Rips v. Ungerman

137 S.W.2d 87
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 12, 1940
DocketNo. 14066.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 137 S.W.2d 87 (Rips v. Ungerman) 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
Rips v. Ungerman, 137 S.W.2d 87 (Tex. Ct. App. 1940).

Opinion

DUNKLIN, Chief Justice.

On June 3rd, 1939, this suit was instituted in the District Court of Cooke County, by William Ungerman, Louis G. Galamba and Rachael Ungerman, wife of William. Ungerman, against Sam Rips and wife, Celia Rips, A. S. Rips and wife, Isabelle Rips, Ed Rips, Will Rips, and Theo F. Weiss, in which it was alleged that plaintiffs, William Ungerman and Louis G. Ga-lamba, and the defendants, Sam Rips and A. S. Rips, were co-partners and joint adventurers in the development and operation of a certain oil and gas mining lease, covering 40 acres of land, located in Cooke County, Texas. Further, that in the course of operation of the lease, the partnership firm became indebted to various creditors, during the year 1938, in the sum of $7,000, and for which the defendants, Sam Rips and A. S. Rips, as members of the partnership, were liable. With further allegations, in substance, as follows: notwithstanding their partnership liability for the indebtedness above noted, defendants, Sam and A. S. Rips, executed to their respective wives a purported conveyance, of date September 9th, 1938, of their one-half interest in the 40-acre lease above mentioned, without any valuable consideration paid therefor; thereafter, on the 16th of February, 1939, Sam and A. S. Rips, joined by their respective wives, executed to the defendant, Theo F. Weiss, trustee, a purported deed of trust, *89 covering said 40-acre lease, purporting to secure the payment of a promissory note of the grantors, in the sum of $11,000, payable to the defendants, Ed Rips and Will Rips, which said deed of trust and promissory note were executed for the purpose of defrauding the creditors of said partnership and also their personal creditors. Ed Rips and Will Rips are threatening to foreclose the purported mortgage lien on the lease. If the said purported lien be valid (which plaintiffs deny), at all events it is inferior and subject to the rights of the plaintiffs, as members of the co-partnership firm, and as to the creditors of said partnership.

The conveyances so made by A. S. and Sam Rips to their respective wives operated in law to dissolve the co-partnership relation theretofore existing between them and plaintiffs. Immediately upon the ascertainment by plaintiffs of notice of such purported conveyances, plaintiffs demanded an accounting of the partnership affairs, to the end that the creditors of the partnership firm might be protected against the conveyances so made by Sam and A. S. Rips to their respective wives; which demand was refused by the defendants.

Following those allegations, plaintiffs sought a decree of court dissolving the partnership and for the appointment of a receiver to take control of, handle, manage and operate the partnership property, including the oil and gas mineral lease on the 40 acres, and oil and gas drilling equipment.

There were further allegations that any foreclosure sale of the one-half interest which Sam and A. S. Rips conveyed to their wives would tend to defeat the rights of the partnership creditors. It was further alleged that the property and assets of the partnership are not capable of partition and division in kind, and that a receiver should be appointed to sell the same, for the purpose of a final settlement and division between all the parties concerned.

The petition was duly verified by the plaintiffs, and on the same day the judge of the district court of Cooke County, upon an ex parte hearing, in the absence of any notice to the defendants, appointed J. D. Howeth, of Cooke County, receiver, with authority to take over all the assets of said partnership, as prayed for in the petition, with full authority to carry on and conduct the business of the partnership, receive rents, oil runs, collect compound funds, compromise demands and bring suits, and generally to manage the property and hold the proceeds arising from such operation, subject to the orders of this court. June 3rd, 1939, was the date of the appointment of the receiver.

The bond, in the sum of $5,000, required of the receiver, was duly executed, and the receiver so appointed qualified and took possession of the assets, in accordance with the order of his appointment.

On the 17th of June, 1939, the defendants, Ed Rips, Will Rips, Sam Rips and Theo F. Weiss, filed their pleas of privilege, denying their residence in Cooke County, where the suit was instituted, and claiming their residence in Bexar County, all in statutory form.

Subject to those pleas, on June 19th, 1939, all of the defendants filed pleas in abatement, based on allegations that before the commencement of this suit, there was on file and pending in the district court for the 45th Judicial District in and for Bexar County, in Cause No. B-94168, a suit involving the same cause of action, between the same parties, involving the same subject matters, and seeking the same relief,-as that involved in this suit, more particularly hereinafter shown.

On July 19th, 1939, subject to the foregoing pleas of privilege and abatement, all the defendants in the suit, except Weiss, the trustee, named in the deed of trust, filed their motion to vacate and set aside the order appointing the receiver, and dissolve the receivership proceeding. The grounds for that relief were, in substance, as follows: first, the appointment of the receiver was an ex parte proceeding, without notice or knowledge of the defendants; and that, too, in the absence of any emergency shown to exist, requiring such summary action; with further allegations that at the time the receiver was appointed, defendants were in exclusive possession, management and control of the property, and had been such for more than a year; and no foreclosure of any lien against any part of the property was then imminent. Second, because of the pendency of the suit in the district court of Bexar County, as alleged in the pleas of abatement, above noted.

On the hearing of that motion, plaintiffs introduced no evidence, but defendants introduced in evidence a certified transcript of the following pleadings and proceedings in the district court of Bexar County, to show lack of jurisdiction in the district court of Cooke County to determine the *90 merits of this suit and to place the property in controversy in the hands of a receiver:

1. Original petition of Ed Rips and Will Rips, residents of Bexar County, filed in the district court of Bexar County, March 21st, 1939, against William Ungerman, Rachael Ungerman, A. S. Rips and Isabelle Rips, residents of Tulsa,‘Oklahoma, Louis G. Galamba, resident of Kansas City, Missouri, Sam Rips and Celia Rips, residents of Dallas County, Texas, and against the partnership firm of Ungerman and Galam-ba, to recover amounts due on a $11,000 note, of date February 16th, 1939, executed by Sam Rips, Will Rips and their wives, Isabelle and Celia Rips, payable in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas, and for foreclosure of the deed of trust lien, of even date, executed by those defendants, on an undivided half partnership interest in the 40-acre tract of land in controversy, which were the same instruments alleged by plaintiffs in their suit in Cooke County. William and Rachael Ungérman, Louis G. Ga-lamba, and the partnership firm of Rips, Ungerman and Galamba, were made defendants because of their assertion of some character of interest in the lease, but which was inferior and subordinate to plaintiffs’ lien, with prayer for judgment so decreeing.

2.

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137 S.W.2d 87, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rips-v-ungerman-texapp-1940.