Sneed v. Martin

292 S.W.2d 891, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1732
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 6, 1956
Docket15145
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 292 S.W.2d 891 (Sneed v. Martin) 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
Sneed v. Martin, 292 S.W.2d 891, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1732 (Tex. Ct. App. 1956).

Opinion

CRAMER, Justice.

J. B. Sneed filed this action against Hazel Martin and her sureties on her replevy bond in sequestration, asserting that she had theretofore filed cause No. 3769 against him alleging that he was trespassing on 150 acres of land owned by her in Dallas County; that on September 16, 1946 she filed in cause No, 3769 an application for a writ of sequestration and a properly conditioned $10,000 sequestration bond based on a $5,000 value of the land; that the writ was issued and delivered to the sheriff who executed it by taking the property into his possession; and after Sneed had failed to replevy the property Hazel Martin tendered her replevy bond and the sheriff delivered possession of the land to her; thereafter on April 12, 1947 cause No. 3769 was dismissed for want of prosecution and said dismissal judgment thereafter became final. Sneed then filed the present proceeding in which the above facts were recited, and asserted affirmatively that under the facts the taking of such property by Hazel Martin was unlawful and that he had, by reason thereof, suffered damages in the sum of $10,000, that being the reasonable value of the property. , C. A. Mat-tay, a surety, answered by plea in abatement, special exceptions, general denial, and the two-year statute of limitations, followed by an answer asserting that Sneed filed a cross-action in cause 3769 in which he sought damages against Hazel Martin; also that said cause 3769 had been dismissed for want of prosecution without any damages having been awarded against Hazel Martin or her sureties and that said action cannot be revived and is now barred by the two-year statute of limitation. Hazel Martin answered by special exceptions, general denial, the two-year statute of limitation, stale claims, laches, and estoppel, “to bring a new action sounding in contract but based upon and growing out of the same transaction * * * ”; and that such cause of action cannot now be revived because long since barred by limitation. She also pled that during and since 1946 she has continuously been the owner and in possession of said land; that in 1946 she owned two 150-acre tracts of land, one behind the levee and the other the one here involved; that she orally leased to Sneed the 150-acre tract behind, or back of, the levee (west side) upon a month to month basis, which she confirmed in writing; .the terms thereof being acquiesced in by Sneed, but that Sneed thereafter instead of placing his cattle on the tract of land back of the levee, put them on the tract east of the levee, not leased to him; and that when her agent discovered this and reported to her, Sneed was advised that the cattle were on the wrong land and was requested to move them. Sneed failed to do so.

Upon Sneed’s further refusal to remove the cattle to a proper pasture, she again advised Sneed through her agent, by registered mail, that his lease had be.en terminated; that although not obliged to do. so, she offered to deliver to him 200 bales of hay and advised him that he had accepted her offer and she had given Kim a written order for the 200 bales of hay and that such hay had been brought to the-farm but refused, indicating he was preparing to breach the contract and had breached it. She demanded that he vacate the property, remove all his cattle and other belongings by September 1, 1946;. otherwise she would take such legal action as necessary to protect her interests; that Sneed did not vacate such property by September '1, 1946 and was therefore a. trespasser thereon and not entitled to damages. Also that the’ $10,000 penal sum in the sequestration bond is a penalty andl *893 not liquidated damages, and if he has sustained any damages for which she is liable, they are of .such a nature as to be clearly ascertainable and are far less than the sum set out in, the bond. She further alleged that she sustained $750 actual damages in grass depletion by his cattle ; that Sneed filed -this suit maliciously and for harassment in an attempt to force her to sell her land to him at an unconscionable price and that exemplary damages of $5,000 should be awarded to her.

Sneed through his attorney made a motion for summary judgment on the following affidavit (omitting formal parts):

“My name is Wm. Andress, Jr., and I am attorney of record for the plaintiff. The original papers now on file with the District Clerk of Dallas County in cause No. 3769-F entitled Hazel I. Martin vs. J. B. Sneed reveal that on September 13, 1946, Hazel I. Martin made .an affidavit for sequestration alleging that the value of the real property therein described, being the same property described in the petition in this cause, had a value of $5,000.00, which application for sequestration was filed by V. R. Sanders and C. A. Mattay as her attorney, and an order was entered authorizing the issuance of a writ of sequestration upon the furnishing of a- good and sufficient bond in the sum of $10,000.00. Such a bond in sequestration in the amount of - $10,000.00 was executed by Hazel I. Martin as principal and J. W. Parrish and C. A. Mattay-as sureties on September 12, 1946, was approved on September 16, 1946,-by the District Clerk of Dallas County, filed on said date, and a writ of sequestration was issued on the same date by the' Clerk and executed on September 20 by R. A. Schmid, Sheriff of Dallas County, Texas, by taking into his possession the above described property, and releasing it to Hazel I. Martin upon her replevy bond in the amount of. $10,000.00 dated November 21, 1946, executed by her as principal and J. W. Parrish and C. A. Mattay as sureties reciting the value of the property as $5,000.00. By the-first amended original petition in said cause No. 3769 Hazel I. Martin sued defendant J. B. Sneed in trespass to try title to the 150 acres of land in controversy, alleging that Sneed was in possession of the property wrongfully. After acquiring possession under the writ of sequestration and the replevy bond, said cause No. 3769-F was dismissed by the 116th Judicial District Court for want of prosecution, the judgment of dismissal being recorded in volume 9 at page 516 of the minutes of said court, and that judgment became final and has never been set aside. J. B. Sneed has never been restored to possession of the land.”

Hazel Martin moved to strike the motion because it is not in compliance with Rule 166-A, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, setting out that it was wholly insufficient because the certified copies referred to in the motion are not set out as exhibits to the motion,’ nor their substance set out in the motion for summary judgment.

At the hearing the trial court overruled Sneed’s motion for summary judgment and his four exceptions; also overruled Hazel Martin’s exceptions 1, 2, and 3, but sustained her exception 4; and gave Sneed leave to amend. After Sneed refused to amend, the court dismissed his cause of action. Sneed has duly perfected this appeal from such order of dismissal, here briefing four points of error.

Point 1 asserts that “Where there had been no intervening change in the status of the case or the law since an order at a full pre-trial hearing, another Judge calling the case on the trial docket should not reopen the exceptions determined four years previously at such pre-trial hearing, and reverse the former order.” Citing Rule 166.

Rule 166 relates to the pre-trial conference in connection with settling the .issues to be tried. Subd. (g) of the Rule provides for an order to be made at such hearing, and that “such order when entered shall -control the subsequent course of the action,

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Bluebook (online)
292 S.W.2d 891, 1956 Tex. App. LEXIS 1732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sneed-v-martin-texapp-1956.