Young Women's Christian Ass'n v. Hair

165 S.W.2d 238
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 21, 1942
DocketNo. 9336
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 165 S.W.2d 238 (Young Women's Christian Ass'n v. Hair) 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
Young Women's Christian Ass'n v. Hair, 165 S.W.2d 238 (Tex. Ct. App. 1942).

Opinion

BLAIR, Justice.

This litigation arose as follows:

Appellant, The Young Women’s- Christian Association of Austin, Texas, filed a forcible entry and detainer sttit against appellee, J. F. Hair, seeking possession of a certain building in Austin, Texas, owned by appellant, alleging that appellee had no right of possession if he claimed under a lease from appellant to Malcom and Loretta Mullenix, a copy of which was attached to the complaint, and which lease appellant alleged it had forfeited and terminated prior to the time appellee went into possession of the property under a month to month tenancy; and that appellee had failed to vacate the premises after notice to do so. Alternatively it was alleged that if appel-lee were in possession under the Mullenix lease, appellant had forfeited and terminated it because of violation of certain of its terms by appellee. Appellee answered that he was in possession as assignee of the Mul-lenix -lease under the express or implied agreement of appellant and its agent, and having upon termination of the term prescribed renewed the lease under the option given therein to do so; and plea of not guilty.

Appellant obtained judgment for restitution of the premises both in the justice court and on appeal in the county court. After the judgment in the county court became final, appellee sued appellant in the district court in the form of a trespass to try title suit; but specially plead his title and right of possession under the Mullenix lease, alleging the same facts which he had alleged as a defense to the forcible entry and detainer suit; and praying for a temporary injunction to restrain appellant from taking possession under its county court judgment pending a hearing of his alleged trespass to try title suit in the district court. To this suit appellant addressed pleas to the jurisdiction, pleas in abatement, motion to dismiss for failure to state any ground for relief, and a special plea of res adjudicata of the judgment of the county court in the forcible entry and detainer suit; all of which were overruled or denied, and the court granted a temporary injunction ‘restraining appellant from enforcing or taking possession of the premises under its forcible entry and detainer judgment; hence this appeal from the order granting the temporary injunction.

The respective contentions of the parties are as follows:

Of appellant: That under the pleadings and evidence of appellee title to the property under the lease was only connected with possession and was merely incidentally involved both in the forcible entry and detainer suit and in the trespass to try title suit out of which the temporary injunction complained of was issued; that under the pleadings and evidence of ap-pellee in both suits the sole issue was the right of possession under the Mullenix lease, which issue was litigated to final judgment between the parties in the forcible entry and detainer suit; and that the granting of the temporary injunction rendered nugatory the judgment in the forcible entry and detainer suit as well as the statutes which authorized the suit; and that if the courts involved originally had concurrent jurisdiction to try the issue of the right of possession of the premises between the parties, the county court having first done so, its judgment is therefore res ad-judicata of the issue.

Of appellee: That where a party in possession of real property has plead his title under a written lease for a term of one or more years in a forcible entry and detainer suit for the purpose of showing his right of possession, and where the final judgment therein has been rendered denying his title or right of possession under the title so plead, the defendant has the right to file a trespass to try title suit in the district court and have that court adjudge his title under the lease;- that a district judge -may, in his discretion, temporarily restrain or enjoin the restitution of possession under the forcible entry and detain-er judgment pending the adjudication of title under the lease in the trespass to try title suit; and that this is the rule even though as an incident to the judgment determining title, the right of possession is also determined and may or will have the effect of setting aside or rendering nugatory the prior final judgment in the forcible entry and detainer suit. These contentions of appellee are based primarily upon Art. 3984 (now Rule 746, R.C.P.), which provides that title may not be determined in a forcible entry and detainer suit, and Art. [241]*2413994, which provides that the “proceedings under a forcible entry, or forcible detainer, shall not bar an action for trespass, damages,” etc.

The questions presented are not free from difficulty. This is due to the fact that the forcible entry and detainer statutes (Arts. 3973-3994, as amended or modified by New Rules of Civil Procedure, Sec. 2, Rules 738-7S5), specifically authorize the justice and the county court on appeal to determine the right of possession of real property, and the fact that the district court under its general jurisdiction is given the power to determine the same right of possession. This concurrent jurisdiction has given rise to some confusion among the decisions, which is particularly true when in the same case both title and possession are involved. We are of the view, however, that neither the justice court nor the county court on appeal in the forcible entry and detainer suit tried or attempted to determine the title claimed by appellee under the Mullenix lease. The facts concerning this assignment to appel-lee under the alleged implied agreement of appellant thereto were fully developed, but only as connected with or incidental to the issue of the right of possession of the property under the first ground alleged by appellant therefor and the defense of appellee thereto; which right of possession was the only issue that could be determined in the forcible entry and detainer suit. And we have reached the conclusion that the forcible entry and detainer judgment sustaining the alternative ground plead by appellant to the effect that if appellee were the assignee of the Mullenix lease under an implied agreement of appellant thereto, appellant had forfeited and terminated it because appellee had violated certain of its terms, was a final adjudication of the right of possession upon a ground in which title was not involved, but only a breach of the provisions of the lease was involved; and that the trial court, therefore, erred in granting the temporary injunction restraining the enforcement of this final judgment.

In the forcible entry and detainer suit appellant claimed the right of possession upon two grounds: (1) That the Mullenix lease had been terminated by it prior to the time appellee went into possession, and that under the facts alleged and proved appellee was merely a tenant from month to month. (2) In the alternative, if ap-pellee were the assignee of the Mullenix lease, appellant had forfeited and terminated it because appellee had violated its terms. Appellee alleged and his proof in both the forcible entry and detainer suit and in his trespass to try title suit tended to show that he was the assignee of the Mullenix lease, under an implied agreement with appellant or its agent; and that he had not violated its terms, but that he had carried out its terms by expending $3,200 in making the improvements required.

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Bluebook (online)
165 S.W.2d 238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-womens-christian-assn-v-hair-texapp-1942.