Warne v. Jackson

273 S.W. 315, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 461
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 13, 1925
DocketNo. 7358.
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 273 S.W. 315 (Warne v. Jackson) 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
Warne v. Jackson, 273 S.W. 315, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 461 (Tex. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

ELY, C. J.

This suit involves the contest of a will of John L. Jackson by Robert I. Jackson and Sarah V. Jackson, as against George B. Warne, describing himself as executor of the will, and also an attack on a temporary administration. 'The cause is before this court on a second appeal, the first being reported in 230 S. W. 242. On the former appeal it was held that no appeal had been perfected to the district court from the county court because no appeal bond had been filed by Warne. It was held that the district court had no jurisdiction in the matter, and therefore the judgment of the county court denying probate of the will remained in full force and effect.

We gather from the record that appellant, after the judgment of the court had been rendered in the former appeal, went into the county court to set aside the judgment denying probate of the will of John L. Jackson, and also to set aside a judgment or decree partitioning the estate of the decedent, and approving the final account of Dan. E. Lydick, temporary administrator of said estate. The suit to set aside the judgment of the county court and probate the will was brought by George B. Warne, as the independent executor named in the will, and the National Spiritualists. Association of the United States of America, a corporation, incorporated under the laws of the District of Oolumbia. The application to set aside the judgments of the county court was based on the grounds that the effect of the judgment of this court was to annul, not only the judgment of the district court; but also that of the county court, and-that the judgment of the county court denying the probate of the will was obtained through fraud and perjured testimony, in this that the answers of John I. Jackson and Sarah V. Jackson were false and were a fraud upon the court, and “that all the evidence introduced to support their contention that they had a legal right to contest the probating of said will, was false and. perjured testimony.” A general demurrer was sustained by the county court to the petition of appellants, and when they appealed to the district court their appeal was dismissed. This appeal is prosecuted from the order of dismissal.

It was not the intention of this court on the former appeal of this case to disturb the judgment of the county court, which fully and fairly appears from the opinion of this court. The effect of the judgment was to dismiss the cause so far as the district court was concerned. This judgment of this court could not affect the judgment of the county court no matter what language might have been used, for ‘the reason that the judgment of the county court had not been appealed from because no appeal bond had been given to the district court. It was plainly held that the district court had no jurisdiction because no appeal bond had been filed, and the cause had not been removed to the district court. On the former appeal, appellant insisted that the district court did not have jurisdiction of the cause, and this court said:

“The record shows that no appeal bond was given from the county court to the district court, and appellant is insisting that the district court had no jurisdiction of the cause, and it will neeeSsarily follow that if the district court .had no .jurisdiction of the cause the judgment of the county court, denying probate of the will, has not been disturbed, and is still in full force and effect, and the dismissal of the cause would be exactly what appellees are seeking to obtain.” ,

This court then discussed the question of the jurisdiction of the district court, held that it had no jurisdiction, and dismissed the cause. That judgment left the decree of the county court in full force and effect. The judgment of this court was :

“A bond should have been executed by ap.pellant in order to give the district court jurisdiction, and as the district court had no jurisdiction, this court has none, and the cause will be dismissed.”

It is an absurdity to contend that this court without jurisdiction could, by any language or set of words, have affected a judgment from which no appeal had been perfected. The authorities cited by appellants as to the effect that an appeal from a judgment of a county court has upon that judgment have no applicability whatever to a *317 case where no appeal was ever perfected, and of course are not authority in this case. Ño action of the district court nor of this court could possibly affect a judgment in the county court of which neither had any jurisdiction: ,

The petition failed to state a cause of action, and a general demurrer was properly sustained. The voluminous pleading sets out in much detail the testimony of a number of witnesses who testified when the county court was considering the probate of the will, and denounces their testimony as false and perjured, but all of it was testimony legitimately before the county court, and its credibility and weight was duly considered by that tribunal. The fraud alleged was not extrinsic to the matter tried, but was purely intrinsic, and entered into the proceedings in the county court. Appellants had the opportunity to correct the judgment of the county court through an appeal, but failed to avail themselves of that remedy. The cause could have been carried by appeal to the district court, where it would have been heard de novo, and the fraud and perjury exposed in that court. Having through their own inexcusable neglect failed to obtain a new trial in the district court, they could not avoid the effects of their negligence by an attempt to obtain another hearing in the county court on the ground of the falsity of certain evidence which was heard and weighed by the county court in the trial of the cause. As said by the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Hilton v. Guyot, 159 U. S. 113, 16 S. Ct. 139, 40 L. Ed. 95:

“It has often, indeed, been declared by this court that the fraud which entitles a party to impeach the judgment of one of our own tribunals must be fraud extrinsic to the matter tried in the cause, and not merely consist in false and fraudulent documents or testimony submitted to that tribunal, and the truth of which was contested before it and passed upon by it.”

As said by Freeman on Judgments, § 489:

“The procuring of a judgment by perjury, or subornation of perjury, is doubtless a fraud, and such a fraud as would induce equity to grant relief, were it not for the fact that its existence can rarely or never be ascertained otherwise than by trying anew an issue already tried in the former action. Whenever an issue exists in any action or proceeding, each of the parties should anticipate that his adversary will offer evidence- to support his side of it, and should be prepared to meet such evidence with counterproofs. Where he has an opportunity to do this, and does not avail himself of it, is unable to overcome the effect upon the court or jury of the evidence offered by his adversary, he cannot, in effect, obtain a retrial of the issue before another tribunal by charging that the judgment against him was procured by perjury; and this has been held to continue to be the rule, notwithstanding the existence of a statute authorizing actions to set aside judgments obtained by means of perjury or subornation of perjury.”

This is the fundamental doctrine and cannot be departed from, except as stated in McMurray v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
273 S.W. 315, 1925 Tex. App. LEXIS 461, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/warne-v-jackson-texapp-1925.