Southern Pac. Co. v. Ulmer

286 S.W. 193
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedJune 23, 1926
DocketNo. 692-4607
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 286 S.W. 193 (Southern Pac. Co. v. Ulmer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Southern Pac. Co. v. Ulmer, 286 S.W. 193 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1926).

Opinion

POWELL, P. J.

This is a personal injury case filed against plaintiff in error by N. A. Ulmer and his wife, Patsy, for damages alleged to have been sustained by the latter while a passenger. Judgment for $15,000 was rendered by the trial court, and that judgment was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals. The opinion of the latter court is very full. See 282 S. W. 305.

We do not think it necessary to restate the case here at any length. The husband and wife joined in the suit. The prayer was for such relief as they might be entitled to. The jury found the total damages to be $15,000/ The entire amount so found was awarded to the wife by the court. It is insisted by the railway company that, since the judgment did not mention the husband, it did not dispose of him, and was not a final judgment. With this view we cannot agree

It is true that in 1915 the Legislature passed an act (article 4615 of the Revised Civil Statutes of 1925) reading as follows:

“All property or moneys received as compensation for personal injuries sustained by the wife shall be her separate property, except such actual and necessary expenses as may have accumulated against the husband for hospital fees, medical bills and all other expenses incident to the collection of said compensation. Acts 1915, p. 103.”

Prior to the passage of that act, compensation for personal injuries to the wife was part of the community estate. Now all of such recovery is the separate property of the wife, except that the husband may be reimbursed for expenses he incurred incident to her injuries and the collection of the compensation. In other words, the net recovery arising out of the accident and injury now belongs to the wife as her separate estate. While the statute is silent as to these expenses, it would seem that they would constitute a part of the community estate.

The relevant portion of the judgment of the trial court reads as follows:

“It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and der creed that plaintiff’s suit as against the El Paso Union Passenger Depot Company be, and the-same is hereby, dismissed, and that plaintiff’s suit as against the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad Company be, and the same is hereby, dismissed, and that the costs incurred by said parties- be taxed against the plaintiff Patsy Ulmer and N. A. Ulmer.
“It is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the court that said Patsy .Ulmer do have and recover of and from the defendant, Southern Pacific Company, a corporation, the sum of $15,-000, together with interest from this date at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, together with all costs of suit, except those adjudged against plaintiffs, and the clerk of this court is directed to issue all writs of execution necessary for the collection of costs in this cause, and that said clerk issue a writ of execution directed to the sheriff of El Paso county, Tex., to collect the judgment in 'favor of said Patsy Ulmer and against the Southern Pacific Company, and that' the clerk issue all other and further writs as may be required for the enforcement of this judgment.”

It is elementary, of course, that a judgment must dispose of all the parties and issues. And conflicts have arisen among the Courts of Civil Appeals as to whether or not the parties and issues may be disposed of by “necessary implication.” But, our Su[194]*194preme Court and .Commissions of Appeals have uniformly adopted a liberal rule, and have held that a final judgment which, either expressly or by necessary implicátion, disposes of all the parties and issues is final. We think this judgment meets the test. The total recovery allowed by the jury was $15,-000. When the .court awarded all of such recovery to the wife, it necessarily meant that nothing was thought to be due the husband by the court. After giving it all to the wife, there was no necessity to say that nothing was awarded the husband. There was nothing left for him to recover. E'or that reason, we think this judgment as effectively disposed of the husband as if it had gone on and provided that the' husband take nothing by reason of his joinder in the suit. Poi-cases illustrating judgments held final by necessary implication, we refer to Whitmire v. Powell, 103 Tex. 232,125 S. W. 889; Trammell v. Rosen, 106 Tex. 132, 157 S. W. 1161; Tennison v. Donigan (Tex. Com. App.) 237 S. W. 229; Lindsey v. Hart (Tex. Com. App.) 276 S. W. 199.

