Lemons v. Biddy
Lemons v. Biddy
Opinion of the Court
This cause originated in the justice court- of Cottle county, Tex., wherein appellees sued appellants for the sum of $182.50, alleged to be due for drilling and casing a well on the property of Mrs. J. C. Lemons, at her special instance and request; she at the time being a married woman. From a judgment rendered in that court for appellants, the case was carried to the county court by appellees on certiorari, where, on December 11, 1911, judgment was rendered in favor of appellees and against appellants for the amount sued for, together with 6 per cent, interest thereon, from which latter judgment an appeal has been prosecuted to this court by J. C. Lemons and his wife, Mrs. J. C. Lemons, and the case submitted in this court on four assignments of error, as follows:
(1)“The court erred in rendering judgment for plaintiffs against the defendants in said cause, and in not rendering judgment for the defendants, for the reason that this was a suit against a married woman on a contract by and between plaintiffs and defendant Mrs.-J. C. Lemons, and it was nowhere alleged or proven that the husband of Mrs. J. C. Lemons joined in the contract, or that' he authorized or ratified the same; nor was it alleged or proven, or attempted to be alleged or proven, that the contract sued on was such a contract as could be entered into by a married woman without being joined by her husband.”
(2) “The court erred in rendering judgment against the defendant J. C. Lemons for any amount in favor of the plaintiffs, for the reason that it was nowhere alleged or proven, or attempted to be .alleged or proven, that he ever made any contract with the plaintiffs, or in any way became liable to pay anything or any amount.”
(3) “The court erred in rendering judgment for the plaintiffs and against the defendants, for the reason same is not supported by evidence, in that plaintiff failed to prove a sufficient compliance by them of their part of the contract, in that it was not proven how deep the well in controversy was drilled or dug by legal evidence or otherwise, and for the further reason that no evidence was introduced to show that plaintiff’s demand, if any they had, was due or unpaid.”
(4) “The court erred in overruling defendant’s motion to quash and dismiss the writ of certiorari in said cause.”
The statement of facts, when read in the light of the balance of the record, shows, we think, with reasonable certainty that the land upon which the well was drilled was the separate property of Mrs. J. O. Lemons; and there is also evidence sufficient in the record, if believed by the trial court (the cause having been tried before the court without a. jury), to warrant the conclusion that the well was drilled at a stipulated price agreed upon, and under a contract authorized to be made, before it was made, by Mrs. J. O. Lemons; and we think there is sufficient to be found in the record warranting the conclusion that the price agreed upon and sued for herein was reasonable, and that the drilling and casing the well on the premises was beneficial to the separate property of Mrs. J. G. Lemons.
There is no express pleading in the record, nor is there any express declaration found in the statement of facts, to the effect that the property on which the improvements were made was the separate property of Mrs. Lemons; nor is there any express declaration in the pleading or in the evidence to the effect that the drilling and casing the well on said premises was beneficial to the property, though we think there is ample in the record from which both these conclusions must necessarily be drawn.
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What we have said in disposing of the first assignment, when considered in connection with article 1201, Sayles’ Annotated Civil Statutes, above quoted, necessarily results in overruling appellant’s second assignment of error.
As appellants’ fourth assignment is based upon the proposition that appellees’ application for certiorari fails to show a right to recover, because there is no express allegation that the property on which the improvements were made was the separate property of Mrs. Lemons, or that the improvements inured to the benefit of her separate property, what we have said in disposing of other assignments requires that this assignment be also overruled.
Finding no reversible error in the record, the judgment of the trial court will be affirmed; and it is so ordered.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- LEMONS Et Ux. v. BIDDY Et Al.
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published