Prescott-Phœnix Oil & Gas Co. v. Gilliland Oil Co.

241 S.W. 775, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 937
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 5, 1922
DocketNo. 1940.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 241 S.W. 775 (Prescott-Phœnix Oil & Gas Co. v. Gilliland Oil Co.) 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
Prescott-Phœnix Oil & Gas Co. v. Gilliland Oil Co., 241 S.W. 775, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 937 (Tex. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

HUFF, C. J.

This is a suit by the Gilli-land Oil Company, a Delaware corporation, against the Prescott-Phoenix Oil & Gas Company, also a foreign corporation, for a rescission of a verbal contract, entered into between the parties on September 13, 1919, and to recover $16,000, and interest thereon, ¡laid by appellee to appellant, in pursuance to the terms of the contract. The petition alleged substantially that on September 13, 1919, appellant, through its general manager, Lloyd Sigler, represented to the agents of appellee that appellant had a contract with one H. L. Hagerman, for the delivery and erection of a 65,000 barrel steel storage tank, and that in pursuance of said contract the tank had already arrived and was on board railroad cars at Electra, Tex., ready for immediate erection; that the hills of lading for said tank had arrived and had been taken up by appellant and were in its possession at its general office in Prescott, Ariz.; that' the contract for the erection of the tank with I-Iagerman was also at its general office with bills of lading; that appellant would deliver the bills of lading for the tank and assign the erection contract that it had with Hagerman for the erection of the tank to appellee for the sum of $16,-000, appellee to pay to Hagerman the sum of $8,000 for the erection of the tank when such erection was completed; that the said Lloyd Sigler would immediately wire his principal, the appellant, at Prescott, Ariz., to forward the bills of lading, together with the erection contract, to appellee at Wichita Ealls, Tex.; that ■ appellee relying upon the statements and representations of Sigler, and believing them to he true, paid appellant the sum of $16,000; that the statements and representations of Sigler were false and untrue, in that the appellant nor Hagerman, the person through whom it represented it was purchasing the tank, did not have a 55,-000-barrel steel storage tank on board railroad cars at Electra, nor at any other point in the vicinity of Wichita Falls, Tex.; neither did it have the bills of lading for such tanks to be delivered at Electra, Tex., or at any other point in the vicinity of Wichita Falls; that appellant, about a week after the receipt of said $16,000 from appellee, mailed to appellee an erection contract that it had with Hagerman, hut without the bills *777 of lading for the tank that it represented it had. Appellee, upon discovery of the fraud that had been perpetrated upon it, offered to return the erection contract that had been forwarded to it through the mails, and demanded the return of the $16,000 paid defendant. The appellant answered by general denial and special defenses which will be noticed later. The case was submitted to the jury upon special issues. The issues answered by the jury were in favor of appel-lee, and such of them as shall be necessary will be noticed later. Upon these issues the court entered judgment in favor of the ap-pellee on his plea for rescission of the contract and the recovery of the amount sued for, with interest.

The Supreme Court has held that it is necessary for a foreign corporation to prove it had a permit to do business in Texas at the time the contract sued upon was made, in order that the court might enter judgment in its favor. Taber v. Interstate Building, etc., 91 Tex. 92, 40 S. W. 954. This proof, we take it, must be made in the trial of the case.

So long as the case stands open for the consideration of the court at the term at which the trial occurs, it cannot be considered concluded. A trial is incomplete until; all the issues of law as well as of fact have been determined and final judgment entered. Railway Co. v. Joachimi, 58 Tex. 454; Hill v. State, 41 Tex. 253.

The appellants’ first four propositions relate to the action of the trial court in permitting the appellee to introduce the certificate of the Secretary of State, showing the appellee had filed its articles of incorporation in that office, permitting it to do business in the state of Texas, as a foreign corporation. This testimony was offered after the case had been submitted to the jury and the jury had returned their answers, and upon motion of the respective parties before the court for judgment. The appellee is a foreign corporation, and it was alleged was doing business within the state of Texas, with authority from the state to transact such business. After the. conclusion of the testimony in the trial court the appellant, defendant below, presented to the court a motion, requesting the court to dismiss plaintiff’s cause oi action and proceed no further, on the ground that the evidence showed that the court was without jurisdiction to further hear the same, and on the 20th of December, 1920, after the return of the verdict of the jury, the appellant filed its motion, requesting that the court enter a judgment dismissing the cause. Until after the return of the verdict the appellant" did not specifically call the court’s attention to the fact that appellee had failed to introduce its certificate from the Secretary of State of its permit to do business in the state of Texas. The appellee, before the court entered judgment, requested the court for permission to then introduce into the record a certified copy from the Secretary of State of its permit to do business in the state of Texas. The court granted the permission. The bill of exception taken to this action recites that the trial began on December 17th, and was concluded December 18, 1920, and the jury trying the cause returned its verdict in response to special issues submitted December 18, 1920, and was discharged. On December 20, 1920, appellant filed with the clerk its motion for judgment as above set out, for the reason that the evidence failed to show that it had jurisdiction to render judgment, and on December 22, 1920, came on to be heard the respective motions of plaintiffs and defendant for judgment, at which time, on' December 20th, the appellee filed with the court its application in writing, asking the court to permit it at that time to introduce into the record of said cause a certified copy of plaintiff’s permit. It was objected to on the ground: (1) That the cause was tried before a jury and the jury discharged, -and appellant would not have an opportunity to con: test the evidence before the jury in the event it should so desire; (2) that it was improper and prejudiciál to the rights of appellant after discharging the jury; (3) that the court was powerless to render judgment iipon any evidence other than the evidence introduced in the record for and during the trial in the presence and hearing of the jury; (4) that appellant was not required to offer any evidence of a defensive nature to appellee’s cause, and until appellant, by legal and competent evidence, made a prima facie case, and that appellant, seeing ap-pellee had failed from the evidence to make such case, was not bound to offer any evidence in defense to appellee’s cause of action, and of which right it is now deprived.

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Bluebook (online)
241 S.W. 775, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 937, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/prescott-phnix-oil-gas-co-v-gilliland-oil-co-texapp-1922.