Tackett v. Stephenville State Bank

282 S.W.2d 921, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2095
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 7, 1955
DocketNo. 3181
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 282 S.W.2d 921 (Tackett v. Stephenville State Bank) 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
Tackett v. Stephenville State Bank, 282 S.W.2d 921, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2095 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

LONG, Justice.

T. P. Tackett instituted this suit against the Stephenville State Bank to recover double the amount of. usurious interest alleged to have been paid by him to the bank on 116 promissory notes. The Bank contended that it had not loaned money to Tackett but, on the contrary, had bought invoices on goods manufactured by Tackett and that the notes had been given to secure and guarantee the payment of such invoices. Upon a trial before the court with the aid of a jury, the jury found that Tackett borrowed money as represented by the notes introduced in evidence from the Bank; that it was agreed between Tackett and the Bank that the notes, which were not usurious on their face, would be paid from proceeds from the invoices; that the notes were executed and delivered by Tackett to the Bank conditionally guaranteeing the invoices; that the Bank accepted the notes as a conditional guarantee for the invoices sold on that particular occasion and that the amounts paid to the Bank by Tackett were for discounts for the sale of invoices. The jury failed to answer special issue No. 4 inquiring whether the notes offered in evidence, dated from November 21, 1952 to December 7, 1953, were made due and payable to the Bank 90 days from their due date as a scheme and subterfuge to avoid the usury laws of this State.

The jury, on November 4,1954, returned into open court with their verdict and the court determined the answers of the jury to the first three special issues were in irreconcilable conflict with the answers of the jury to the last three special issues and so advised the jury and sent it back for further deliberations. Thereafter, the jury returned into open court with its verdict without making any change in the answers to said special issues and the court accepted said verdict, discharged the jury and it was filed and entered in the minutes of the court.

On November 5, 1954, the defendant filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict of the jury. Said motion, among other things, was on the ground that at the close of the evidence the court should have granted the motion of defendant for an instructed verdict. The court granted said motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict and entered a judgment that Tackett take nothing. The court found in said judgment, as a matter of law, that the judicial admissions made while testifying by the plaintiff Tackett and by his auditor, Carl Crimmins, that the transactions before the court were sales of invoices rather than loans and admitted positive and definite facts which defeat the plaintiff’s right to recover and as such judicial admissions-were not subsequently modified or explained showing a slip of the tongue or a mistake in such testimony, the facts are-conclusive.

The court further found that said judicial admissions coincided and agreed with the-pleadings and proof of the Bank. From this judgment, Tackett has duly appealed.

The record discloses that Tackett, since-1944, has been engaged in manufacturing wearing apparel for women in the city of Stephenville; that for a period of years, beginning in June, 1952, Tackett obtained' from the Stephenville State Bank various-sums of money. It was the contention of Tackett that he was borrowing the money from the Bank for the purpose of carrying on his business. It was the contention of the Bank that it was buying invoices from Tackett at a discount of two per cent. The Bank further contended that the notes in question executed by Tackett to the Bank were given to guarantee that Tackett would not build an invoice until after he had received an order and shipped the same and' that the merchandise would be accepted by the retail store buyer.

The trial court took the view that Tackett and his auditor, Carl Crimmins, had both ■testified positively that the notes were given to guarantee the invoices as contended by the Bank and that the Bank was not loaning Tackett money but was buying invoices.

[923]*923It is conclusively shown that Carl Crimmins was not the agent dr employee of appellant at the time of the trial. He had long since severed his connection with appellant. He was called as a witness by ap-pellee. Appellant was not bound by his testimony. The testimony of Crimmins could not be classed as a judicial admission. Delgado v. Delgado, Tex.Civ.App., 253 S.W.2d 708.

We will next consider whether the evidence of Tackett was such that it constituted a judicial admission and that the court was justified in rendering judgment against Tiim. We have carefully studied the statement of facts. Tackett testified positively ■on direct examination that he was borrowing money from the Bank; that he was not selling the Bank invoices at a discount; that the invoices were given as collateral for the money he was borrowing.

Appellant testified upon cross examination as follows:

“Q. Now, Mr. Tackett, you contend, I believe, that you put your invoices up there at the Bank as collateral? A. Yes, sir.
"Q. To secure this note when you signed that note, is that right? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. You didn’t have any conversation with Mr. Maguire about selling him $1,934.50 worth of invoices at that particular time, did you? A. I must have to arrive at that odd figure.
“Q. Now, Mr. Tackett, as a matter ■of fact you sold him $1,934.50 worth of invoices at that time and he discounted them two per cent and gave you back' .$1,895.81, didn’t he? A. That was what was deposited to my account; yes, sir.
“Q. And you actually sold him that many invoices in that transaction, didn’t you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Of course you did. Those invoices went out of your hands never to return again unless the merchandise was rej ected and then you had the right td substitute that with other invoices, didn’t you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. That’s true. Now, Mr. Tack-ett, that is true with every one of these notes that has been introduced in evidence here. For example, I will just take any one of them here. There is one right there for $2,300.00, dated July 25, 1953? A. Yes, sir.”
******
“Q. You make up a lot of invoices down there in the privacy of your office, don’t you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And you sold a lot of them to The Stephenville State Bank, didn’t you ? A. I sure did.”
******
“A. No. Will you please ask me what you just asked me there?
“Q. Well, I ask you if Mr. Maguire didn’t mark the note paid and give it back to you after the bank received the money for the particular invoices that you sold'on the occasions you put the note up? A. Yes, he gave me the note.
“Q. Why, of course, he did. Now, Mr. Tackett, you set out here something like a 116 or 118 notes there when you started, didn’t you? A. Yes, sir.
“Q. Of course, you are down now to about 105 or 106, aren’t you. You have drawn one out here, and you are down now considerably less. But on each occasion when you gave one of those notes that has been introduced in evidence you carried invoices down there to the bank and sold them, and you gave that note to guarantee the payment of those invoices, didn’t you? A. Yes, sir.”
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Bluebook (online)
282 S.W.2d 921, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2095, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tackett-v-stephenville-state-bank-texapp-1955.