Miller-Link Lumber Co. v. Stephenson

265 S.W. 215, 1924 Tex. App. LEXIS 995
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 19, 1924
DocketNo. 1067. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 265 S.W. 215 (Miller-Link Lumber Co. v. Stephenson) 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
Miller-Link Lumber Co. v. Stephenson, 265 S.W. 215, 1924 Tex. App. LEXIS 995 (Tex. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

O’QUINN, J.

This suit involves the title to the merchantable pine timber on a certain tract of 160 acres of land situated in Newton county, Tex., patented to R. M. Stephenson by the state of Texas March 27, 1889. The original suit was filed by the Miller-Link Lumber Company, as plaintiff, against R. M. Stephenson and O. H. Stephenson, as defendants, on July 24, 1919, in the district court of Newton county, Tex., being docketed as No. 1646, entitled Miller-Link Lumber Company v. R. M. Stephenson et al. Plaintiff’s original petition alleged ownership of the pine timber on the land mentioned, with the right to cut and remove same at any time within 10 years from October 9, 1919; that defendants were threatening with force and arms to prevent plaintiff from going on the said land and cutting and removing said timber, and prayed for a restraining order, and upon a' final hearing for a permanent injunction enjoining the defendants- from interfering with the exercise of its rights.

July 10, 1919, W. T. Davis, judge, fn chambers, ordered the issuance of a temporary restraining order against the defendants, and made same returnable to the next regular term of the district court for Newton county. Subsequently on September 1, 1919, on a regular hearing, the restraining order was made permanent, and all costs of suit taxed against defendants. The judgment of the court making the restraining order permanent recites the issuance of the temporary restraining order, the appearance of the plaintiff, the default of the defendants, though duly cited to appear and answer, describes the timber in controversy, and then decrees and adjudges as follows:

“It is ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that the temporary restraining order heretofore issued by the court be and the same is hereby perpetuated and in all things made final, and defendants, O. H. Stephenson and R. M. Stephenson, are hereby forever enjoined and prohibited from interfering with or obstructing plaintiff, Miller-Link Lumber Com *217 pany, from entering upon and cutting and removing the timber from the hereinbefore described land, and all costs of this suit are adjudged against the defendants, for which let execution issue,”

—which said judgment was duly entered of record in the minutes of the district court of Newton county, Tex. On the date of the final order and judgment, September 1, 1919, neither of the defendants had filed any answer. Between the time of the restraining order and October 9, 1919, the Miller-Link Lumber Company cut and removed the pine timber on the 160 acres of land.

On March 12, 1920, R. M. Stephenson and his wife, Adelaide’ Stephenson, claiming to own the timber that was cut, answered originally for the first time in said cause No. 1646, and February 24, 1920, O. H. Stephenson, claiming to own the land at the time the timber was cut, answered originally for the first time in said cause. On August 31, 1920, there was entered on the docket of the judge of the district court of Newton county, Tex., the following notation:

“8/31/20. Transferred to 58th judicial district court in and for Jefferson Company, Texas, Miller-Link Lumber Company v. R. M. Stephenson et al. No. 1646.”

The temporary restraining order, final decree, and docket entry of the transfer, constitute all the decrees or orders rendered by the district court of Newton county, Tex., or the judge thereof, in said cause No. 1646.

On August 31, 1920, attorneys for plaintiff, Miller-Link Lumber Company, and attorneys for defendants, R. M. Stephenson, Adelaide Stephenson, and O. H. Stephenson, entered into a written agreement at Newton, Tex., as to the transfer of said cause No. 1646, the material parts of which read as follows:

“In this cause, it is agreed between the parties, all present and represented by attorneys, that the cause be transferred to the 58th judicial district court of Jefferson county for trial, and that an order to that effect be entered on the docket of this court, which has been done. * * * It is agreed that plaintiff’s cause of action, being for injunction, is not contested, and that the injunction and relief prayed for in plaintiff’s suit be granted by the trial court, and that .this case be tried upon the cross-action as filed by the defendants; and as to such cross-action the burden is upon the defendants,. they assuming the attitude of -plaintiffs and introducing their witnesses first.”

Subsequently, on September 28, 1920, the original petition of the Miller-Link Lumber Company, with the restraining order indorsed thereon, the original answer of R. M. and Adelaide Stephenson and of O. H. Stephenson, the supplemental petition of -the Miller-link Lumber Company, replying to said answers of the defendants, and the order of transfer, were transferred to the district court of Jefferson county, Tex., and docketed as cause No. 16990. Pending the suit, R. M. Stephenson died, and his heirs were made parties and appeared as plaintiffs in their first amended original answer and cross-action, filed in the district court of Jefferson county, Tex., September 14, 1922.

After the institution of the suit and its transfer to Jefferson county, plaintiff, Miller-Link Lumber Company, was thrown into a federal receivership, and George W. Brown and J. O. Sims were appointed receivers. By consent of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tex., at Beaumont, said receivers were made parties, and appeared and filed their first supplemental petition, in reply to defendants’ first amended original answer and cross-action, May 17, 1923. The case was tried before the court without a jury, and judgment rendered in favor of appellee O. H. Stephenson for $1,000 as damages for injuries to his premises, and in favor of the other appellees (the wife and heirs of R. M. Stephenson) for $7,033.06, the value of the timber cut by appellant and claimed by said appellees.

This suit involves two controversies, one between the Miller-Link Lumber Company and R. M. Stephenson and Adelaide Stephenson, as to the ownership of the timber cut and removed by the Miller-Link Lumber Company, and the Other between the Miller-Link Lumber Company and O. H. Stephenson, the owner of the land on which the timber was cut, as to damages done the land and improvements thereon by the alleged negligence of the Miller-Link Lumber Company in carrying on its logging operations in the removal of said timber.

We will first discuss the contest between R. M. Stephenson and Adelaide Stephenson and the Miller-Link Lumber Company. The trial pleadings consisted of the first amended original answer and cross-action of Adelaide Stephenson and the heirs of R. M. Stephenson, deceased, filed in the district court of Jefferson county on September 14, 1922, in which they alleged they were the owners of the merchantable pine timber standing and growing upon the R. M. Stephenson 160-acre survey in Newton county, Tex., and that the Miller-Link Lumber Company unlawfully cut and removed 1,662,463 feet of said timber during the months of July, August, September, and October, 1919, and asked judgment in the sum of $16,624.63 as the reasonable stumpage value of same. Brown and Sims, receivers of the Miller-Link Lumber Company, appellants, in their first amended supplemental petition replied to said answer and cross-action.

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Bluebook (online)
265 S.W. 215, 1924 Tex. App. LEXIS 995, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-link-lumber-co-v-stephenson-texapp-1924.