Waters-Pierce Oil Co. v. Texas (No. 2)

212 U.S. 112, 29 S. Ct. 227, 53 L. Ed. 431, 1909 U.S. LEXIS 1800
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedJanuary 18, 1909
Docket360
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 212 U.S. 112 (Waters-Pierce Oil Co. v. Texas (No. 2)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Waters-Pierce Oil Co. v. Texas (No. 2), 212 U.S. 112, 29 S. Ct. 227, 53 L. Ed. 431, 1909 U.S. LEXIS 1800 (1909).

Opinion

Me. Justice Day

delivered the opinion of the court.

This'case was argued and submitted with Waters-Pierce Oil Company, plaintiff in error, against the State of Texás, just de-. eided, No. 359, ante, p. 86. It is brought here to review the action of the Court of Civil Appeals of Texas affirming an order of the District. Court of Travis County appointing a receiver to take charge of the property,and business of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company. In view of the statement made in No. 359 it is unnecessary to repeat the facts leading up to the judgment in this case. On the same day that the judgment was rendered in the'former case-the State of Texas, acting through its Attorney General and the' county attorney of Travis County, filed in the District Court of Travis County an application for.the appoint *114 ment of a receiver, reciting the judgment rendered in the earlier case, averring that a suit was. pending in Missouri for the forfeiture of the charter of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company; that a master had been appointed in that case by the-Supreme Court of the State whérein the action was pending; that he had reported in favor of dissolving the corporation, which recommendation had the force and effect of a judgment forfeiting the charter of said company, and it was alleged that the penalties recovered in that case could not be collected outside of the State of Texas; that the property of the defendant within the State of Texas was inadequate to pay the judgment; that the great bulk' of the property situated in the State subject to the payment of the judgment consisted of accounts, cars, money on hand and other property, easily movable, and that if the same was carried beyond the limits of the State the judgment could not be collected. It was averred that under and by virtue of an act of the State of Texas, passed April 11,1907, the State has a lien upon all said property to secure the payment of the above-mentioned judgment.

A. receiver was asked for to take charge of the property and assets of every kind belonging to the defendant and situated in the State of Texas. And the State also asked for a writ of injunction, prohibiting the removal from the State of Texas of any of the property of the defendant. On the same day the court granted the temporary injunction as prayed for, and set the application for a receiver for hearing, on June 8, 1907.

On the seventh of June the defendant’s motion for a new trial in the principal case having been overruled, the defendant gave notice of appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals of Texas, and téndered a supersedeas bond in the sum of $3,275,000, which bond was not accepted. On June 10, 1907, the court reached the conclusion that a receiver should be appointed, and continued the temporary injunction in force, from which action the defendant gave notice of its intention to appeal to the Civil Court of Appeals. At the time of the making of this order the judge of the court announced bis determination to appoint *115 Robert J. Eckhardt receiver, and postponéd the hearing until June 13, 1907, to hear objections to the appointment, and on that date the court made its order appointing Eckhardt receiver, fixing the bond in the sum of $250,000. On June Í9,1907, Eckhardt fifed his bond, which was approved and he qualified as receiver, and after the appointment of a receiver and the approval, of his bond as aforesaid a supersedeas bond in the sum of $100,000, for appeal from the order appointing a receiver, was approved. On June 15, 1907, the motion for new trial being overruled in the main case, the Waters-Pierce Oil Company appealed, and gave a bond, which was approved by the clerk.

On the appeal of the present case, involving the receivership, to the Civil Court of Appeals of Texas an application was made for an injunction restraining a’receiver, who had been appointed by the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Texas, upon which application the eourt declined to make any order interfering with the Federal receiver, but ordered its receiver to appear in- conjunction with the attorneys of the State of. Texas in the Circuit Court of the United States, and there'urge and. insist upon the rights of the .state courts to prior jurisdiction. 103 S, W. Rep. 836.

The right to the Federal receivership is involved in No. 224 of this term, heretofore argued and siibmitted to this court. 1

Ón October 23, Í907, the appeal of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company from the order appointing a receiver came on for hearing in the Court of Civil Appeals. The judgment of the District .Court was affirmed.. 105 S. W. Rep. 851. Subsequently the Supreme Court of Texas refused a writ of error to that judgment. The present proceeding in this court seeks a reversal of the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals of Texas affirming the order in the District Court appointing the receiver. .

It is well settled in this court that a review of the judgment of a state court is confined to the assignments of error made anil passed upon in the judgment of the state court brought here for review. The assignment of errors in this court cannot bring into *116 the record any new matter for our consideration. Harding v. Illinois, 196 U. S. 78.

Looking to the assignments of error in the Court of Civil Appeals, we find that the first one to mention the'Federal Constitution is No. IX, in which the constitutionality of the act of the State of Texas approved April 11, 1907, is challenged, and that act is alleged to be void because in violation of § 10 of Article II of the Constitution' of the United States, which denies to any State the right to pass ex post facto laws.

The tenth assignment assails the same act, because in violation of § 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. 'Assignment 12 is likewise based upon objections to the act of April 11, 1907. The amended assignments of error contain additional assignments, numbers 15 and 16, which likewise, are also leveled at the act of April 11,1907,

The act of April 11, 1907,-undertakes in § 1 thereof to give a ' lien upon the property of any corporation within the State, or on any corporation created by the laws of the State, or any foreign corporation authorized to do business within the State, which shall violate the anti-trust laws of the'State, for fines ánd penalties, with' costs of suit recovered in such cases, and gives the like lien for the recovery of such fines ¿nd penalties where any such law had been theretofore violated, or should be violated before the taking effect of the act, and provides for the appointment of a receiver in such cases. ■

When we examine the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals we find that it sustained the proceeding for the appointment of a receiver, not only under the act of April 11,1907, but as well by. virtue of subdivision 3 of article 1465 of Sayles’ Civil Statutes for Texas,., passed originally in 1887, which subdivision provides that a receiver may be appointed where a corporation has been dissolved, or is insolvent, or in imminent danger of insolvency, or has forfeited its corporate rights.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
212 U.S. 112, 29 S. Ct. 227, 53 L. Ed. 431, 1909 U.S. LEXIS 1800, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/waters-pierce-oil-co-v-texas-no-2-scotus-1909.