Transceiver Corp. of America v. Ring Around Products, Inc.

595 S.W.2d 623, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3120
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 28, 1980
DocketNo. 1315
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 595 S.W.2d 623 (Transceiver Corp. of America v. Ring Around Products, Inc.) 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
Transceiver Corp. of America v. Ring Around Products, Inc., 595 S.W.2d 623, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3120 (Tex. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

McKAY, Justice.

This is an appeal of an order of the trial court which denied appellant’s motion to quash a notice to take a deposition duces tecum, which was issued in connection with an execution based upon a previous money judgment, and the refusal of the trial court to declare that the judgment had been fully satisfied and to issue a permanent injunction enjoining one Headwell, assignee of [625]*625judgment, from further efforts to collect such judgment.

This cause has had a rather long and involved history; therefore, it is necessary to itemize in chronological order the events which have brought it to this point:

1. On May 17, 1971, the 160th District Court of Dallas County, Texas, rendered judgment against appellant, Transceiver Corporation of America, and in favor of appellee, Ring Around Products, Inc. in the sum of $11,200.00 together with interest and costs.

2. On or about July 27, 1973, appellee assigned such judgment to Raymond Head-well.

3. Headwell then took the assigned judgment to the State of New York and filed a proceeding in the Supreme Court of Rennselaer County, New York, whereby the judgment became enforceable in the State of New York in favor of Headwell against appellant.

4. On August 23,1973, Headwell filed in the Federal Court for the Northern District of Texas at Dallas an Involuntary Petition in Bankruptcy against appellant, alleging that he, Headwell, was one of three moving creditors being the assignee of the Texas judgment against appellant:

5. On or about April 22, 1974, Headwell filed an action in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, Maryland, for the purpose of enforcing in the State of Maryland the judgment which had been filed in the State of New York, which in turn was based on the Texas judgment.

6. On June 27, 1974, the court in Maryland granted a judgment in favor of Head-well and against appellant for the sum of $14,946.75.

7. On or about July 5, 1974, Headwell caused a writ of garnishment to be issued in Baltimore County, Maryland, against a corporate entity known as Transceiver of Maryland, Inc.

8. On or about October 15, 1976, upon motion of appellant, an injunction was issued by the Federal Court in the bankruptcy proceedings which prohibited Headwell from proceeding with his various actions against appellant; however, the injunction specifically excluded the garnishment action pending in the State of Maryland but provided “that such action may be continued by Raymond Headwell only at his expense and any funds obtained by him by virtue of such action shall be deposited into the registry of this court * * *

9. Headwell then recovered from the garnishee in Maryland the full amount of the judgment with interest for a total of $14,946.75.

10. As a result of such payment to Headwell two Orders of Satisfaction were signed and entered of record on December 10, 1976.

11. On June 23, 1977, the Federal Court issued another order directing Headwell to turn over and pay into the registry of the Federal Court the sum of $14,946.75 “for distribution pursuant to said Plan of Settlement.”

12. On July 7, 1977, Headwell deposited the sum of $14,946.75 into the registry of the Federal Court.

13. Simultaneously with this deposit of the funds in the registry of the court Head-well filed a motion for disbursement of funds, alleging that inasmuch as he had elected not to participate as a creditor in the Plan of Settlement he should not be required to pay over the funds and was entitled to have them returned. On December 20, 1977, the court denied the motion.

14. On or about March 15, 1978, Head-well caused to be issued an execution against appellant based upon the Texas judgment, and caused a subpoena duces te-cum to be issued for the president of appellant for the purpose of discovering the existence of assets out of which the judgment could be satisfied.

15. On May 18, 1978, appellant filed a Motion to Quash in the 160th District Court in Dallas asking that the court quash the execution, the subpoena duces tecum, and that the court declare that the judgment had been fully satisfied and issue a perma[626]*626nent injunction enjoining Headwell from any further efforts to collect the judgment.

16. On August 18, 1978, a hearing was held by the court on said Motion to Quash and application for injunction, and the parties made a stipulation that “the facts contained in the exhibits admitted (naming them) are the operative facts upon which the court will base its decision of the law.”

17. In response to HeadwelPs complaint that appellant, in its Motion to Quash, had not specifically pled res judicata, appellant filed on or about August 31, 1978, its Motion for Leave to File Amended Motion to Quash, more specifically pleading the issue of res judicata.

18. On November 8,1978, the trial court rendered an Amended Order Denying Defendant’s Motion to Quash.

19. On November 9,1978, appellant filed its request for findings of fact and conclusions of law, but there were no findings or conclusions filed.

Appellant brings five points of error, the first three of which complain that the trial court erred in refusing to grant appellant declaratory and injunctive relief because (1) the evidence established that the Texas judgment was fully paid and satisfied by a successful garnishment in the State of Maryland; (2) the orders of satisfaction entered by the Maryland court extinguished the Texas judgment and the Maryland order is entitled to full faith and credit; and (3) the doctrine of res judicata bars appellee Headwell from seeking to establish entitlement to recover funds based upon the Texas judgment.

Headwell concedes, as argued by appellant, (a) that a judgment creditor is entitled to only one satisfaction of his judgment; (b) that the judgment and orders of a court of competent jurisdiction of a sister state are entitled to full faith and credit in Texas, and (c) that payment or satisfaction of judgment (if legally sufficient to satisfy judgment at issue added by Headwell) extinguishes that judgment no matter where such payment is made. However, Headwell maintains that a satisfaction of judgment may be defeated by a showing of no consideration or a failure of consideration, and that the record here demonstrates that there was no consideration or a “later failure of consideration in regard to the Satisfactions of -Judgment relied upon by Transceiver Corporation.”

Headwell says that he mis-interpreted the preliminary injunction order of the Federal Court in that he interpreted such order “to allow him to keep the proceeds from the Maryland action if, but only if, he opted out of the Plan of Settlement then proposed in the bankruptcy action;” however, the bankruptcy court held that its order required the money received in Maryland to be paid into the registry of the court regardless of whether Headwell opted in or out of the Plan of Settlement. Headwell maintains that the result of the Maryland garnishment was that appellant still received the benefit of the $14,946.75 the same as it would have prior to the garnishment action, that he continued to be without the benefit of any money with which to satisfy his existing judgment, and that the claim of satisfaction of judgment was based solely upon the $14,946.75 being delivered to him.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
595 S.W.2d 623, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/transceiver-corp-of-america-v-ring-around-products-inc-texapp-1980.