Smith v. Chipley

24 S.W.2d 87
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 19, 1928
DocketNo. 3141.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 24 S.W.2d 87 (Smith v. Chipley) 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
Smith v. Chipley, 24 S.W.2d 87 (Tex. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

RANDOLPH, J.

This suit was instituted in the district court of Lubbock county, Tex., by Lora A. Chipley, joined pro forma by her present husband, H. D. Chipley, against appellants. Judgment for plaintiffs, and defendants appeal.

We refer to the statement of the case contained in the opinion of this court in Smith v. Chipley, 287 S. W. 156, No. 2692, and adopt such statement so far as it is applicable here, making such additional statements in the discussion of the propositions and assignments as are necessary.

Appellants’ second, third, and fourth propositions of error will be considered in the discussion of the question we shall now present, and such propositions are as follows:

“Second Proposition.
“The Appellant sets out Assignment of Error No. 2 as his Second Proposition, as follows:
“The court erred in rendering judgment for the plaintiff and against the defendant for the reason that the pleadings of defendant and the evidence show that in cause No. 2913 in the District Court of Lubbock County, Texas, the plaintiff filed suit against the defendant, and that all parties plaintiff in said cause No. 2013 are the same as parties plaintiff in this said cause, and all the parties defendant are the same in cause No. 2013 as in this said cause, and that the same question of interest and matters in controversy existed in cause No. 2013 in the District Court of Lubbock County, thé same as existed in this said cause, and that said cause No. 2013 resulted in a judgment in favor of the plaintiff in this cause against the defendant in this cause, for the sum of $11,788.00, which said judgment of the trial court was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the State of Texas (292 S. W. 209) and the said judgment was paid and satisfied, and that all matters in controversy between plaintiff and defendant in this cause were or could have been settled in cause No. 2013.
“Third Proposition.
“Where a case is tried upon the merits and a verdict is returned by the jury and the judgment of the Court rendered thereon and said judgment was affirmed upon appeal to the Supreme Court, and finally paid off, such judgment is conclusive as to the matters actually determined therein and every other matter which the party might have litigated in the cause and which they might have had decided.
“Fourth Proposition.
“Where the plaintiffs and defendants are the owners of a contract under which both plaintiff and defendant have certain interest with reference to the sale of a large body of land and the contract is to be performed as a whole, the plaintiff having brought a suit for an interest in half of the lands in question and prosecuted the same to judgment which was paid off, such plaintiff should not be entitled to recover on the same cause of action by splitting the said cause of action and bringing suit on the other half.”

The appellees, in cause No. 2013 in the district court of Lubbock county, No. 2692 in this court (2S7 S. W. 156) and 763 — 4734 in the Commission of Appeals (292 8. W. 209), in their petition filed in the district court, brought suit under the contract set out in the opinion of this court in cause 2692, referred to above, seeking a recovery for the profits of the transaction involving the sale of the east half of the tract of land, of which tract the west half is here in controversy. The trial in the district court in said cause 2013 resulted in a judgment for the plaintiff Mrs. Chipley. On appeal to this court, said *88 causo was reversed upon the following grounds (287 S. W. 156,160):

“(1) The fact that the provisions of the Veal-Chipley contract were carried out, and Mrs. Veal transferred the vendor’s lien notes as agreed, does not, under the record in this case, make the notes’ profits subject to a division without a settlement and accounting of the partnership affairs.
“(2) The record discloses without contradiction that, in order to close the Veal-Chipley contract by December 31,1922, appellant purchased in his own name the entire west half of the land, and paid individually $19,008.20 in cash, and executed his notes for the sum of $76,032.80, and does not show the payment of any of the notes, nor that appellee paid any of the cash consideration for the west half of the land. The making of this transaction by appellant in his own name did not deprive appellee as a partner of any rights she may have therein, nor prevent appellant, if he acted in good faith, from insisting upon appellee’s paying her part of the consideration for the west half of the land, and acquiring a pro rata interest therein. Hence, in order to have a settlement and division of the notes and cash paid by Mrs. Veal to appellant, an adjustment should be made of the rights of the parties in the west half of the land by an accounting and settlement of the partnership affairs.
“(3) Under the well-established doctrine that one partner may not sue another in respect to matters growing out of partnership business without a settlement and accounting of the partnership affairs, it is our opinion that this assignment must be sustained. Danforth v. Levin (Tex. Civ. App.) 156 S. W. 569; Merriwether v. Hardeman, 51 Tex. 436; Lockhart v. Lytle, 47 Tex. 452; 20 R. C. L. 194, § 130; 21 A. L. R. notes, page 21.
“(4) Appellee in her petition sets up sufficient facts to disclose a conversion by appellant of her alleged interest in the cash and notes received by him from Mrs. Veal on the east half of said 19,617.28 acres of land, but for a conversion one partner is not allowed to maintain a suit at law against the other partner; his only remedy being a suit at equity for an accounting. Snyder v. Slaughter (Tex. Civ. App.) 208 S. W. 974 ; 21 A. L. R. subdivision eight of the annotations, page 121.
“Appellant urges numerous assignments of error to the admissibility of the testimony, the charge of the court, and the insufficiency of the evidence, none of which would be tenable as presented, if appellee had properly pleaded a suit for an accounting of partnership affairs and asked therefor.
“The motion for rehearing is granted, the original opinion withdrawn, and the judgment of the trial court reversed and remanded.”

After motion for rehearing had been seasonably filed in said cause in this court and 'overruled, an application for a writ of error was filed in the honorable Supreme Court of Texas by Mrs. Chipley, and the Supreme Court granted such application and referred the case to Section B of the Commission of Appeals for their investigation and decision. The Commission of Appeals, upon hearing the cause, reversed the judgment of this court and affirmed the judgment of the district court or trial court, and such judgment of the Commission of Appeals was duly adopted by the honorable Supreme Court. 292 S. W. 209-211.

On the trial of this cause involving the portions of the transaction as to the west half of said land, the defendant pleaded the judgment of the district court of Lubbock county in cause No. 2013, the disposition of the appeal of that cause in this court, and the disposition thereof by the Commission of Appeals and the Supreme Court, and further pleaded:

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24 S.W.2d 87, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-chipley-texapp-1928.