. In the first case cited, the subject-matter was the title to a tract of land. In disposing of the question of the finality of the judgment in that case, Chief Justice Gaines said:

“It is assigned as error that the Court of Civil Appeals erred in holding that there was a final judgment in the case. The judgment did not mention Mrs. Whitmire, and is not a decree for her. The subject-matter of the controversy is adjudged to others, and she gets nothing. This is a judgment against her.”

The reasoning of the learned Chief Justice in above cause is exactly applicable to the case at bar. Here the entire subject-matter or recovery was awarded to the wife. The husband is not mentioned. It is a judgment against him.

In the ease of Trammell v. Rosen, supra, the Court of Civil Appeals (153 S. W. 164) held that the judgment was not final because it failed to expressly dispose of the appellant’s cross-action. But our Supreme Court differed with the Court of Civil Appeals, and adopted the more liberal rule, and held that the judgment was final. In the course of its opinion, the Supreme Court speaks as follows :

“Upon that issue there have long been, in this state, two well-defined and sharply conflicting lines of decisions by Courts of Civil Appeals. Such conflict arises, principally, it seems, upon the construction given to article 1994, Revised Statutes 1911, relating to the form of judgments of district and county courts; those Courts of Civil Appeals who adhere to a strict rule of construction in the premises holding that a judgment which does not, in express terms, specifically dispose of a cross-action or counterclaim is not a final judgment, such as will support an appeal, and those who adhere to a more liberal rule of construction holding that a judgment may be final even though it disposes of such cross-action or counterclaim by necessary implication only, without expressly mentioning it.”

We followed the rule laid down in the Trammell v. Rosen Case, supra, in our opinion in the case of Tennison v. Donigan, supra. We reversed the Court of Civil Appeals in that ease, and held the judgment final. We quote from our opinion as follows:

“The defendants had prayed for a cancellation of the instrument in suit and its removal as a cloud upon their title. When the court awarded such a decree, it necessarily, by implication, carried 'with it a refusal of the prayer by the plaintiffs for specific performance of that same instrument, or damages because of the failure to execute it. The two portions of the judgment mean the same' thing in practical results. In fact, we think one portion of the judgment would be largely a repetition of the other; that is to say, where a judgment expressly decrees in favor of defendants a cancellation of an instrument which is the foundation of plaintiffs’ suit, the action of the plaintiffs for specific performance of same is by necessary implication denied.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Home Insurance Company v. Greene
443 S.W.2d 326 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1969)
Rose v. Hatten
417 S.W.2d 456 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)
Turner v. Turner
369 S.W.2d 675 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1963)
Jordan v. Collier
223 S.W.2d 544 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1949)
Pacific Greyhound Lines, Inc. v. Tuck
217 S.W.2d 699 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1948)
Keystone Copper Mining Co. v. Miller
164 P.2d 603 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1945)
Crown Coach Company v. Whitaker
186 S.W.2d 940 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1945)
Wilson v. Cone
179 S.W.2d 784 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1944)
Tarter v. Frazier
159 S.W.2d 168 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1942)
Minatree v. Stith
151 S.W.2d 312 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1941)
Bullock v. Englert
125 S.W.2d 663 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1939)
Schoellkopf Co. v. Starr
88 S.W.2d 564 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1935)
De Zavala v. Scanlan
65 S.W.2d 489 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1933)
Richards v. Westmoreland
63 S.W.2d 715 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1933)
Bumpus v. Cobb
56 S.W.2d 1094 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Houston Electric Co. v. Potter
51 S.W.2d 754 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)
Lone Star Gas Co. v. Haire
41 S.W.2d 424 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)
Dallas Railway & Terminal Co. v. Sutherland
27 S.W.2d 830 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)
Fulks v. Smith
25 S.W.2d 221 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)
Teague v. Fairchild
15 S.W.2d 585 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1929)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
286 S.W. 193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-pac-co-v-ulmer-texcommnapp-1926.