Scott v. Doggett

226 S.W.2d 183, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1887
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 15, 1949
DocketNo. 5996
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 226 S.W.2d 183 (Scott v. Doggett) 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
Scott v. Doggett, 226 S.W.2d 183, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1887 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

PITTS, Chief Justice.

On November 20, 1948, Berch Scott filed suit against C. H. Doggett and wife, Helen Doggett, for the sum of $1200 with interest and attorney fees added thereto, alleging that such sum was the balance due on a note executed on July 1, 1948, by Doggett and his wife, payable to Scott for the sum of $1800 with 7% interest thereon payable $200 per month, together with accrued interest thereon, for each consecutive month, beginning on August 1, 1948, and running through April 1, 1-949, with 10% interest added thereto if the note be placed in the hands of an attorney for collection. According to the record the note does not contain an acceleration clause, but Scott contends there was an oral agreement between the parties that included the provisions of the acceleration clause in case of a default in the payment. The number of that suit on the trial court’s docket is 16,320.

The record reveals that on the day the said suit was filed Scott also filed with the clerk of the trial court a proper bond and an affidavit for a writ of attachment, alleging the Doggetts had failed and refused to pay the installment of the note due on November 1, 1948, and declaring the entire balance due on the note. He further alleged that the Doggetts were about to dispose of their property with intent to defraud their creditors. A writ of attachment was issued and executed and the sheriff took possession of the most of a certain stock of groceries located in a store being [185]*185operated by the Doggetts at Shallowater in Lubbock County, Texas, and invoiced the said goods in his return duly made at values fixed by him that totaled $1257.50.

Thereafter C. H. Doggett filed suit against Berch Scott and his bondsmen for the writ of attachment, J. T. Scott and L. E. Baker, seeking damages by reason. of conversion and for the wrongful and malicious attachment of his stock of groceries under the writ of attachment sued out previously and thereby damaging the credit and the good will of the business operated by himself and his wife. The number of that suit on the trial court’s docket is 16,-342. Both suits having been filed in the same court, the trial court ordered them consolidated and tried them together on April 27, 1949. Before going to trial, all of the payments on the note having become due, C. H. Doggett and wife, Helen Dogg-ett, who will hereafter be referred to as ap-pellees, filed an admission of liability on the balance due on the note involved in this case and asked for the right to open and close in the trial of the case, which request was granted.

The case was tried to a jury which found upon special issues submitted to it that ap-pellees did not deny liability on the note in question when the same was presented to them on November 3, 1948, by appellants for payment; that appellant, Berch Scott, at the time he sued out the writ of attachment, had no probable cause to believe ap-pellees were about to dispose of their property for the purpose of defrauding their creditors; . that the reasonable wholesale cash market value of the stock of. groceries seized under the writ of attachment was $1500; that the reasonable market value of the good will of the grocery store operated by appellees immediately before the attachment was run was $1500 and that such was not worth anything immediately after the attachment was levied; that Berch Scott acted with malice in suing out the writ of attachment and causing the same to be levied upon appellees’ stock of groceries, for which malicious acts the jury found Berch Scott liable to appellees in the sum of $4000. Upon such verdict the trial court rendered judgment for appellees for actual damages in the sum of $1500 for conversion of the stock of. groceries, together with 6% interest thereon from the date of conversion to the date of judgment, which sum for interest amounted to $45, and an additional sum of $1500 as actual damages for destroying the good will of the said business, making a total sum of $3045 for actual damages, for which sum. appellant, Berch Scott, is primarily liable to appellees, and his bondsmen, L. E. Baker and J. T. Scott, are secondarily liable to the extent of $27-00, the amount of the attachment bond. The trial court further adjudged the sum of $4000 against appellant, Berch Scott, and in favor of appellees, as exemplary damages making a total of $7045 against which sum an offset of $1374.16 was adjudged favorable to Berch Scott and. against ap-pellees as principal, interest and attorney fees on the note in question, leaving the balance of the judgment $5670.84. Appellants, Berch Scott and his bondsmen, have perfected their appeal to this court and have executed a supersedeas bond in the sum of $7500.

Appellants complain in their first, second and third points that there were no pleadings and no evidence to support a judgment based upon the measure of damages found by the jury in answer to special issue number 2 and that the issue did not inquire about a legal measure of damages in a suit such as this. The three points are jointly presented. The trial court made the following inquiry in special issue number 2:

“From a preponderance of the evidence, what do you find was the reasonable wholesale cash market value of the stock of groceries seized under the writ of attachment on November 20, 1948?”

In connection with appellants’ charge that there were no pleadings to sup port the measure of damages inquired about in the foregoing special issue, we find from the record that appellees pleaded that appellant, Berch Scott, knowingly, falsely, maliciously and without probable cause, ran an attachment on their stock of groceries and converted the said stock of groceries to his own use at a time when appellees were solvent as. merchants, had a good business, [186]*186a good credit and a good reputation. They further pleaded that “the said stock of merchandise, consisting of all sorts of groceries, was of the market value of $2000.” According to the record appellants leveled no exceptions to such a pleading and made no complaint about it being insufficient either before or during the trial. They made no complaint about the submission of special issue number 2 to the jury and did not level any objections to the submission of such issue, or any other issue, until after the issues had been answered against them by the jury. When appellees offered evidence in support of the measure of damages inquired about in the said issue, no objection was made by appellants to the admissibility of such evidence on the grounds that there were no pleadings to support such an issue or that such pleadings were insufficient to support such an issue. The record does not justify appellants’ charge that “there is no pleading to support such measure of damage.” Appellees pleaded that the market value of the goods was $2000. If appellants considered the pleading insufficient, it was their duty, under the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, to complain about such either by a special exception leveled at the pleading or by an objection made in writing before the charge was read to the jury to the submission of such issue and pointing out distinctly to the trial court the grounds for such objection. Since appellants failed to do either and since they failed to complain about the insufficiency of the pleadings when evidence was offered in support of the said issue, they waived any right to make complaints about the matter and will not now be heard to say that such issue was not raised by the pleadings. Rules 67, 272 and 274; Christopherson v. Whittlesey, Tex.Civ.App., 197 S.W.2d 384; Traders & General Ins. Co. v.

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Bluebook (online)
226 S.W.2d 183, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1887, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-doggett-texapp-1949.