Quanah, A. & P. Ry. Co. v. Galloway

165 S.W. 546, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 127
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 14, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 165 S.W. 546 (Quanah, A. & P. Ry. Co. v. Galloway) 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
Quanah, A. & P. Ry. Co. v. Galloway, 165 S.W. 546, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 127 (Tex. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

HENDRICKS, J.

Extracted from appellant’s brief, this suit was brought by the appellee against the railway companies, as connecting carriers, for alleged injury to a shipment of Jersey cattle from Ft. Worth, Tex., to Paducah, Tex., on account of delay and rough handling by appellants, and claiming that some of the cattle died and some were badly injured as the result of the shipment.

The appellants, after general denial, pleaded the contributory negligence of the Shipper, inherent defect in the cattle, and a written contract between appellee and the Ft Worth & Denver City Railway Company, by the terms of which, amongst other things, it was alleged that neither of the defendants should be liable for any damages or injury not occurring on its line respectively. The cause was submitted to a jury, resulting in a verdict in favor of the appellee for $415, which was reduced by remittitur, and judgment entered for $370.

The suit against appellants was instituted by W. W. Galloway, whose original petition was filed August 5, 1910, followed by an amended original petition filed by him June 10, 1912. September 8, 1913, J. B. McCarley filed a plea of intervention in said cause, alleging that he was the owner of an undivided one-half interest in the cattle and the cause of action; also adopting the pleadings of the plaintiff, Galloway, and asserting that as to Galloway’s petition, “that each allegation therein is true, and that the same be considered as filed by this intervener.” The trial court, in submitting the cause to the jury and entering the judgment of the court, treated Galloway, the original plaintiff, and McCarley, the intervener, as plaintiffs with reference to the recovery of the cause of action.

[1] First. The defendants, appellants herein, by special exception, interposed the statute of limitation of two years; also answering specially that his cause of action was barred by the same statute. We infer that appellant’s position is that, as the record discloses “that McCarley owned a half interest (in the cattle) from the inception of the transaction,' * * * consequently was entitled to one-half of any recovery, and hence was a necessary party to the suit,” and having substituted «himself as party plaintiff, as to a part of the cause of action, and two years having elapsed before the amendment, the statute applies. The case of East Line & Red River Railroad Co. v. Culberson, 72 Tex. 375, 10 S. W. 706, 3 L. R. A. 567, 13 Am. St. Rep. 805, cited as authority for the position, sustains an apparent, but not a real, analogy to this case. The *548 above ease indicates tit at, on an appeal to the Supreme Court, it was reversed, because the mother of the deceased, a beneficiary under the statute, had not been made a party, in some capacity, to the suit. Subsequently the petition was amended so as to bring the suit for the benefit of the mother, as well as for the benefit of the wife and children, of the deceased. An exception was interposed to the amended petition, which was filed more than 12 months after the death of the deceased, upon the ground that the cause of action was barred by the statute of limitations (12 months then being the period of limitation). The Supreme Court held, as to the original plaintiffs, the wife and children, the exception was not well taken, but should, .however, have been sustained as to the mother of the deceased; for “the action” originally “was neither brought by her, nor for her benefit,” and “the suit in behalf of the beneficiaries did not affect the running of ■the statute against her.” In reading the case of Railway Co. v. Mertink, 101 Tex. 165, 105 S. W. 485, by Justice Brown, we can more clearly discern the reasoff of the ruling in the Culberson Case, supra, the Supreme Court announcing in the latter case, “The statute gives the right of action to all of the parties to recover one sum” and, “under the statute, there can be but one action,” and holding that where five parties were entitled to sue, and two alone brought suit for themselves, and recovered the damages without any notice being taken of the other three, that the error goes to the very foundation of the action, and, until the other three are joined in some manner in the suit, there can be no recovery; the suit not having been •originally brought for the benefit of the other three.

