Palmo v. S. W. Slayden & Co.

92 S.W. 796, 100 Tex. 13, 1906 Tex. LEXIS 160
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedMay 2, 1906
DocketNo. 1548.
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 92 S.W. 796 (Palmo v. S. W. Slayden & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Palmo v. S. W. Slayden & Co., 92 S.W. 796, 100 Tex. 13, 1906 Tex. LEXIS 160 (Tex. 1906).

Opinion

BROWN, Associate Justice.

The following statement is sufficient for the solution of the questions presented upon this application:

Mi Palmo sued Slayden & Company upon a contract for the sale of certain lands, and, upon a trial before a jury, obtained a verdict for the sum of $9,508.35, and the judge of the trial court entered upon his *14 docket the following: “11-13-03. Yerdict for plaintiff for $9,508.35.” The judge did not make any memorandum upon his docket, or otherwise, of. the judgment pronounced by him upon the verdict. The attorneys for the plaintiff in the case made a draft of a judgment and delivered it to the clerk of the court at the time that the verdict was delivered, or soon thereafter, which, however, was never entered upon the minutes of the court. A motion for a new trial was filed at that term; no statement of the facts was prepared, neither was there any order made by the judge allowing any time after adjournment of the court for the making and filing of a statement of facts and bills of exception. The term of court expired on the 19th day of December, 1903. No action was taken in the court with reference to the case until the October term, 1904, when, on the 24th day of October, 1904, Mi Palmo filed a motion in the District Court that the court should enter nunc pro tunc the judgment upon the verdict which was pronounced at the time that it was rendered. This motion was resisted by the defendants but was granted by the court and the judgment was entered in favor of Mi Palmo v. Slayden & Company for the amount of the verdict with interest; to which Slayden & Company excepted and filed a motion for a new trial and in arrest of judgment, which were overruled, whereupon Slayden & Company gave notice of appeal which was perfected in due time. Slayden & Company then prepared a bill of exceptions to the action of the court in entering the judgment nunc pro tune in which was embodied a statement of the facts, approved at the trial in November, 1903, which was approved by the trial court. The defendants below also filed bills of exception which were reserved at the trial in 1903 but which were not approved until the entry of the judgment nunc pro tunc in 1904. Slayden & Company carried the case to the Court of Civil Appeals, whereupon Palmo made a motion in that court to strike out the statement of facts and bills of exception which had been filed after the entry of the judgment nunc pro tunc, which motion was overruled. The Court of Civil Appeals considered the statement of facts and reversed the judgment of the District ■ Court upon a question which it could not have considered without the statement of facts produced on the trial.

The plaintiff in error presents to this court the proposition that the law does not authorize the making of a statement of facts in this case after the adjournment of the term at which the case was tried and for that reason the Court of Civil Appeals erred in not striking out the statement of facts and in reversing the judgment upon the question on which its reversal depends. The defendants in errSr present to this. court the proposition that the District Court had no power to enter the judgment nunc pro tunc in this ease, because there was no memorandum or writing in the records of the District Court of the previous term indicating that the judge of that court had actually pronounced a judgment upon the verdict.

The application for writ of error was granted because of the conflict between the decision of the Court of Civil Appeals in this case and the opinion of the Supreme Court in the case of Teas v. McDonald, 13 Texas, 349. ■ In the case cited the district judge heard the evidence at *15 one term of the court and, by consent of the attorneys, took the case under advisement until a subsequent term, more than a year from the time of the hearing, and, at the latter term, entered judgment upon the testimony formerly introduced, and then made a statement of the facts to which he certified to the effect, that the statement contained “all the evidence adduced on the trial as well as I recollect it after the lapse of so long a period of time.” In passing upon the statement of facts, the Supreme Court said: ■ “It is well settled that in the absence of a statement of all the facts, this court can not revise the rulings of the court below in giving or refusing instructions. It is evident that the statement in the record can not be received as an authentic statement of the facts, for two reasons. It was not made out and certified to by the judge until a year after the trial, and the certificate does not purport that it certainly contains all the evidence adduced in the case, but only that it is all that the judge can recollect, ‘after the lapse of so long a period of time.” It is apparent that the learned judge who wrote that opinion did not give to the matter that mature consideration that characterizes his opinions, and we are constrained to believe that the defect in the certificate was the controlling fact in producing the conclusion of the court. We do not consider the case as authoritative upon the question now presented for our decision.

Plaintiff in error contends that the trial court had no authority after the adjournment of the term at which the trial was had, to make up a statement of facts proved at the hearing. Article 1379, Eevised Statutes, contains this provision: “After the trial of any cause, either party may make out a written statement of the facts given in evidence on the trial, and submit the same to the opposite party, or his attorney, for inspection,” etc. It is also provided by an Act of the Twenty-eighth Legislature that, “by an order entered during'the term, the court may authorize a statement of the facts to be made up in vacation, within twenty days after the adjournment of the term.” (Laws 28th Leg., 32.) It is true that without such order, no statement of facts can be made after an adjournment of the term of the court at which the trial is concluded; but the phrase, “after the trial,” denoting the time when the statement may be made, is broad enough to embrace the entry of the judgment nunc pro tunc as a part of the trial, justifying the court in making and certifying to the statement of facts after judgment was actually entered. (Hill v. The State, 41 Texas, 255; Sabine & E. T. Ry. Co. v. Joachimi, 58 Texas, 454; Jenks v. The State, 39 Ind., 1.)

Article 1490 of Paschal’s Digest contains this provision: “After the trial of any cause, when the party has given notice of appeal, or intends to give notice of appeal, it shall be the duty of the parties respectively to make out a clear and explicit statement, or bill of the facts given in evidence on the trial of the cause, and to submit the same to the opposite party, or his attorney, for inspection during the term,” etc. In Hill v. The State, above cited, that provision of the statute was construed and was held to authorize the trial court, upon entering a judgment at a subsequent term, to make up and certify a statement of the facts in the case. J-udge Gould delivering the opinion of the court said: “The statute directs the statement of the facts to be made out and *16 signed ‘during the term at which the trial was had/ but -it also contemplates that judgment be rendered at that term. The trial may well be held incomplete until all the issues of law as well as of fact have been determined and the final judgment entered. Until this is done no appeal can be prosecuted.”

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Bluebook (online)
92 S.W. 796, 100 Tex. 13, 1906 Tex. LEXIS 160, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/palmo-v-s-w-slayden-co-tex-1906.