McDonald v. Ayres

242 S.W. 192, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 980
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJune 12, 1922
DocketNo. 330-3684
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 242 S.W. 192 (McDonald v. Ayres) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McDonald v. Ayres, 242 S.W. 192, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 980 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1922).

Opinion

RANDOLPH, J.

This action was instituted in the district court of Harris county by J. K. Ayres, as plaintiff, against R. D. McDonald, as defendant. From a judgment in part in his favor and in part adverse to him, the plaintiff appealed, and the Court of Civil Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court as to certain items of account and rendered same in plaintiff’s favor. 233 S. W. 597.

The suit by plaintiff was for the recovery of various sums alleged to be due him upon certain orders, judgment, and one-half interest in a note claimed to have been collected by defendant, and in which plaintiff claimed he owned a half interest.

The pleadings of plaintiff and defendant will only be stated as it becomes necessary to explain our rulings herein.

On the 31st day of March, 1917, defendant herein, as defendant in that suit, recovered a judgment in cause No. 67317 against the plaintiff. Also in that suit John B. Pey-ton intervened, and recovered judgment against the defendant. The court in said judgment ■ stated the account between plaintiff and defendant, and found a balance in favor of defendant for $2,534.82, but at the same time recited in said judgment that the defendant was in possession of a 'note executed and delivered to him by Keystone Mills Company for the sum of $11,861.24, due and payable-years after date, with interest at the rate of 8 per cent, per annum from date on which interest had been paid to January 29, 1915, in which plaintiff had a half interest, and adjudging such interest in plaintiff.

In said suit John B. Peyton, intervening, was granted judgment against the defendant for the sum of $925.41, together with interest from May 29, 1913, until paid, at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum. Involved in this general judgment were the following items in plaintiff’s favor, to wit; May 22, 1913, order on defendant in favor of J. P. Ross for $751.77; March 7, 1914, order on defendant in favor of J. P. Ross for $801; March 8, 1914, draft on defendant in favor of Peyton and Pegado in the sum of $575 — which were credited upon the amount found by the court [193]*193to be due the plaintiff by the defendant, and were taken from such amount prior to the rendition of the judgment in cause No. 67317, as shown by the recitals in said judgment.

Plaintiff in his petition in this suit alleges that he had bought the Peyton judgment in said cause No. 67317, and also that the Ross and Peyton and Pegado orders had been assigned to him, and seeks to recover such items from defendant, alleging facts which show that these items and his one-half interest in the Keystone Mills Company note, which he alleges defendant! had collected, exceed the amount of the judgment rendered in defendant’s favor in cause No. 67317, and prays judgment for such excess.

The first question presented in the application for writ of error for our consideration is the question of limitation as to whether or not it operates to bar the two Ross items and that of the Peyton and Pegado orders. These orders were drawn by the plaintiff on defendant on the dates and for the amounts above stated. The order to Ross for $751.77 was accepted by defendant in writing, but the record nowhere discloses any written acceptance of the other two orders. The other two original orders are not in the record, being established only by the copy of one of them made by Peyton, the assignments to plaintiff, and the recitals in the judgment id cause No. 67317.

These orders, being dated! in 1913 and 1914, and not having been accepted in writing, except the Ross order for $751.77, are clearly barred by limitation, unless the fact that they were recognized and credited by the court in its former judgment in cause No. 67317 removes from them the bar of limitation.

The Ross order for $751.77 was accepted by defendant in writing and hence became a contract in writing, and is barred only by the four-year statute of limitation. The Ross order for $751.77 was dated May 22, 1913, and defendant’s written acceptance was not dated. It is held in the case of Kampmann v. Williams et al., 70 Tex. 571, 8 S. W. 310, in a case where a draft in these words was being considered by the Supreme Court:

“San Antonio, June 21, 1884.
“Mr. L. Lambert: Please pay to Gus A. Kampmann & Co. five hundred dollars, and charge the same to account of W. J. Prince. Accepted June 23, 1884. [Indorsed] Gus A. Kampmann & Co.”

1 — that such order or draft “became due on the 23d of June, the date of acceptance, or as soon thereafter as demand for payment could reasonably have been made. 1 Daniel on Negotiable Instruments, 542, § 605; Cook v. Cook, 19 Tex. 437.” It is also held in that case that such instrument was not negotiable.

In the case at bar the acceptance was by the party upon whom the order was drawn, and it became due on demand, unless there was some other understanding or agreement deferring the due date. While there seems to be no evidence, except the recitals in the prior judgment sued on, that the payment of this order was deferred, yet all parties appear to have treated the question of its due date as depending on the time of the collection of the Keystone Mills note, and, as there is no question presented to us of the force of the recitals of the former judgment, we shall consider same as being due on the date of the collection of the Keystone Mills note.

The evidence discloses that the Keystone Mills note was collected by defendant on July 26, 1917, and, this suit having been filed January 12, 1920, four years had not elapsed .for limitation to run.

However, the defendant contends that the proof is insufficient to establish either the collection or the date on which same was made of the Keystone Mills note; that the collection is only testified to by the plaintiff’s attorney; and that the Court of Civil Appeals erred in holding that it was an undisputed fact noc necessary to submit to the jury upon which that court could and did render judgment. A. N. John, attorney for plaintiff, testified that the defendant told him that he had collected the Keystone note; that his recollection was that defendant stated that he had collected it on July 26, 1917. The plaintiff’s petition was based upon his claim to a one-half interest in this note, and alleges its collection by defendant. The defendant was cited and appeared and filed his answer denying the allegations in the plaintiff’s petition. The matter being in issue, and the defendant having full notice, he was bound to know that the plaintiff would introduce some character of proof that the note had been collected. When the witness John testified that the defendant had informed him that the note had been paid, 'no effort appears to have been made to refute it. The defendant was the one man who could have denied this statement of the witness. He was the one who could have testified that the note had not been paid to him, if such was true. Not having done so, it appears to us that' the Court of Civil Appeals was correct in considering it as an established and undisputed fact. Having remained silent when it was his duty in his defense to speak, being in possession of the facts, if they existed, he should have presented them to the court. This duty devolved upon the attorney for defendant if the plaintiff was not present in person at the trial.

To sustain their holding on this question, the Court of Civil Appeals cite Hankins v. Flynt, 136 S. W. 1171; Beene v. Rotan Grocery Co., 50 Tex. Civ. App. 448, 110 S. W. 162.

The case of Hankins v.

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Bluebook (online)
242 S.W. 192, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 980, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonald-v-ayres-texcommnapp-1922.