Pacific Finance Corp. v. Donald

286 S.W.2d 260, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2340
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 22, 1955
DocketNo. 5065
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 286 S.W.2d 260 (Pacific Finance Corp. v. Donald) 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
Pacific Finance Corp. v. Donald, 286 S.W.2d 260, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2340 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinions

WALKER, Justice.

Appeal from an order granting plaintiffs’ application for a temporary injunction restraining sale of land under executions issued or to be issued under two judgments of the 80th district court of Harris County.

Plaintiffs are the appellees. They sued Andrew H. Barnacastle and wife and a number of other defendants, including the appellant, Pacific Finance Corporation, in the 60th district court of Jefferson County to foreclose a judgment lien on three lots and a part of another lot in the city of Beaumont, to-wit, Lots 269, 270, 271 and the east 10 feet of Lot 272, all in Block 46 of the old town of Beaumont. In substance, plaintiffs alleged that the lots mentioned were the property of said defendant Barnacastle; that they had a lien thereon by virtue of having abstracted a judgment for money in their favor against defendant Barnacastle; and that said lien was the first and prior, lien attaching to the lots. Plaintiffs alleged that the defendants other than Mr. and Mrs. Barnacastle were asserting some interest in the property.

The transcript contains no pleading replying to this petition.

Some months after the suit was filed Pacific procured an order of sale from the District Clerk of Harris County which directed sale of a part of said lots, or if necessary all of them, and application of the proceeds of sale on the two judgments of the 80th District Court of Harris County mentioned above, and plaintiffs applied for relief by injunction to restrain sale of the lots under the order of sale and, as we construe the pleading, under said judgments. A restraining order was granted ex parte, and after a hearing the trial court granted the temporary injunction appealed from. From this order Pacific took this appeal. Another party defendant to the injunction proceedings, the United States, did not appeal.

The trial court filed findings of fact, but the evidence at the hearing consisted only of documents and records and statements to the trial court by counsel, and no issue of fact was made or exists. We will, therefore, make our statement from the evidence.

The following deeds are in evidence: (a) one dated May 31, 1945, and filed for record on June 5, 1945, from W. L. Pondrom, trustee and independent executor, to A. H. Barnacastle and wife, Christine Barna-castle, conveying lot 271 and the east 10 feet of lot 272. A vendor’s lien was re[262]*262served, (b) No conveyance of lots 269 and 270 to Mr. or Mrs. Barnacastle is in evidence. However, a deed was proved dated May 5, 1949, and filed for record on May 10, 1949, from Barnacastle and wife to Mrs. Annie Howard, conveying all of the lots now in suit, that is, Nos. 269, 270, 271 and the east 10 feet of No. 272. It contains a general warranty, and recites a consideration to grantors which is the cancellation of indebtedness and an assumption of a $2,800 debt, (c) By general warranty deed bearing the same date and filed for record on the same date as the last, Mrs. Howard conveyed all of this property to Barney’s, Inc. The consideration given Mrs. Howard was described as 321 shares of stock in the grantee concern.

Pacific has recovered two judgments for money against defendant Barnacastle which also award Pacific relief against other defendants, the defendants in each suit being the same. These are the judgments of the 80th District Court of Harris County which we have mentioned. Both were rendered on the same day, September 22, 1953, one in suit 374,187 and the other in suit 393,792. The evidence does not show when these suits were filed.

In 374,187, which we will call the first suit, Pacific was awarded $14,257.30, and in 393,792, which we will call the second suit, was awarded $33,136.89. The United States intervened in each suit and in the first suit was awarded recoveries of large sums of money against both Barnacastle and his wife, but was denied a recovery against these people in the second suit on the ground that full relief had been awarded it in the first suit.

The judgment in the first suit also set aside as to Pacific and intervener, the United States, three deeds conveying- the lots involved in this suit; and the judgment in the second suit also set aside these deeds as to Pacific. Barney’s, Inc., in which the title conveyed by these deeds ended, was a defendant to each of Pacific’s suits. Two of the deeds thus set aside are in evidence and are Nos. (b) and (c) of those mentioned above. It affirmatively appears from the judgment in the first suit that the title of Barney’s, Inc. was not divested and restored either to this concern’s immediate grantor, Mrs. Howard, nor to Mr. or Mrs. Barnacastle, for it was provided in said judgment that the ultimate excess of the proceeds of the sale of said lots made under order of sale were to be paid to Barney’s, Inc. This is in accordance with a notice of lis pendens filed, pertaining to the first suit but not to the second, which describes that suit as one against Barnacastle for debt and the deeds as being fraudulent.

This lis pendens was filed in the County Clerk’s office on December 14, 1949, and was recorded the same day.

An attachment was also issued in this first suit, and on December 14, 1949, and it was levied on the lots on the next day, December 15, 1949, and on the same day was filed and recorded in the County Clerk’s office.

The judgment in the first suit foreclosed Pacific’s attachment lien on the lots and provided for the issuance of an order of sale and directed how the application of the proceeds of sale should be applied, and in so doing this judgment went outside of and beyond the first suit and made the order of sale applicable to the judgment in the second suit as well, about as if the two suits and the two judgments were really one proceeding. Briefly, the money awarded Pacific in the first suit was first to be paid from these proceeds and the balance of proceeds of sale was to be divided, a part going to Pacific to be applied on the judgment in the second suit and the rest going to the United States to be applied on its recovery in the first suit. Anything left was to go to Barney’s, Inc., to whom, as we stated, title to the lots had been conveyed. Lot 271 and the east ten feet of lot 272 was first to be sold, and if this proved insufficient to pay the two judgments, then the balance of the lots was to be sold.

The United States took an appeal from these judgments, but the appeal was dismissed and the judgment became final.

[263]*263For plaintiffs’ right, plaintiffs proved an abstract of a judgment in their favor against Bamacastle for $4,500. This judgment was dated January 4, 1950 (after the filing and recording of lis pendens, attachment and levy mentioned above) but the sum awarded was to bear interest from January 1, 1949, thus suggesting that the demand was one for damages and indicating that this demand, whatever it was, existed on the latter date. The only parties to the suit were plaintiffs and Bamacastle.

An abstract of plaintiffs’ judgment was filed on the day when the judgment was rendered, January 4, 1950, and on that day other requirements were complied with so as to make this judgment a lien against land owned by said Bamacastle.

Plaintiffs were not formal parties to either of Pacific’s suits.

Plaintiffs also proved abstracts of judgments rendered against defendant Barna-castle and assessments against Bamacastle and wife by the United States.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
286 S.W.2d 260, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2340, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pacific-finance-corp-v-donald-texapp-1955.