Hence the question is, assuming that Mc-Carley was injected into this suit as a new party plaintiff, and not merely for the purpose of protecting his beneficial interest: Is there such an amendment to the original cause of action originally brought by Galloway as to constitute his position in the suit a party plaintiff setting up a new cause of action? Galloway was the consignor and consignee of the property shipped, and the contract of shipment was made with him alone, and the intervention shows that Mc-Carley, if not strictly a partner, was at least a joint owner of the property. As an original proposition, under the authorities of the appellate courts of this state, Galloway, of course, could maintain the suit individually, and the appellants would be liable to him for all damages — different from the Culberson Case. Missouri Pacific Ry. Co. v. Smith, 84 Tex. 348, 19 S. W. 509; Southern Kansas Ry. Co. v. Morris, 100 Tex. 611, 102 S. W. 396, 123 Am. St. Rep. 834; Cleveland v. Heidenheimer, 92 Tex. 108, 46 S. W. 30. “The plaintiff has a right to sue alone, although the horses may have been the partnership property of himself and another.” Ry. v. Smith, supra. McCarley, without his intervention, would have been the beneficiary of any recovery had by Galloway against the railway company, and was not a necessary party to the suit in order to dispose of the cause of action, different from the Culber-son and Mertink Cases, supra, and this difference in the status of the two cases, we think, invokes the application of a different rule. The Supreme Court illustrates this difference in the ease of Roberson v. Mcll-henny-Hutehins Co., 59 Tex. 615, quoting the syllabi, as properly reflecting the gist of the case: “When, in an action by a partnership, the name of one of the members is omitted from the petition as a party plaintiff, he may be made a party plaintiff by amendment, without the necessity of further service on the defendant; the cause of action remaining the same.” “Limitation would not in such case run against the cause of action up to the date of such amendment.” Also see Me-Ilhenny v. Lee, 43 Tex. 205; Garrett v. Muller, 37 Tex. 589; Trevino v. Stillman, 48 Tex. 565. “Unless otherwise provided by statute, a copartnership is not considered a person, and must sue and be sued by its members.” Frank v. Tatum, 87 Tex. 206, 25 S. W. 409. While, under the Tatúm Case, a partner may be a necessary party in bringing a suit, however, under the Supreme Court decisions, an amendment making him one does not make a new cause of action. We think the analogy much closer between the character of cases cited by us, holding that the injection of a partner as a new party plaintiff is not the assertion of a new cause of action, than the line of cases indicated by appellants. In order to permit a bar by the statute of limitations to the cause of action, the amendment must set up a new cause, which we think did not occur in this case.

[2] Second. The appellants complain that the court erred in refusing their special charge No. 4, Which is as follows: “If you shall find from the evidence that at the time the cattle were delivered to defendant Ft.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Jung Fu Chien v. Chen
759 S.W.2d 484 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)
Torres v. Brazos Valley Buick Co.
30 S.W.2d 375 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)
Eckel v. Camden Fire Ins. Ass'n.
5 S.W.2d 849 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1928)
Rabinowitz v. Smith Co.
190 S.W. 197 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1916)
International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Frank
177 S.W. 168 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1915)
Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. King
174 S.W. 960 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1915)
International & G. N. Ry. Co. v. Bartek
175 S.W. 1106 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1915)
Staples v. State
175 S.W. 1056 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 1915)
Needham v. Cooney
173 S.W. 979 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1915)
Anderson & Day v. Darsey
171 S.W. 1089 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Darden v. Southern Traction Co.
172 S.W. 200 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Floegge v. Meyer
172 S.W. 194 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Stephenville, N. & S. T. Ry. Co. v. Wheat
173 S.W. 974 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Conn v. Houston Oil Co. of Texas
171 S.W. 520 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Moody
169 S.W. 1057 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Beaird
169 S.W. 1050 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Crow v. Childress
169 S.W. 927 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
National Novelty Import Co. v. Griffin & Griffin
168 S.W. 85 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Missouri, O. & G. Ry. Co. of Texas v. Love
169 S.W. 922 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)
Texas & P. Ry. Co. v. Brown
168 S.W. 866 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1914)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 S.W. 546, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/quanah-a-p-ry-co-v-galloway-texapp-1914.