petition in this cause granted the temporary injunction as prayed for, to restrain this sale under execution, upon applicant giving bond in the sum of $500. Upon the filing of the bond, the writ of injunction issued from the proper source, together with the citation, and both were delivered to M. F. Hammond, sheriff of Harris county, and in both instances service was had on M. F. Hammond, sheriff of Harris county being served by M. F. Hammond, sheriff of Harris' county, Tex., by his deputy, Tom O. Smith, and I-I. P. Mansfield was served in the same manner by the same deputy, the return as to service on both Hammond and Mansfield being on the same instrument. M. F. Hammond filed an answer. PI. p. Mansfield made no answer. A final permanent injunction was rendered in this causa in default against I-I. P. Mansfield, and decree approved on April 28, 1915.

*331 The assignments have been grouped and treated together, as follows:

(a) The court erred in rendering judgment by default in this cause, because the return of the officer serving the same shows conclusively that M. F. Hammond, by his deputy, Tom C. Smith, served the citation on M. F. Hammond, in his capacity as sheriff, which service was contrary to article 1854, Revised Statutes of the state of Texas.

(b) The court erred in rendering a judgment by default in this cause, because the officer’s return on the citation does not show conclusively that each of the defendants named were served with the citation at the time and place indicated, which on the original return is misleading, in the sense that M. F. Hammond and H. OP. Mansfield were served at “the office of Sheriff Houston, Harris county, Tex.”

(c) The court erred in rendering a judgment by default in this cause, because the injunction sought and prayed for by plaintiff, D. D. Ramsey, was not verified by a proper person, nor in the manner required by law.

(d) The court erred in rendering a judgment by default in this cause, because of the insufficient and contrary to statute order of the trial judge in this cause, wherein the injunction sought was to restrain a sale under a judgment and execution, and the amount of the bond required of the applicant should have been fixed at twice the amount of the judgment and costs, which bond in this cause should have been fixed at $2,520.58, instead of the amount of $500, as required by statute in injunction restraining sale under execution.

(e) The court erred in rendering a judgment by default in this cause, and primarily in granting even the temporary injunction therein, for the reason that the petition filed in this cause, praying for injunction, plainly shows that the applicant therefor had no interest in the property about to be sold by the sheriff under execution aforesaid, and that the court erred in granting said injunction and in rendering a judgment, temporary and final thereon.

Under the above assignments, the appellant offers the following proposition:

“Where it appears from the petition that the sheriff is a party to the suit, or is interested therein, the citation shall be addressed to any constable of his county, and a citation served by a sheriff through his deputy, on either the sheriff or his codefendant, is erroneous, and will not support a judgment by default.”

To which we agree as being correct.

.However, objection is made to the consideration of plaintiff in error’s proposition in so far as it makes complaint that the sheriff could not serve his codefendant, H. P. Mansfield, for the reason that so much of said proposition fails to comply with article 1612 of Vernon’s Sayles’ Texas Civil Statutes 1914, in that said assignment does not specify that portion of the error urged by the proposition ■thereunder as makes ,complaint that the sheriff could not serve his codefendant, H. P. Mansfield, and so much of said proposition asserted under said assignment is not based upon, nor justified by, nor germane to, said first assignment of error under which said proposition is urged; and therefore so much of said objection to the sheriff serving his codefendant as is urged in said proposition should be, as provided by said statute, regarded as waived.

It is plain that the first assignment of error filed below by plaintiff makes no complaint that the defendant, H. P. Mansfield, was served by the deputy sheriff; the complaint urged being purely that M. F. Hammond could not serve himself, through his deputy, Tom C. Smith. So much, then, of the first proposition under the first assignment of error as makes complaint that the sheriff is not authorized under article 1854, Revised Statutes, to serve his codefendant, I-I. P. Mansfield, must be considered as waived, and will not be considered. Article 1612, Vernon’s Sayles’ Texas Civil Statutes 1914, reads as follows:

“The appellant or plaintiff in error shall in all cases file with the clerk of the court below all assignments of error, distinctly specifying the grounds on which he relies, before he takes the transcript of record from the clerk’s office, * * * and provided further, that all errors not distinctly specified, are waived. * * * ”

In all four assignments of error filed by the appellant, neither of them even hinted at so much of the first proposition as found fault with the service, in that the sheriff was not authorized to serve his codefendant, H. P. Mansfield. However, it has been held that where the sheriff has only a nominal interest in the suit, service by him pr by his deputy on himself, as well as service by him or by his deputy on his codefendant, who is the substantial party defendant, is valid.

It is contended that article 1854, Vernon’s Sayles’ Texas Civil Statutes 1914, has reference only to eases where the sheriff is a substantial party interested in the litigation.

In the case of Clegg v. Patterson, 32 Ind. 135, it seems that Patterson filed a complaint against Clegg and Bellows, sheriff, praying for injunction against the sale of certain real estate lévied on by plaintiff as sheriff, by virtue of execution in his hands in favor of Clegg against Patterson.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
196 S.W. 330, 1917 Tex. App. LEXIS 673, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mansfield-v-ramsey-texapp-1917.