Texas Farm Bureau Cotton Ass'n v. Lennox

257 S.W. 935
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 15, 1924
DocketNo. 2818.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 257 S.W. 935 (Texas Farm Bureau Cotton Ass'n v. Lennox) 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
Texas Farm Bureau Cotton Ass'n v. Lennox, 257 S.W. 935 (Tex. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

HODGES, J.

In October, 1921, the appel-lees, H. H. and C. D. Lennox, filed this suit against the Texas Farm Bureau Cotton Association, a private corporation organized under the laws of Texas, with its domicile and place of business at Dallas, in Dallas county, Tex. The plaintiffs in their original petition allege, in substance, that on or about June 30, 1921, they as joint tenants in the name of Lennox & Lennox signed a written agreement to organize a nonprofit association without capital, under the laws of the state of Texas, for the purpose of promoting, fostering, and encouraging the business of producing and marketing cotton co-operatively. Among other things, it was agreed:

“(1) That they would become members of the Texas Farm Bureau Cotton Growers Cooperative Marketing Association, a nonprofit association without capital stock to be organized under the laws of the state of Texas.
“(2) All officers and employees of the association who handle funds to be adequately bonded.
w(3) Every member to pay an entrance, or organization fee of $10, except members of the Texas Farm Bureau Fraternity.
“(4) The association to confine itself to the problems and marketing of cotton and cotton products only, and for its members only.
“(5) The association to be organized by the Texas Farm Bureau Federation acting by and through an organization committee, which was therein named.”

Other averments referred to the number of signatures of cotton growers required to make a membership sufficient to complete the organization, after which incorporation was to take place. It was further alleged that the subscriber to this agreement was to execute, when requested by the association, a marketing contract in terms substantially as set forth in the agreement signed, or at the option of the board of directors to be bound by a marketing agreement, the terms of which were set out. It was also provided that for such purposes the signatures to the association contract should be deemed to all effects the same as signatures to the marketing agreement and as an acceptance of each and every agreement therein stated as of the date of the exercise of such option by the board of directors. It was further stipulated that notice of the exercise of such option by the board of directors should be mailed to each subscriber, etc. Then follows a copy of the marketing contract referred to above. After the required number of signatures was secured upon satisfactory conditions, the appellant corporation was organized. Soon after its incorporation, its board of directors assembled at Dallas and confirmed the marketing contract herein above referred to and adopted it as the contract with its members for handling and marketing their cotton. Notice, however, was never communicated to the plaintiffs as required in a subdivision of the agreement, but they continued as members of the organization.

The marketing agreement above referred to prescribed the terms and conditions on which the cotton produced by the members was to be handled and sold. It stipulated, in substance, that after the prospective corporation, which is the appellant in this instance, had been organized, its board of directors should have the option to treat the contract embraced in the agreement circulated by the promoters of the corporation as the marketing contract under which it would operate, or it would require the subscribers to execute another contract in substantially the same form. The plaintiffs further alleged that their signatures to this entire agreement were secured by fraudulent representations as to the manner and terms on which the cotton of members would be handled; that the substance of the agreement had been violated by the company. They ask that the marketing agreement be canceled as to them, and that they be relieved from further compliance with its terms and obligations.

For another and distinct cause of action the plaintiffs allege that in January, 1922, they were the owners of 1,095 bales of cotton, most of which was grown under conditions which did not bring it within the provisions of the marketing contract above described. This lot of cotton was delivered to the appellant for sale under a special parol contract, the terms of which are set out in the plaintiffs’ petition. They charge a breach of that contract by the appellant, which, they assert, resulted in a loss to them of $39,248.-57. They ask for judgment for that sum in damages.

The appellant filed its plea of privilege, claiming the right to be sued in Dallas county, the place of its residence. The appellees replied to that plea, alleging that the appellant had an agency in Red River county; that in securing their signatures to the written marketing contract a fraud was perpetrated upon them in Red River county; and that both the written and the oral contracts upon which this suit is based were made in Red River county. Upon those issues of fact the trial court found that no fraud had been perpetrated, but that the appellant had an agency in Red River county. He also concluded that both the marketing contract which the appellees here seek to have canceled, and *937 the parol agreement which they claim had been breached, were made in Red River county. Upon those findings he overruled the plea of privilege, and from that order this appeal is prosecuted.

Practically the only issue presented in the assignments of error is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings of fact made by the trial judge. We are inclined to think that the testimony relied on to show that appellant had a local agency in Red River county is too unsatisfactory to sustain the conclusion of the trial court upon that issue. But that error does not require a reversal of the judgment if the evidence was sufficient to sustain the remaining conclusions of fact. It will be observed that the appellees have joined in this suit two separate and distinct causes of action; one to rescind and annul the written marketing contract embraced in the organic agreement, and the other to recover damages for the breach of a subsequent parol contract whereby the appellant undertook to market 1,095 bales of cotton. If the evidence shows that both of these contracts were made in Red River county, the appellees had the right to bring their suit in that county. Commission Co. v. Hart (Tex. Sup.) 20 S. W. 131; Ry. Co. v. Hill, 63 Tex. 383, 51 Am. Rep. 642; Cuero Cotton Oil & Mfg. Co. v. Feeders’ Supply Co. (Tex. Civ. App.) 203 S. W. 81; Early-Foster Co. v. A. P. Moore & Son (Tex. Civ. App.) 230 S. W. 789.

There is practically no dispute in the evidence regarding the execution of the written marketing contract. That contract was incorporated in and made a part of the original agreement circulated by the promoters of the prospective corporation, and was in legal effect signed by those who were to become members of the corporation when organized. That agreement contained these stipulations:

“The subscriber agrees, L to execute, when requested by the association, a marketing agreement, in terms substantially the same as those set forth in the agreement herein embodied; or at the option of the board of directors to be bound by the terms of the following marketing agreement,” etc.

Then follows a copy of the contract under which the appellant is now operating.

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Related

Lennox v. Texas Cotton Co-op. Ass'n
55 S.W.2d 543 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1932)
Browning-Ferris MacH. Co. v. Thomson
58 S.W.2d 183 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Lennox v. Texas Farm Bureau Cotton Ass'n
16 S.W.2d 413 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1929)
Southland Cotton Oil Co. v. Guitar
3 S.W.2d 471 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1928)
Texas Farm Bureau Cotton Ass'n v. Lennox
297 S.W. 743 (Texas Supreme Court, 1927)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
257 S.W. 935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-farm-bureau-cotton-assn-v-lennox-texapp-1924.