Tips v. Gay
Tips v. Gay
Opinion of the Court
This suit was brought by Walter Tips against J. G. Gay on two promissory notes, executed by said Gay in the sum of $925 each, and also on account against said Gay for $136.43, and also for $36.43 taxes paid by said Tips on said property and gin lot for 1910. The said notes were executed on July 24, 1907, and on same day Gay executed a chattel mortgage, in words and figures as follows:
“In accordance with the contract under which J. G. Gay, who resides in San Saba county, Texas, has purchased the following described property now situated at Crothers in McCulloch county, Texas, from Walter Tips, Travis county, Texas, to wit: One 3 70-saw secondhand gin outfit complete, including engine and boiler, and as further and additional security to said contract a lien and chattel mortgage is hereby executed and granted unto said Walter Tips upon said above-described property, to secure the payment of the amount due for the same in accordance with the terms of the notes given for the same, copies of which are hereto attached. Witness our hands this 24th day of July, 1907. J. G. Gay.
“$925. On or before December 1, 1908, for value received, I, we or either of us, promise to pay to the order of Walter Tips nine hundred and twenty-five dollars, with interest from August 1, 1908 until paid at the rate of eight per cent, per annum, payable annually at Austin, Texas, and if interest be not paid when due to become as principal and bear same rate of interest. This note is given in part payment of one 3 70-saw secondhand gin outfit complete, including engine and boiler, upon which a lien is hereby given and granted to secure the payment of the unpaid purchase money for the same. I also agree to pay an additional sum of ten per cent, on the amount due, as an attorney’s fee, if this note is placed in the hands of an attorney for collection, or collected by suit. This note is No. 1 of a series of two notes of even date and of like tenor herewith, as per statement below, and agree that in case of default in the payment of any of the same or the interest thereon when due, that each and all of said notes shall, at the option of the holder, become due and payable, and he may demand payment and institute proceedings on said notes or any of them in the same manner as if the same by their terms were past due. J. G. Gay. Post office: Richland Springs, Texas.
“Note No. 1. $925.00, December 1, 1908. Note No. 2. $925.00, December 1, 1909. No. 4,705.”
Then follows a -copy of note No. 2, which is identical with No. 1, except as to date of maturity; No. 2 falling due December 1, 1909, and is numbered 4,706.
Said chattel mortgage was, on February 28, 1908, filed in the office of the county clerk of San Saba county, where the defendant, Gay, then resided, and where said machinery was situated when said chattel mortgage was executed.
On September 24, 1910, Gay executed a second mortgage to Tips on said machinery and the land on which the same was sit *308 uated, to secure tbe above-described indebtedness, given as additional security for tbe same, and in consideration of tbe extension of said indebtedness.
On July 22, 1907, and prior thereto, Walter Tips owned said machinery, and tbe same was then situated at Rochelle, also known as (brothers, in McCulloch county, Tex. By agreement with Tips, and in contemplation of purchasing the same, Oay moved said machinery to Hall Valley, in San Saba county, and the same was there situated when said chattel mortgage was executed.
On July 22, 1907, in order to enable the said Gay to make a cash payment of $750 on said machinery, Harry Davenport, Leslie Davenport, J. O. Foster, O. W. Wicker, O. W. Reynolds, and A. O. McOurdy signed with said Gay, and as sureties for him, a note to the First National Bank of San Saba for $630, and the said Gay, for the purpose of indemnifying his said sureties on said note, on same day executed to the said bank a chattel mortgage on said machinery, describing the same as “one 54x14 Atlas tubular boiler, 125 pounds working pressure complete with % front and all fillings new; one 10x16 right-hand Atlas automatic secondhand engine; one C boiler feed pump and all pipe and fittings to connect; three 70-saw Munger gins; three 70-saw cleaning feeders; three 70-saw lint flue system; one Buttery condenser for three 70-saw gins; one Munger double box cylinder press with steam packer; one seed auger and all shaftings, hangers, pulleys, and belts to make outfit complete inside the ginhouse. Also one platform wagon scales, and one set of cotton balances for weighing purposes.” This mortgage was filed with the clerk of San Saba county August 20, 1907. Tips had no notice of the execution ' of this mortgage when he took the chattel mortgage from Gay, above set out. Harry Davenport and his cosureties paid said note upon maturity. They were made parties defendant herein, and alleged that their said mortgage created a prior lien in their favor on said machinery, as against the lien of Tips under the mortgage executed to him, as above stated.
On November 4, 1909, Gay and wife executed to Cleveland Sammons, trustee for the South Texas Lumber Company, a mortgage on the tract of land, described as about two acres, on which said gin was situated, and upon the ginhouse, seedhouse, and boiler room, “together with all machinery and fixtures, tools and implements, and all appurtenances thereunto appertaining, such as are not previously incumbered. This conveyance is in no manner to annul or affect a previous lien on the machinery, tools, etc., is also included in this conveyance, being the same gin, etc., on land above described.”
The South Texas Lumber Company was made a party defendant herein, and it set up said mortgage as superior to each of the mortgages hereinbefore described. M. Ber-ringer was also made a party defendant, as claiming a prior lien on “one hydraulic ram and caps and one hydraulic press, being a part of the machinery on said gin lot.” Ber-ringer answered, asking for a foreclosure of his said lien, and for judgment against said Gay on two promissory notes, executed by said Gay for said ram, etc., for $75 and $50, respectively. The death of Walter Tips was suggested, and his heirs were made parties plaintiffs. The plaintiffs dismissed as to the First National Bank of San Saba.
Judgment was rendered against J. G. Gay in favor of plaintiffs, and also in favor of the defendants Harry Davenport and others, and in favor of the South Texas Lumber Company and in favor of Berringer, for the respective amounts claimed by them in their answers. Judgment was also rendered, establishing the priority of liens by reason of said mortgages, as follows;
(1) In favor of the Berringer chattel mortgage as to the property described therein, which property is not included in the chattel mortgage executed to Tips, nor in the chattel mortgage executed to Davenport and others.
(2) In favor of Davenport and others as to the property described in the mortgage set out in their answer.
(3) In favor of the South Texas Lumber Company upon the gin machinery and outfit, as described in the deed of trust given to secure it, as above stated, but that foreclosure of said deed of trust be denied as to the land described in same, for the reason that said land was the homestead of Gay and wife at the time of the execution of the same.
(4) “That the chattel mortgage set out and described by the plaintiffs constituted no lien upon the property therein described, because the same did not properly identify and describe said property, but that the deed of trust set out and described in the plaintiffs’ pleadings constitutes a first lien upon the real estate therein described, and said deed of trust operated as a chattel mortgage on the gin machinery and outfit described, but was subject to the mortgages of both of the defendants above referred to.”
Appellants have duly perfected an appeal from said judgment and here seek a revision of the same.
Opinion.
The judgment of the trial court, in so far as it awarded a moneyed judgment in favor of the respective parties against Gay, and in so far as it establishes a prior lien in favor of Berringer on the property described in his mortgage, and in so far as it found that the Lumber Company’s mortgage could not be foreclosed on the real estate described in said judgment, was correct; but said judgment, as to the priority of liens, was erroneous as herein indicated. Said judgment is reversed and remanded, to be retried in accordance with the law governing this case as herein indicated.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- TIPS v. GAY Et Al.
- Cited By
- 17 cases
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- Published