Toplitsky v. Toplitsky

282 S.W.2d 254, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2037
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 28, 1955
Docket12777
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 282 S.W.2d 254 (Toplitsky v. Toplitsky) 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
Toplitsky v. Toplitsky, 282 S.W.2d 254, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2037 (Tex. Ct. App. 1955).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

Appellees, two sisters and one brother, plaintiffs below, filed this suit in the District Court of Harris County against appellant, Isadore Toplitsky,- another brother, defendant below, as. independent executor of the estate of their, and his, deceased father, Sam Toplitsky, alleging that no further administration of such estate was necessary, and praying for an accounting and partition.

It was filed about eleven months after appellant had qualified as such independent executor.

After a jury had been empanelled, and only appellant had testified, he entered into an agreement that the jury be discharged, and a consent-decree be entered, providing for a full accounting by him of all estate moneys that had come into his possession, and to properly vouch for all that he had paid out, and to turn the remainder over to the Houston Bank & Trust Company, which, as a receiver, would dispose of a vendor’s lien note, and one parcel of real estate, and some personal property, belonging to the estate, and divide the resultant sum of money among the appellees and appellant, as the four sole equal beneficiaries under their father’s will.

The said account was turned in by the appellant, but it was disputed by the ap-pellees, and it was restated by the Court, in various respects.

In support of the appealed-from judgment herein, the court filed findings-of-fact and conclusions-of-law, at the request of appellant.

The litigants here are in such disagreement and disputation, both as to what the trial court’s judgment actually was, and the effect of its supporting findings of both fact and law, that copies of both of these documents are hereto attached, as Exhibits “A”, and “B”, respectively, and made parts hereof.

After its consideration of the record, this Court is unable to find fault with either the judgment rendered by the trial *256 court herein, or its supporting findings of either fact, or law.

As the court’s judgment makes plain, the suit, in essence, was simply one asking for an accounting, settlement, and partition of the properties on the part of the appellees, upon their showing that no further administration of the estate had been necessary.

As such, as the trial court held, it is plain that the district court had exclusive jurisdiction, under these authorities: Roy v. Whitaker, 92 Tex. 346, 347, 48 S.W. 892, 49 S.W. 367; Hutcherson v. Hutcherson, Tex.Civ.App., 135 S.W.2d 757; Jerrard v. McKenzie, 61 Tex. 40; Quintana v. Giraud, Tex.Civ.App., 209 S.W. 770, 772; Redditt v. Quinn, Tex.Civ.App., 215 S.W.2d 367; Hake v. Dilworth, Tex.Civ.App., 96 S.W.2d 121.

Stating this Court’s conclusions in a slightly different way, the trial court had jurisdiction under the pleadings and over the parties in this controversy, and its judgment was one it had the power to render under the law.

In the second place, the jurisdiction of the trial court, having been so exclusive over this controversy, it is undisputed in the record that appellant consented to the entry of the judgment so adverse to him, as an agreed judgment; wherefore, he is precluded from complaining of errors alleged to have been committed before its rendition. Shawver v. Masterson, Tex.Civ.App., 65 S.W.2d 1111.

Further, this Court, in Smith v. Cook, Tex.Civ.App., 126 S.W.2d 1049, 1052, thus pronounced the applicable rule of law in such instances: “* * * a judgment by consent waives all errors committed before its rendition, and * * they will not be noticed by the appellate court.”

Further, in an obvious effort to give the appellant in this instance the full benefit of a correct account between him and the appellees, the court gave him the benefit of a re-statement of his final account, made, as the record further shows, in accordance with what the court properly determined was the evidence in that respect, and con-formably to V.A.T.S. Arts. 3689, 3690 and 3691.

Finally, appellant, having failed to show, conformably to Rule 418, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, that any right had been denied him, or that any of the findings against him lacked support in the evidence, an affirmance of the trial court’s judgment must be entered. It will be so ordered.

Affirmed.

Exhibit “A”

On the 21st day of January, 1954, being the date agreed upon by the parties hereto for such hearing, came on to be heard, in the above styled and numbered cause, the matter of the approval, if correct and the restatement, if necessary, of the Final Account of the defendant herein, Isadore Toplitsky, Independent Executor of the Estate of Sam Toplitsky, Deceased, which Account he was ctímmanded to deliver, fully itemized and under oath and with supporting vouchers, to Houston Bank and Trust Company, Receiver, all as set out in the Decree of this Court of February 12, 1952; and also the matter of passing upon and approving the Inventory and Account filed herein by said Receiver and of fixing its fee for services rendered by it as such; and came the Plaintiffs, by and through their attorney of record and the Defendant, in person and with his attorney of record, and said Receiver by and through August J. Heinze, its Trust Officer and its attorney of record, and the parties having announced themselves ready the Court proceeded to consider the foregoing matters in accordance with the pleadings and evidence adduced.

And on the above date the Court examined the aforesaid Inventory and Account of said Receiver and finds and holds that the fee of Seven Hundred Fifty ($750.00) and 00/100 Dollars exacted by it for its services as such is proper and reasonable and that said Receiver has fully *257 accounted for all moneys received and paid out by it and that said Inventory and Account is in all respects correct and same is accordingly approved; and said Receiver is entitled to be and it is hereby discharged.

In open court and in accordance with the request of the parties hereto the said Plouston Bank and Trust Company, not in its former capacity as Receiver, but simply as Escrow Agent, and without any additional fee for so doing, agreed to retain the sum of Two Thousand Six Hundred Sixty Nine ($2,669.27) and 27/100 Dollars held by it as the undistributed portion of the funds of said Estate and which it tendered for deposit in the Registry of the Court and to divide same, along with any other additional moneys which under the provisions hereof Defendant may be commanded to pay to it, among such of the parties hereto and in such amounts as it may be hereinafter directed.

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Bluebook (online)
282 S.W.2d 254, 1955 Tex. App. LEXIS 2037, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/toplitsky-v-toplitsky-texapp-1955.