Sidran v. Tanenbaum

391 S.W.2d 93
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 14, 1965
Docket16472
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 391 S.W.2d 93 (Sidran v. Tanenbaum) 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
Sidran v. Tanenbaum, 391 S.W.2d 93 (Tex. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinions

BATEMAN, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment rendered against the appellant Joseph Sidran. The appellee Lawrence Tanenbaum sued for debt on two counts: (1) upon a New York judgment against appellant and (2), in the alternative, upon the promissory note forming the basis of the New York judgment. Appellant in his answer contended that the New York judgment was void because the New York court had no jurisdiction over appellant, and, as to the promissory note, that he had an offset in excess of the amount due thereon. He pled that a corporation known as Tanenbaum Textile Co., Inc. was indebted to him in excess of the amount due on appellee’s promissory note and that he had a right to offset this claim against the note because the corporation was the alter ego of appellee. He pled alternatively that appellee had agreed with him that he might offset all sums due him by the corporation against any sums due appellee.

The judgment appealed from does not show on its face whether it was based on the New York judgment or the promissory note. Appellant asserts in two points of error on appeal that (1) the court erred in holding that he had no right to contest the foreign judgment on jurisdictional grounds, and (2) the court erred in denying him the right to defeat appellee’s claim on the note by asserting his offset. We sustain the first point and overrule the second. Being of the opinion that appellee was entitled to summary judgment on the note, we affirm the judgment.

The authenticated copy of the New York judgment, attached to appellee’s amended petition, does not recite any service of process on appellant, but attached to appellee’s motion for summary judgment is the affidavit of one Gerald W. Benson that on September 18, 1963 he served the “summons, Notice of Motion for Summary Judgment, and Affidavit in Support Thereof in lieu of complaint, in action styled Lawrence Tan-enbaum vs Joseph Sidran in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, upon the Defendant, Joseph Sid-ran, by delivering to and leaving with the said Defendant personally a copy of each of said papers.” The record contains nothing to identify the said Gerald W. Benson as a sheriff, or a constable, or a deputy of either, or even as a disinterested person. It appears without dispute that such papers were delivered to appellant in Dallas, Texas.

As this was the only “service”' shown by the record, the case falls within the general rule of Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U.S. 714, 24 L.Ed. 565, and in the absence of a showing that appellant was served with official notice of the suit within the State of New York, or that service outside that state was authorized by some valid law, or that appellant had voluntarily entered his appearance in the New York court, we would be compelled to hold that the New York court was without power to render the judgment in personam against appellant.

It is true, as appellee argues, that the introduction of the foreign judgment made a prima facie case for him, casting the burden on appellant to establish lack of jurisdiction in the court to render it, Garman v. Reynolds, Tex.Civ.App., 284 S.W.2d 262, wr. ref., but here appellant met that burden by showing affirmatively by his affidavit that he was not served in New York and had not entered his appearance in the suit. The presumption of validity of the judgment is not conclusive but is rebuttable, and the judgment may be collaterally attacked by showing lack of jurisdiction. Mitchell v. San Antonio Public Service Co., Tex.Com.App.1931, 35 S.W.2d 140; W. T. Rawleigh Co. v. Little, Tex.Civ.App., 32 S.W.2d 214, wr. ref.; Autry v. Autry, Tex.Civ.App., 350 S.W.2d 233, wr. dism.; Coop[96]*96er v. Newell, 173 U.S. 555, 19 S.Ct. 506, 43 L.Ed. 808; 30A Am.Jur., Judgments, p. 328, §262.

Appellee also argues that the service on appellant may have been sufficient under some New York law authorizing such service on nonresidents who do business within the forum. In the absence of pleading or proof of such a law, we must presume that the New York law is the same as our own. McCormick and Ray, Texas Law of Evidence, § 99. Our statute, Art. 2031b, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St., provides, inter alia, for substituted service on nonresident defendants, in suits arising out of business transacted by them within the State of Texas, by serving the Secretary of State of Texas; but such statute does not provide for personal service on the defendant outside of Texas, and it does not authorize service of process by anyone other than a sheriff or constable. Rule 103, Vernon’s Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. Presuming the New York law to be similar, it is obvious that the attempted service on appellant without the State of New York, and by some individual not identified as an officer authorized by law to serve process, would be ineffective to vest the New York court with power to render the personal judgment.

We sustain appellant’s first point and hold that the record before us fails to show that the New York judgment had such validity as to sustain the summary judgment under attack here.

By his second point of error the appellant complains of the trial court’s refusal to recognize his claim against Tanenbaum Textile Co., Inc. as an offset to appellee’s suit on the promissory note. The only factual support of this position is appellant’s own affidavit, the pertinent parts of which are:

“To my knowledge and belief, Lawrence Tanenbaum is a chief executive officer of the Tanenbaum Textile Co., Inc., and I believe that he is the sole stockholder, and certainly has control of the corporation. He acts for the corporation completely, and in his actions concerning the business of the Tanenbaum Textile Co., Inc., you are unable to differentiate as to which action is for the corporation and which action is for the individual. To my knowledge all decisions of Lawrence Tanenbaum are the decisions of the corporation and he acts completely for them.
“In all of my dealings with the Tan-enbaum Textile Co., Inc. and with Lawrence Tanenbaum have been with the said Lawrence Tanenbaum personally. I made an agreement with him where I was to receive a commission for services that I would perform in selling merchandise which either belonged to him or to Tanenbaum Textile Co., Inc. It was my understanding with him that any and all sums of money which he leant to me personally were to be applied against the commissions that I was to receive by reason of this agreement that I had made with him personally and that I never differentiated the corporate entity from the individual in our dealings, nor did Mr. Tanen-baum ever indicate to me that there should be such a differentiation. Whenever we discussed the fact that we each owed each other money, we always talked about a day for an accounting and offsetting each other’s obligations to the other. Mr. Tanen-baum and his corporation now owe me $20,968.11 by reason of the agreement made with him.”

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Sidran v. Tanenbaum
391 S.W.2d 93 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
391 S.W.2d 93, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sidran-v-tanenbaum-texapp-1965.