Watkins v. Robinson

271 S.W. 284
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 7, 1925
DocketNos. 9293, 9369.
StatusPublished

This text of 271 S.W. 284 (Watkins v. Robinson) 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
Watkins v. Robinson, 271 S.W. 284 (Tex. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

JONES, C. J.

Por reasons that are apparent from this decision, submission of these two causes was ordered for the same time and disposition of both causes will be made in one opinion,

Appellants filed a plea of intervention in two separate receivership cases in the district court. In the first-named cause the receivership involved a partnership existing between Percy S. Campbell and Roy 0. Campbell for the operation of the hotel known as the “Campbell House,” located in the ci,ty of Dallas at the corner of "Elm and Harwood streets. The receiver was primarily appointed to wind up the partnership, with the additional power to operate the hotel pending the final dissolution of said partnership.

In the second-named cause the receivership involved the ownership of the hotel property together with another piece of property located on Elm street, and the receiver was primarily appointed for the purpose of making a partition between the owners of said property, with power to operate said hotel pending the sale of the property for the purpose of such partition.

The ownership of the hotel property was in Percy S. Campbell, Roy C. Campbell, E. J. Campbell, and Mrs. Annette Campbell Dawson O’Donnell, brothers and sister, each owning a one-fourth undivided interest. The question of certain equities existing in favor of some of the owners of this property and the Elm street- property, determined by the judgment entered herein, do not enter into the questions involved on these appeals.

Appellee Robinson was appointed receiver of the partnership affairs on May 26, 1923, on an application made to the district court of Dallas county by Percy S. Campbell, and, while Roy C. Campbell did not formally consent to such receivership, yet he interposed no objection to same. As such receiver, Robinson was empowered and directed to take charge of the business and affairs of the partnership consisting of a hotel business operated “under leased premises and property (at. the corner of Harwood and Elm streets, Dallas, Texas,” and also to prepare and file an inventory of the property and assets belonging to'said partnership, together with a statement of the liabilities of said partnership. The receiver was further directed and empowered to continue to operate the hotel business, and given all powers necessarily incident to such purpose. This receiver took charge of and operated the hotel from June 1, 1923.

The partnership of the two brothers began in December, 1921, and their right to use the hotel and its furnishings for such business consisted in the ownership of a one-fourth undivided interest in said property by each of the partners, and leases of the remaining one-half undivided interest from the other two joint owners. The lease of the one-fourth undivided interest of E. J. Campbell was a written lease for five years from the date of the beginning of the partnership, and the lease of the other one-fourth undivided interest at the time of the receivership was a verbal'one, running fróin -month to month.

The receiver appointed in the second receivership proceedings, which looked to the partition of the property among the owners, was also instituted on the petition of Tercy S.. Campbell, and was either joined in or not resisted by the other joint owners. The judg *286 ment appointing this receiver was dated July 20, 1923, and appellee Robinson was also named receiver in this cause, and was directed and empowered to make sale of the property at private sale for the purpose of partition and, in addition to this power, was directed and empowered to operate said hotel pending the final sale of the property. The receiver at once qualified .and continued to operate the hotel from July 20, 1923, presumably under the second receivership.

While Robinson, as receiver, was operating the hotel under the first receivership, he employed appellant, S. D. Watkins, a minor, as an elevator boy, and on the 28th day of June, 1923, Watkins was seriously and permanently injured while operating an elevator in said hotel. Some time thereafter, Lula Watkins, the mother of S. D. Watkins, filed suit against Robinson, as receiver, both as next friend for S. D. Watkins and in her own behalf as sole surviving parent. This suit was tried in a district court of Dallas county on the 17th day of December, 1923, and resulted in a judgment in favor of S. D. Watkins for $5,000 and in favor of Lula Watkins for $500. Erom this judgment Robinson, as receiver, perfected his appeal, but no supersedeas bond was filed.

With this judgment as a basis for a claim against the receiver, appellants filed a plea of intervention in the first receivership proceedings alleging, among other i¡hings, their judgment, and that there were no funds in the hands of the receiver from the operation of the partnership business with which to pay same; and alleging further that the property had been sold for $280,000 cash, and that the proceeds of said sale had been paid info court, and praying that said proceeds of the sale be charged with the payment of their said judgment.

Upon a hearing on this plea of intervention, the court allowed in full the claim represented by the judgment, but decreed that it could only be paid out of proceeds from the operation of the partnership business that had come into the hands of the receiver while he was operating said business, and specifically denied that said claim could be a charge against the interest in the hotel property owned by Percy S. Campbell and Roy C. Campbell. As there were no funds in the hands of such receiver that could be applied under this judgment of the court to the payment of their claims, appellants duly excepted to the judgment, and have perfected their appeal to this court.

Appellant, on May 29, 1924, filed a similar plea of intervention in the cause in which the second receivership ease was pending, making substantially the same allegations as in their other plea of intervention, and praying that the claim shown by their judgment be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the hotel property. The issues made by this plea of intervention were heard by the court on May 23, 1924, and entered judgment denying all the relief sought in said plea. Erom this judgment, appellants have duly perfected their appeal.

To each of these pleas of intervention receiver Robinson filed answers, the gist of his contention being that, in the first receivership, under which the claims arose, he operated the hotel for the partnership business solely on leased premises, and, for which reason, there never came into his possession the fee to the property owned by the partners, and that same could not therefore be charged with a claim growing out of his receivership. In his report of the assets coming into his hands as receiver, he only reported the lease in favor of the partnership and the income resulting from the operation •of the hotel; and this report further showed that there was no profit made in the operation of the hotel, and that the lease in his possession was likewise of no value.

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271 S.W. 284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/watkins-v-robinson-texapp-1925.