Scott v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

256 S.W.2d 860, 1953 Tex. App. LEXIS 2285
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 5, 1953
DocketNo. 6265
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 256 S.W.2d 860 (Scott v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty 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
Scott v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 256 S.W.2d 860, 1953 Tex. App. LEXIS 2285 (Tex. Ct. App. 1953).

Opinion

PITTS, Chief Justice.

This is a venue action growing out of a suit originally filed on December 18, 1951, by appellants, Johnny Fay Beavers Scott, a feme sole, and Irene Beavers Wolfe, a feme sole, in two separate counts, the first of which was a tort action for an alleged conversion against Ollie Beavers Davis, joined by her husband G. C. Davis, and the second count being an action against the same named defendants, together with the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, for the alleged breach of a contractual obligation as principal and surety on a guardian’s bond. Appellants alleged that during their minority, when their names were Johnny Fay Beavers and Irene Beavers, they came into possession of an estate by inheritance consisting of cash in the sum of $4,450 and Mrs. Ollie Beavers Davis, whose name was then Mrs. Ollie Beavers, was on March 23, 1951, duly and legally appointed guardian of their estate in the Probate Court of Smith County, Texas, with the United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company as surety on her guardian’s bond in the sum of $9,000 with.the usual lawful conditions therein expressed. Mrs. Davis will be hereafter referred to as the guardian and the bonding company will be hereafter referred to as the surety. Appellants further alleged that the guardianship had never been closed but was still pending in the Probate Court of Smith County, Texas, while the said minors had then become of full age; that the guardian as such had converted to her own use and benefit the sum of $4,400 of the said estate belonging to appellants, which sum they sought as against the guardian individually in the first count of their pleadings; that the guardian, while the said bond was still in full force and effect, had breached her duty as such guardian by converting, dissipating or misappropriating funds in the sum of $4,400 belonging to appellants, for which reasons both the guardian and her surety were liable jointly and severally.

On January 17, 1952, the guardian, joined by her husband, answered appellants’ petition on the merits of the case only by filing a general denial while on the same day the same counsel who answered for the guardián likewise answered for the surety by filing a plea of privilege, seeking to have the original suit as against the surety transferred to a proper court in Smith County, Texas, where the guardian’s bond had been filed, which County it alleged has exclusive venue under the terms and provisions of Article 7.07, New Insurance [862]*862■Code, V.A.T.S. Insurance Code, art. 7.07, formerly Article 4975, R.C.S. Appellants seasonably filed and presented their controverting plea seeking to maintain venue a9 against the surety in Dallas County under -the provisions of Article 1995 since the guardian and her husband resided in Dallas County, Texas, and the surety had an office and an agent in Dallas County, Texas, where is was then engaged in business in the said County. On February 21, 1952, the issue of venue was heard by the trial court without a jury and it found that the plea of privilege should be sustained. The plea of privilege of the surety was sustained by order of the court, which ordered the entire case transferred to the Seventh District Court of Smith County, Texas, from which order appellants perfected their appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals at Dallas, Texas, and the same was transferred to this court by the Supreme Court in equalizing the dockets of the Courts of Civil Appeals.

However, prior to perfecting their appeal and on February 28, 1952, appellants filed a motion seeking to have the trial court set aside its judgment and urging that Dallas County had venue as against all parties but in the alternative that the cause of action was severable as against the guardian and the surety and the same should not ■be transferred in any event as against the .guardian, who answered on the merits of ■the case, did not file a plea of privilege ■and was not a party to the hearing on the plea of privilege. On March 7, 1952, the said motion was overruled by order of the ■trial court from which appellants again timely gave notice of appeal.

The surety has challenged the jurisdiction of the appellate court for the alleged reason the record was not timely tendered for filing and should not have been filed. For the reasons hereinafter given it is our opinion that the Dallas Court of Civil Appeals was justified in ordering the record filed and the challenge of the surety is therefore overruled.

The record reveals that the venue hearing was had on February 21, 1952, but the trial court did not sign and enter its judgment until February 27, 1952. Thereafter on March- 11, 1952, the Dallas, Court of Civil Appeals, for good cause shown by appellants, granted a 15-day extension of time for filing the record.' This extension period, together with the 20-day period fixed'by Rule 385, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, for appealing from an interlocutory judgment, would have extended the time from the date of the hearing on February 21, 1952, to March 27, 1952, the date appellants tendered the record for filing. This fact was urged by appellants in a second motion presented urging the filing of the record as of the date it was tendered for filing. The second motion was sustained by the Dallas Court of Civil Appeals and the Clerk was directed by a court order to file the record as of March 27, 1952, in a brief memorandum Per Curiam opinion without giving any grounds for so holding. It must be presumed, however, that the Dallas Court of Civil Appeals, in acting upon the second motion filed, revised its first order extending the time for 15 days from March 11, 1952. This it had a right to do and thus gave appellants the full benefit of the 15-day extension of time to be added to the origins.! 20-day period authorized by Rule 385 for perfecting such an appeal. Or the said Court was justified in holding, if it did so hold, that the 20-day period for perfecting the appeal did not begin until February 27, 1952, the date the trial court signed and entered its judgment and the date given by the surety in its brief as the time when the 20-day period began. In either event the Dallas Court was justified in revising its first order entered and in finally ordering the record filed on March 27, 1952.

The case is presented here upon an agreed stipulation of facts approved by counsel for appellants, counsel for the surety and the trial.court. The facts as stated are consistent with the statements herein made and it is agreed that appellants have alleged a cause of action against the defendants but the surety does not admit that all such pleadings are true. It is also agreed that the surety is a foreign corporation with an office and an agent in Dallas County and that the 'bond it executed for the. guardian was filed in the Probate Court of [863]*863Smith County, Texas, where the guardianship was pending and was' there recorded. As between appellants and the surety:

"It is further agreed and stipulated that for the purpose of this hearing all of the essential facts relating to venue is stipulated between the parties and that there is no issue or dispute between the parties as to any fact raised at this hearing on plea of privilege, but the sole questions of dispute and disagreement between the parties are questions of law to be submitted to the Court and that the right to the transfer of the cause on the plea of privilege depends entirely up.on,the Court’s decision of the questions of law submitted by the parties.”

At the request of appellants the trial court made and.filed its findings and conclusions.

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Bluebook (online)
256 S.W.2d 860, 1953 Tex. App. LEXIS 2285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/scott-v-united-states-fidelity-guaranty-co-texapp-1953.