National Novelty Import Co. v. Griffin & Griffin

168 S.W. 85, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1120
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 13, 1914
DocketNo. 7179.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 168 S.W. 85 (National Novelty Import Co. v. Griffin & Griffin) 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
National Novelty Import Co. v. Griffin & Griffin, 168 S.W. 85, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1120 (Tex. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

TALBOT, J.

Appellant filed its suit in the county court of Kaufman county, Tex., against appellee, and alleged that, under the terms of a contract entered into between appellant, under its firm or corporate name of Blackstad Mercantile Company, and appel-lee, it had sold and delivered- to appellee certain goods, wares, and merchandise, consisting of jewelry, of the aggregate value of $294; that appellee promised and agreed to pay appellant said sum for said merchandise within 12 months from April 2, 1912; that said sum was past due and unpaid, and appellant prayed judgment therefor. Appellee filed general demurrer, general denial, and pleaded specially that one Hancock, as agent of appellant, had made a written contract with appellee to ship the goods described in appellant’s petition, for which appellee was to execute acceptances or drafts; that as a part of the said contract, and attached thereto, H. H. Hancock, as agent and for the said Blackstad Mercantile Company, contracted and agreed in writing that for and in consideration of appellee’s signing the said contract for the purchase of the goods, and before any payment should be made, and before any acceptance should be signed, appellant would execute and deliver a bond of indemnity, conditioned that the jewelry mentioned in said contract would be in fineness as therein described, and that appellant would faithfully discharge the terms and conditions of said contract; that said provision was written on said contract and attached thereto, and, if same was not now at-i tached, the contract sued on was a forgery by alteration, and that a fraud had been perpetrated on appellee. Appellee pleaded that said bond had never been given nor delivered ; that they never had received any jewelry from appellant; and that the act of appellant in shipping the jewelry, without first giving said bond, was a fraud on appellant. Appellant filed a demurrer to appellee’s answer, and entered a general denial to the other allegations. The case was tried by a jury and verdict rendered for appellee, on which judgment was rendered Appellant filed a motion for a new trial, which was overruled by the court,, to which action of the court appellant in open court excepted and gave notice of appeal.

The first assignment of error is as follows:

“The court erred in failing to give plaintiffs special charge herein, to wit; ‘Gentlemen of the Jury: You are instructed in this case that the plaintiff having proven its case by legal and competent testimony, and the defendants have failed to offer any legal defense thereto, as required by law, you are therefore requested to find a judgment for the plaintiff in the sum of 1294 and interest on same from January 1, 1913, at 6 per cent, per annum.’ ”

[1] The ruling of the court in refusing this charge cannot be reviewed by this court. No exception appears to have been taken to the court’s action, and under the provision of chapter 59, Acts 33d Legislature, the failure of the court to give the requested charge must be considered as waived. Article 2061 of the act referred to provides:

“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.”

That the refusal to give a special charge cannot be made available on appeal, since the passage of said act, unless such refusal is excepted to in the trial court and the point preserved by bill of exception shown in the record on appeal, is affirmed by the following cases. Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Rhoderick, 164 S. W. 1067; Railway Co. v. Galloway, 165 S. W. 546; Saunders v. Thut, 165 S. W. 553; Roberds v. Laney, 165 S. W. 114; Railway Co. v. Crutchfield, 165 S. W. 551; Railway Co. v. Love, 169 S. W. - (decided by this court, but not yet officially reported).

The second assignment of error charges that the court erred in' permitting - Griffin, one of the defendants, to testify in this case, over the objection of plaintiff, after he had acknowledged to have signed the contract introduced herein as-follows:

“That at the time said contract was executed by him, one H. H. Hancock called at his place of .business in Elmo, Tex., and claimed to be a representative of the plaintiff, and promised, verbally, that if the defendant would make the contract, that he did in this case, the plaintiff would furnish a good and sufficient bond that the said plaintiff would carry out the terms of said contract. And that the said H. H. Hancock wrote on a piece of yellow paper attached to said contract something like this: ‘Plaintiff will make bond and send it to *87 the Citizens’ Bank at Elmo to be inspected by tbe defendant or bis attorney.’ ”

Tbe proposition under tbis assignment is:

“The contract being in writing and limiting the agent’s authority to changes written in tbe contract, evidence of verbal statements of the agent, or of written memorandum on a separate sheet of paper attached to tbe contract, which verbal statements or written memorandum would materially change the terms of the contract, was not admissible.”

There is a provision in the contract executed by the parties for the sale and purchase of the goods for which plaintiff seeks to recover, as follows:

“We agree that no statement made by ourselves or the salesman will be a part of this agreement, unless written in the original order received and accepted by you which we have read and found satisfactory, and we understand the authority of your salesman is limited to taking orders for you, on your regular order forms.”

And appellant’s proposition, above stated, is predicated and sought to be sustained in this ease upon that provision of the contract. The defendants alleged in their answer under oath:

“That, as a part and condition attached to the said contract on the regular order forms of the Blackstad Mercantile Company, the said H. H. Hancock, as agent and for the said Blackstad Mercantile Company, contracted and agreed that for and in consideration of these defendants signing the said contract for the said jewelry, and before any payment should be made, and before any acceptance should be signed, the said Blackstad Mercantile Company would execute and deliver a good and sufficient bond of indemnity, the condition of which would be that the jewelry as set out in said order and contract would be in fineness as therein described, and that the said Blackstad Mercantile Company would faithfully discharge any of the terms and conditions of the said contract. That said provision or condition that the said plaintiff would execute and deliver a bond was written on said contract, and attached thereto, and, if same is not now attached to same, the contract sued upon is a forgery by alteration, and a fraud perpetrated upon this defendant, and done for the purpose of deceiving and defrauding these defendants and to get them to sign said contract.”

They further alleged that the bond of indemnity was never given, and that plaintiffs, though often requested, declined and refused to execute the same. Under these allegations, one of the defendants, C. F. Griffin, was alleged to testify that:

“On April 2, 1912, one H. H.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
168 S.W. 85, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-novelty-import-co-v-griffin-griffin-texapp-1914.