McDonald v. Wilson

209 S.W. 440, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 271
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 12, 1919
DocketNo. 6037.
StatusPublished

This text of 209 S.W. 440 (McDonald v. Wilson) 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
McDonald v. Wilson, 209 S.W. 440, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 271 (Tex. Ct. App. 1919).

Opinion

BRADY, J.

Appellant brought this suit against appellee to recover on a note dated October 10, 1912, and to foreclose a chattel mortgage on a piano, for which the note was a part of the purchase price; and which note was purchased, by appellant after maturity.

On the trial appellee admitted that he had never paid this note, and that he owed the debt for which it was given, and was ready, willing, and able to pay the same, but that his only reason for not doing so was that he had given certain other notes for the same debt, which were claimed by the original payee of the note in suit to have been lost or misplaced; the note sued on being itself given in substitution of certain of these other notes. The appellee further testified that these several notes were still outstanding, but in whose hands he did not know, and it appeared that all of said outstanding notes were probably barred by limitation at the date of.the trial. Thereupon appellant filed his trial amendment, offering to indemnify appellee against loss or damage by reason of the outstanding notes, and tendered him an indemnity bond in the sum of $850, which *441 was by the court held to be a good and sufficient bond in amount, conditions, and solvency, but which was refused, because, under his view of the law, it could not be approved and accepted, and was no answer to appel-lee’s defense.

The court gave a peremptory charge to the jury to find a verdict for the appellee, which was returned in accordance therewith, and judgment was by the court entered thereon for appellee.

Appellant’s first and fourth assignments of error complain of the action of the trial court in giving the peremptory instruction for the -defendant, and his fifth assignment of the alleged error of the trial court in failing and refusing to give a peremptory instruction for appellant.

Appellant’s second and third assignments of error present the point that the trial court erred in rendering judgment on the verdict, because of the state of the undisputed evidence showing that the debt was due and unpaid, and that, when it developed upon the trial of the cause that other notes were outstanding, appellant offered to give a good indemnity bond to protect appellee. These are all the assignments in the record.

It does not appear from the record that, at the time the court gave the peremptory instruction in favor of appellee, the appellant made any objection thereto, nor that he objected to the refusal of the trial court to give the peremptory instruction requested by appellant; and we are of the opinion that under our statutes none of these assignments can be considered by this court, but that all have been waived by the failure of appellant to object to the court’s charge when given. The two assignments in form attacking the judgment of the court are in reality but attacks upon the verdict and the action of the trial court in giving the peremptory instruction. Under the law the court was required to either enter judgment on the verdict, or to set the same aside; and, if the appellant had waived his right to present any objections to the giving 'of the peremptory instruction, after the return of the verdict, it was not only proper for the court to enter judgment on the verdict, unless there were other material errors committed, but it was its duty to carry the verdict into judgment. The effect of the peremptory instruction, upon return of the verdict, was to require the trial court to enter judgment thereon. Therefore, all the assignments must stand upon the same basis, and the question whether any of them can be considered by this court is the same.

Chapter 59 of the Acts of the Thirty-Third Legislature, page 113, amended articles 1970 to 1974, inclusive, Revised Statutes, so as to require the judge to give a written charge to the jury, unless waived by the parties to the suit, and that said charge should be submitted to the attorneys for examination and objection, before being given to the jury. It is provided, in article 1971, that objections shall in every instance be presented to the court before the charge is read to the jury, * and it is expressly provided that “all objections not so made and presented shall be considered as waived.” This act also amends article 2061, Revised Statutes, so as to now read as follows:

“The ruling of the court in the giving, refusing or qualifying of instructions to the jury .shall be regarded as approved, unless excepted to as provided for in the foregoing articles.”

These articles of the statutes are mandatory, and if the giving of a peremptory instruction is within the purview of said articles, or either of them, appellant, not having objected to such charge in • the court below before or at the time it was given, has waived his right to object to any error in the giving of the same, and this court is without power to consider -such objection presented for the first time in the motion for new trial.

'We confess to have had some difficulty in deciding this question, especially in view of a conflict in the decisions of the Cburts of Civil Appeals.

It was held by the Court of Civil Appeals for the Seventh District, in Owens v. Corsicana Petroleum Co., 169 S. W. 192, that the above statute, providing that objections to the charge of the court not made in the trial court shall be deemed waived, does not apply to a peremptory instruction. A writ of error was granted by the Supreme Court in that case, but upon another point, and the case seems to have not yet been decided by the Supreme Court.

In Conn v. Houston Oil Co., 171 S. W. 521, the Court of Civil Appeals for the First District held that the rule requiring a charge to be excepted to in the trial court does not apply to a peremptory instruction on a- special issue, but the opinion does not refer to the statute which we have quoted. However, it was decided after the enactment of said stat-tute.

On the other hand, in Ry. Co. v. Wheat, 173 S. W. 974, the Court of Civil Appeals for the Second District decided that assignments of error, complaining of the refusal of the trial court to give a peremptory instruction, could not under the above statute be considered on appeal, where it is not shown that any objection or exception was taken in the court below to the refusal to give the charge. Chief Justice Conner referred to. the holding in Owens v. Corsicana Petroleum Co., supra, and pointed out that the peremptory instruction in the latter case was an oral charge, and that possibly it might be held that the legislative act would not be applied in said case, for that the same statute requires a charge to be in writing, and that counsel should be given reasonable opportunity to *442 examine the charge and preseht objections thereto. In the course of the opinion Chief Justice Conner said:

“The act is not only explicit, but it is also mandatory in its terms. Nor is it limited to any particular character of charge. A peremptory charge to end the controversy by a verdict on the merits in favor of one of the litigants sbems certainly within the broad terms of the statute, and in its essence is a concrete statement on the part of the court of the controlling law of the case.

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Related

Owens v. Corsicana Petroleum Co.
169 S.W. 192 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Feldman
170 S.W. 133 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Taliaferro v. Brady Nat. Bank
209 S.W. 174 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1919)
Stephenville, N. & S. T. Ry. Co. v. Wheat
173 S.W. 974 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)

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Bluebook (online)
209 S.W. 440, 1919 Tex. App. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcdonald-v-wilson-texapp-1919.