Waco Drug Co. v. Hensley

34 S.W.2d 832
CourtTexas Commission of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 4, 1931
DocketNo. 1401-5585
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 34 S.W.2d 832 (Waco Drug Co. v. Hensley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Commission of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Waco Drug Co. v. Hensley, 34 S.W.2d 832 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1931).

Opinion

SHARP, J.

Duncan Hensley filed this suit in the district court of Lubbock county, Tex., against E. I. Hall, M. A. Halsey, S. M. J. Benson, J. H. Benson, and the Waco Drug Company. He alleged that the defendants, E.' I. Hall, M. A. Halsey, S. M. J. Benson, J. H. Benson, and the Waco Drug Company, acting by G. H. Penland, its attorney, and C. M. Penland, its secretary, conspired together to defraud the plaintiff, Duncan Hensley, of $10,000, and pursuant to such conspiracy, made fraudulent representations and fraudulently concealed certain facts with reference to the affairs of the Halsey Hall Drug Company and sought recovery of Said sum on account of the said conspiracy and fraud. Upon the trial of the case plaintiff dismissed his suit as against the defendant J. H. Benson. E. I. Hall appeared in person and by written waiver of service, but did not contest plaintiff’s cause of action, and judgment was therefore rendered by the court in favor of the plaintiff against E. I. Hall for the sum of $10,-000. On motion of the remaining defendants, the trial court gave the jury a peremptory instruction to return a verdict in their favor and against the plaintiff, and, accordingly, judgment was entered dismissing the suit as against the defendant J. H. Benson, granting the plaintiff recovery against the defendant B. I. Hall, for the sum sued for and denying the plaintiff any judgment as against the remaining defendants, S. M. J. Benson, M. A. Halsey, and the Waco Drug Company. The plaintiff, Duncan Hensley, appealed from this judgment, assigning as error the trial court’s action in giving the jury a peremptory instruction to return a verdict in favor of the Waco Drug Company, but not assigning any error as to the court’s action in giving a peremptory instruction as to the remaining defendants. The Court of Civil Appeals reversed and remanded the cause. We refer to the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals for more detailed statement of the nature and result of this, suit.. 18 S.W.(2d) 778. A writ of error has been granted.

The Waco Drug Company contends that the Court of Civil Appeals erred in not overruling -the assignment of error of the plaintiff, Duncan Hensley, for the reason that there is no evidence whatsoever of any misrepresentation, concealment, fraud, or conspiracy on the part of the Waco Drug Company or any of its agents nor any circumstance from which such fraud, misrepresentation, concealment, or conspiracy could be inferred.

The sole question presented for our determination is whether or not the evidence was of sufficient probative force to require the submission of the case to the jury.

The following facts are undisputed: The firm of Halsey Hall Drug Company was a copartnership composed of M. A. Halsey and E. I. Hall, owning and operating two places of business at Lubbock, Tex. (one known as [833]*833Store No. 1 and tlie other as Store No. 2), up until the dissolution of the partnership on or about November 23, 1926. In May or June, 1926, E. I. Hall came to Waco and had a talk with Mr. Penland of the Waco Drug Company and arranged that his account might run up to $10,000. In the fall of 1920 the account went more than $10,000. The Waco Drug Company was about the only creditor they had then. The account ran up in excess of $11,000. The Waco Drug Company asked for some money. It was not paid like Hall promised to pay. G. H. Penland, the attorney for the Waco Drug Company, came out to Lubbock in October or November, 1926, to see Halsey and Hall about their indebtedness to the Waco Drug Company. After arriving there he found that Halsey was selling his interest in the business to Mr. Benson, one of the defendants, and, accordingly did not call on the drug store on this trip. He later learned that the deal was not consummated, and in November returned to Lubbock. A division of the two stores was made. A corporation was organized called Hall & Benson, Inc., for the purpose of taking over Store No. 1. Store No. 1 was conveyed by M. A. Halsey and E. I. Hall to the new corporation, Hall & Benson, Inc., and the new corporation assumed two-thirds of the total indebtedness of the Halsey-Hall Drug Company. Store No. 2 was conveyed to John Halsey, who assumed one-third of the indebtedness of Halsey Hall Drug Company. That at the time of the dissolution of the partnership of Halsey-Hall Drug Company and the incorporation of Hall & Benson, Inc., for the purpose of dividing the stores, E. I. Hall drew a draft on Duncan Hensley for $10,000, deposited the draft in the Citizens National Bank at Lubbock and delivered a deposit slip to Mr. Pen-land, the attorney, showing'the deposit, and stating to Penland that he had arranged for the money.

E. I. Hall, a brother-in-law of the plaintiff, Duncan Hensley, testified on cross-examination as follows:

“I told you that after you had talked with Mr. Halsey that I would like to talk to you. That night or the next night I had a talk with you there about the conditions of the store; as a matter of fact when you arrived there you found that Mr. Halsey and' I were not getting along very well in connection with the operation of the business; we were not working harmoniously in the conduct of the business. The night that I talked with you there in the lobby of the hotel, I ásked you something about Mr. Benson coming down and talking to me with reference to buying an interest in the stores. I told you that Mr. Benson had been considering at that time buying Mr. Halsey’s interest in the stores. I believe that at the time we were talking there that I told you that he might be interested, anyway we went to see him, Mr. Benson. After that conversation you and I got in my car early the following morning and went up to Panhandle and had a talk with Mr. Benson about coming down here and taking an interest in the stores with me. At the time that we were talking there with Mr. Benson, I told Mr. Benson that I would try to get some money to put into the stores to relieve the pressing indebtedness. We came back to Lubbock on the same day that we went to Panhandle. The next morning I got in my ear 'and stated that I was going to get the money and that I would be gone until I got it. Mr. Benson, also, said that he was going somewhere too. I stated that I was going to see my sister. When I left here I didn’t know where I was going to get the money, but I was going until I got it. I left here on Saturday morning and was gone two days. Something like that, before I came back here to Lubbock. I came back to Lubbock late in the afternoon and I met you in the lobby of the Lubbock Hotel and I told you that I had arranged for the money. You told me there in that conversation that Mr. Benson had. phoned down that he would not be interested in acquiring any interest in the two stores. At the time we talked to Mr. Benson there was the proposition of dividing the two stores at that time, he acquiring Halsey’s interest in the two stores. At the time we went up to see Mr. Benson, the proposition then was that Mr. Benson would acquire Mr.. Halsey’s interest in both stores. When I came back and reported that I had my money, and Mr. Benson had phoned down that he was not interested in acquiring any interest in the stores, you told, me that it was possible that we might work out a division of the two stores, letting me take one store and Mr. Halsey, or probably his brother, taking the other store. I believe I told you then something to the effect that if a division could be made like that, that I could interest Mr. Benson in coming in with me on a basis of one store. I called Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
34 S.W.2d 832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waco-drug-co-v-hensley-texcommnapp-1931.