Sun Oil Co. v. Wright

87 S.W.2d 524
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 1, 1935
DocketNo. 4779.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 87 S.W.2d 524 (Sun Oil Co. v. Wright) 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
Sun Oil Co. v. Wright, 87 S.W.2d 524 (Tex. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

HALL, Justice.

The following is a statement of this case taken from appellant’s brief which appellee says is correct:

“Appellee, Audra Belle Wright, a minor, suing by her next friend, Bennett Faircloth, brought this suit against appellant, Sun Oil Company, in the district court of Cass county, Tex. It is a suit for damages for personal injury arising out of an automobile accident, the petition alleging that the collision out of which the injuries grew occurred in Rusk county, Tex. The petition alleged that the appellant was a private corporation, incorporated under the laws of the state of Texas or some one of the states of the United States, and had a proper agent for service in Dallas county, Tex. It was alleged that certain described acts of negligence on the part of appellant, its agents, servants, and employees directly and proximately caused, the appellee’s injuries in the sum of $10,000, and the prayer for said petition is for recovery against appellant in said sum.
“To this petition appellant seasonably filed its plea of privilege in statutory form, setting forth therein that it was a corporation organized under the laws of the state of New Jersey, transacting business in the state of Texas under permit, and that its domicile and residence and principal, place of business and office in said state was, at the time of said plea, and at all times mentioned in said plea, in the county of Dallas, state of Texas.
“Appellee filed a controverting affidavit to this plea of privilege, alleging that appellant was a foreign corporation, with an agent in Cass county, Tex., and alternatively alleging that appellant was a private corporation, and that as shown by appellee’s petition, made a part of the affidavit, the cause of action, or a part thereof, arose in Rusk county, Tex.; and further alleging that a trespass was committed upon appellee in Rusk county, Tex., alleging that the district court of Cass county had jurisdiction, but in the alternative, if mistaken in that allegation, then the venue was properly in Rusk county. Appellee prayed that the plea of privilege be overruled, or if it be established, that appellant had no agent or representative in Cass county, that in such event, the court transfer the case to Rusk county.
“There was a hearing upon the controverting affidavit of appellee. At said hearing no proof was offered that appellant had any agent or representative in Cass county, but evidence was offered tending to show that the collision which resulted in appel-lee’s injury occurred in Rusk county, Tex.; and appellee further offered proof that appellant was a corporation organized under the laws of the state of New Jersey, transacting business in the state of Texas under due permit from said state.
“On this evidence the honorable trial court made its findings and entered judgment thereon, finding that the venue of the cause did not lie in Cass county, but that appellant’s prayer that the cause should be transferred to Dallas county, the county of the domicile and- residence of defendant .in Texas, should be denied for the reason that the cause of action, or a part thereof, arose in Rusk county, Tex. Accordingly, the court ordered the cause transferred to Rusk county; to which ruling appellant excepted, and then and there in open court gave notice of appeal to this honorable court. Appeal bond was timely filed and the appeal perfected.”

Appellant complains of the action of the trial court in transferring this cause to Rusk county rather than to Dallas county, the county of appellant’s domicile. We agree with appellant in this contention. It is our understanding of the provisions of article 2007, R. S., and article 1995, as amended (Vernon’s Ann. Civ. St. art. 1995), and the decisions construing same, that when a person filed a proper plea of privilege setting out the county of his residence, and, upon hearing, the plea of privilege is sustained, the trial court must transfer the cause to the county of defendant’s residence and none other. This rule ap *526 plies to a foreign corporation which has established its domicile in Texas. Pittsburg Water Pleater Co. of Texas v. Sullivan et al., 115 Tex. 417, 282 S. W. 576.

This question was passed on by this court in Loos v. Swaim, 16 S.W.(2d) 350, 354, in an opinion on rehearing by Judge Levy wherein he says: “We have concluded that we were in error in directing the cause to be transferred for trial in Nueces county instead of in Tarrant county upon the ap-pellee’s controverting plea. Although in the facts the appellee could have brought the suit in Nueces county, under exception 2, yet he did not do so. Under article 2007, upon a hearing of the plea of privilege, it was incumbent upon appellee to sustain the venue of the suit in the county ‘where the cause is pending’; otherwise the plea of privilege should be sustained. Greenville Gas & Fuel Co. v. Commercial Finance Co. [117 Tex. 124] 298 S. W. 550; Coalson v. Holmes, 111 Tex. 502, 240 S. W. 896.”

To the same effect are: Aviation Credit Corporation of New York v. University Aerial Service Corporation (Tex. Civ. App.) 59 S.W.(2d) 870, writ dismissed; Vilbig Motor Freight Lines, Inc., v. Jenness (Tex. Civ. App.) 34 S.W.(2d) 684.

The record in this case discloses that appellant is a foreign corporation with a permit to do business in Texas and that it has its domicile in Dallas county, Tex. Suit was brought against it in Cass county, Tex., on a cause of action which arose in whole or in part in Rusk county, Tex. No effort was made to sustain the venue of this cause of action in Cass county where the suit was filed, but plaintiff by an alternative plea in her contest succeeded in having the case transferred to Rusk county rather than to Dallas county, the domicile of the defendant. To sustain this action of the trial court the plaintiff, appellee here, relies, among other cases, on the case of Reynolds-Kimberlin Oil Co. v. Perry (Tex. Civ. App.) 80 S.W.(2d) 787. A statement of this case by Chief Justice Hall of the Amarillo Court of Civil Appeals is as follows:

“Both suits were filed in the district court of Cass county by the appellees respectively, seeking to recover damages for personal injuries'alleged to have resulted from the active negligence of the appellant corporation.
“The petition in the Perry case alleges that the appellant was an Oklahoma corporation, having an agent in Wichita Falls, Tex., that the plaintiff was a resident of Gregg county, Tex., and that the alleged injuries were sustained by him in Gregg county-
“Defendant seasonably filed its plea of privilege in statutory form, denying that it ever had any office or agent residing in Cass county; that the only agent which it had in the state of Texas was Jewell Kimber-lin who resided in Smith county, Tex., and praying that .the cause be transferred to Smith county.
. “Plaintiff timely filed his controverting affidavit, alleging that the defendant had an agent or representative in Cass county, and in the alternative alleged that, if venue was not properly laid in Cass county, then that venue laid in Gregg county, and praying that, if the plea of privilege should be sustained, the cause be transferred to Gregg county,^ Tex., instead of Smith county.

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Bluebook (online)
87 S.W.2d 524, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sun-oil-co-v-wright-texapp-1935.