Sovereign Camp. W. O. W. v. Rivera

110 S.W.2d 1213, 1937 Tex. App. LEXIS 1331
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 29, 1937
DocketNo. 13609.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 110 S.W.2d 1213 (Sovereign Camp. W. O. W. v. Rivera) 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
Sovereign Camp. W. O. W. v. Rivera, 110 S.W.2d 1213, 1937 Tex. App. LEXIS 1331 (Tex. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

BROWN, Justice.

Appellant issued to Sylvestre Rivera a contract of insurance covering the life of said assured. It was in full force and effect on March 24, 1936, when the assured was shot to death by a Fort Worth policeman, in the assured’s living quarters, within the city of Fort Worth. The beneficiary, Maggie Rivera, was the wife of the assured.

Demand was made upon the insurer for payment under the contract, and this was refused. Suit being brought in the district court of Tarrant county, the insurer, a fraternal benefit society, defended by alleging that the assured met his death in consequence of the violation of the laws of the state of Texas, in that: (a) He ■was in the unlawful act of selling untaxed liquor, contrary to the law; (b) that he had in his possession untaxed liquor, contrary to the law; (c) that, he was resisting the lawful arrest of a peace officer; (d) that he was attempting to escape from a peace officer after an arrest had been made for the violation of ,the laws'of Texas; (e) that he was committing assault and battery on the person of Officer Winder; (f) that he was committing assault and battery on the person of Officer McMahan; (g) that he was then and there committing assault with intent to murder Officer Winder; (h) that he was then and there committing an assault with intent to murder Officer McMahan.

The insurer pleaded that its by-laws of vs iiich the assured must, under the contract, take notice and be bound by, provided that no recovery can be had under the contract if the assured should die, “in consequence of the violation of the laws of the State, etc.”

At the conclusion of the introduction of all evidence for both parties, the trial court refused the request of the insurer to give the jury a peremptory instruction in its behalf, but gave such instruction for the beneficiary. A judgment was entered for the face of the policy, with the statutory penalty and attorney’s fees.

The defendant below, Sovereign Camp,’ Woodmen of the World, and insurer, has appealed.

*1215 We find seven assignments of error in appellant’s brief. No effort is made to point out the place in the record where the errors were raised in the trial court.

"Time was when appellate courts declined to consider such assignments of error, but the tendency now seems to be to give the assignments of error consideration, if they substantially comply with the requirements of the statute, regardless of the fact that the appellate court must search the record to find where the point was raised.

An inspection of the transcript discloses that appellant filed a motion for a new trial which contains nine alleged errors. Six of the seven assignments of error here presented are taken from the motion. The seventh complains of the overruling of appellant’s general demurrer addressed to ap-pellee’s petition.

Of course, the assignment of error which complains of the overruling of the general demurrer, and that complaining of the giving of the instructed verdict for the plaintiff below, are such that either, or both, may be raised on the appeal without having been incorporated in the motion for a new trial, but what we are pleading for is a brief in each case that points out and identifies the part of the record where, the point urged before us was raised in the trial court.

The first assignment of error complains because the trial court refused to give appellant its requested peremptory charge, when appellee finished the introduction of evidence and rested her case.

There is no merit in this assignment of error because it appears from the record that appellant was not willing to stand on the record at such point, but after its request for an instructed verdict was refused, it introduced its witnesses and its documentary evidence in support of its defenses.

Under such circumstances, the appellant waived the errors, if any there were, and it should have repeated the request after the hearing of all evidence was closed. This it did, and the second assignment of error discloses the point was then raised.

Giving a fair interpretation of the testimony on which appellant relies for a peremptory instruction in its favor, we find the two Fort Worth policemen testifying that they saw a suspicious looking automobile near Rivera’s restaurant, on the night of the homicide; they pursued it and found liquor in it; the occupants said they had purchased it at the café which the policemen identified as Rivera’s; that they then went to the café to search it; that they knocked for. admittance and Rivera first spoke Spanish and caused a Mexican girl, who lived with him, to hurry back into the living quarters occupied by Rivera, where she seemed busy going from place to place in such quarters; that Rivera invited them into the café; that they went on back into Rivera’s living quarters with-put being invited; that Rivera was then wearing only a bathrobe; that they began to search the bedroom; that they found three hot-water bottles with whisky in them; that they took the bottles and ordered Rivera to put on his clothes and told him they were taking him to the city hall (where the city jail is located) •; that Rivera mumbled and shook his head; that they told him if he did not dress they would take him just as he was; that the' policeman who had the bottles handed them to the other policeman and Rivera snatched them from him and tore them open with his teeth and spilled the whisky; that the policeman grappled with Rivera and the other policeman struck Rivera with a black jack (or “billy,” a deadly weapon carried by a policeman); that Rivera then turned on the policeman who so struck him;' that Rivera then engaged in 'a terrific struggle with the policeman from whom he had snatched the hot-water bottles and they fell on the bed; Rivera was calling for his gun and was trying to bite the policeman ; the policeman who had struck Rivera with his blackjack and who was looking on during the struggle says he saw Rivera with a pistol in his hand and he fired two shots into Rivera with a pistol; that the other policeman and Rivera rolled from the bed to the floor and then the policeman who fired the shots, shot Rivera through the , head, killing him instantly. Rivera never struck the policeman at any time. The policemen admitted that they did not have a search warrant authorizing them to search the premises, and did not have a warrant for Rivera’s arrest. They claim that they arrested Rivera, and that he was resisting arrest.

These officers had no right to enter Rivera’s living quarters and no right to search it without possessing a search warrant at the time; they had. no right, power, or authority to arrest Rivera without a warrant for his arrest.

Even taking all that the policemen testify to as absolutely true, all that Rivera *1216 had done was to 'have in his bedroom whisky that did not have any evidence of having had the lawful revenue stamps on it; in short, that he thea possessed whisky under circumstances that showed his possession to be unlawful.

Under no circumstances can it be said that Rivera had committed any crime above the grade of a misdemeanor.

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110 S.W.2d 1213, 1937 Tex. App. LEXIS 1331, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sovereign-camp-w-o-w-v-rivera-texapp-1937.