Traders Oil Mill Co. v. Arnold Bros. Gin Co.

225 S.W.2d 1011, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2296
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 22, 1949
DocketNo. 12140
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 225 S.W.2d 1011 (Traders Oil Mill Co. v. Arnold Bros. Gin Co.) 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
Traders Oil Mill Co. v. Arnold Bros. Gin Co., 225 S.W.2d 1011, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2296 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

CODY, Justice.

This is an appeal from the order of the District Court of Houston County, overruling appellant’s (defendant’s) plea of privilege, seeking to' háve the suit transferred to Tarrant County, which 'is the county where appellant, a corporation, is domiciled. Among the grounds urged by plaintiff in its controverting affidavit, resisting the transfer of the cause on appellant’s plea, is Subdivision 23 of Art. 1995,' Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. Said exception to the generál venue statute provides in part that suits “against a private corporation * * * ■may be brought in any county in which the cause of action, or a part thereof, arose * * * The hearing oh the plea was to the court without a jury, and it was solely under said exception that the court overruled appellant’s plea. In response to appellant’s request, the court filed conclusions of. fact and law, which, so far as we deem here material, are:

That, about the first of September, 1948, the appellee (plaintiff) acting by its representative, made a telephone call from Crockett, Houston County, where it is domiciled, to appellant in Fort Worth, and thereby made the oral contract here sued on. That, by the terms of said contract, appel-lee sold and appellant bought the cotton seed described in appellee’s petition. That the seed were contracted to be, and in fact were, shipped by appellee from Crockett and Lovelady, in Houston County, “f.o.b.”said shipping points, to appellant in Fort Worth. That appellant paid the freight [1012]*1012charges on said seed and exercised exclusive dominion over said seed, which were transported to Fort Worth. That the seed so delivered by appellee at aforesaid shipping points, under the terms of said agreement, were of the standard contemplated by the parties. That, “According to the terms of said contract, defendant agreed to pay to plaintiff the sum of eight-five dollars ($85.00) per ton therefor, or the market price therefor, whichever was the higher at the time of the demand for payment.”

It was not disputed that'the offer, upon which the contract was based, was made in Crockett by plaintiff and was accepted in Fort Worth by defendant; and no question is here raised as to the sufficiency of the pleading. — The court concluded as a matter of law, that a. part of appellee’s cause of action against appellant corporation arose in Houston county, because “plaintiff was and is. required to allege and prove it sold and delivered to defendant the cotton seed in question”; and the court further concluded that since “under the terms of such contract plaintiff would not be entitled to recover for cotton seed not delivered to defendant”; and that since it was necessary to prove “the delivery to the common carriers, in Houston County”; and that since it was necessary for ap-pellee (plaintiff) to prove “the acceptance thereof (i. e., acceptance of delivery of the seed) by defendant”, that said matters constituted necessary elements of plaintiff’s cause of action, which arose in Houston County. The court accordingly overruled appellant’s plea of privilege.

Because appellant predicates its appeal solely upon the following points, it is unnecessary to .give more of the court’s conclusions of fact and law; said points being:

1. That appellee, as plaintiff, is not entitled here to hold venue in Houston County, under Subdivision 23,, Art. 1995, for the reason that the oral contract was not made in Houston County, nor did appellant violate- any of its obligations in said County.

2. That, this being an action on an alleged oral contract, for the purpose of determining venue the cause of action must be taken as being composed of the facts relating to the formation of the contract, and of the facts constituting its breach. That, since the only event transpiring in Houston County was appellee’s delivery of the seed “f.o.b.” at points in Houston County, the court erred in concluding that a part of appellee’s cause of action arose thereby in Houston County, which were sufficient to sustain venue .in said County as against appellant’s plea of privilege.

“The inestimable right of the citizen to be sued in the place of his residence”, Todd v. W. E. Jamar Seed Co., Tex.Civ.App., 252 S.W. 256, 257, which is fixed generally'by Art. 1995, has been weakened by some thirty exceptions duly enacted by the legislature. The language, “may be brought in any county in which the cause of action, or a part thereof, arose,” which occurs in exception 23 to Art. 1995, was doubtless employed by the legislature in response to the admonition of the supreme court in Phillio v. Blythe, 12 Tex. 124, 126, 127. See also Western Wool Commission Co. v. Hart, Tex.Sup., 20 S.W. 131; Mercantile Bank & Trust Co. v. Schuhart, 115 Tex. 114, 277 S.W. 621.

In a case, for instance, where a contract is made in one county, and is breached in another, it would be a labor of some nicety to determine whether the cause of action accrued in the county where the contract was made, or in the county where the breach occurred. Anyway, in 1874, provision was passed that corporations may be sued in any county “where the cause of action, or a part thereof, accrued.” In 1879, the word “accrued” was changed to “arose”. See Western Wool Commission Co. v. Hart, supra, at page 132 of 20 S.W. Said the court in the Hart case, “The cause of action is that in which the plaintiff’s remedy has its origin, — the fact or facts giving him the right to bring the suit. * * *,' those facts which show the plaintiff’s primary- right in the matter are as much a párt of the cause of action, and" are as necessary as a foundation for the suit, as are those facts showing a violation or invasion of his right,- ordinarily termed a breach of the contract or covenant by the defendant.” Quoted with approval in Mercantile Bank & Trust Co. v. Schuhart, [1013]*1013supra, at page 119 of 115 Tex., 227 S.W. 621.

Undoubtedly, in the case at bar, a part of the cause of action may be said to have arisen in Tarrant county, where the contract was accepted. Planters’ Cotton Oil Co. v. Whitesboro Cotton Oil Co., Tex.Civ.App., 146 S.W. 225; Cowdin Grocery Co. v. Early-Foster Co., Tex.Civ.App., 237 S.W. 578; Houston Packing Co. v. Cuero Cotton Oil & Mfg. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 220 S.W. 394. Under the authority of such cases as those just cited, it may now be taken as settled that, where a contract is made orally over the telephone, with' the offerer being'in one county and the offeree in another, the contract is considered as having been made in the. county in which the acceptance is made, and not in the county in which the offer is made. But the mere fact thát a part of a cause of action may be said to have arisen in Tarrant County in no way prevents a finding that another part of the cause of action arose, in Houston County. Nor does appellant contend otherwise. Appellant does contend, however, that where a suit sounds in contract, before it can be said that a part of a cause of action has arisen against a defendant in a particular county, so as to allow such defendant to be sued in said county, the defendant must have subjected himself to such venue either in virtue of the provisions of the contract, or in virtue of the county being the locus of the contract, or in virtue of some act done by him in said county, or left undone by him there, which it was his duty to do. As authority sustaining such position, appellant cites the Stone Fort National Bank v. Forbes, 126 Tex. 568, 91 S.W.2d 674

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Bluebook (online)
225 S.W.2d 1011, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 2296, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/traders-oil-mill-co-v-arnold-bros-gin-co-texapp-1949.