Levy v. Lupton
Levy v. Lupton
Opinion of the Court
This was an action by and upon the part of R. Lupton against the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Company, the International & Great Northern Railroad Company, and the Texas Mexican Railway Company, all appellees herein, for damages in the sum of $508.94, alleging failure to deliver and wrongful conversion in joint conspiracy of a certain car of grain, shipped by said R. Lupton, from San Antonio, Tex., to Lippman Levy, San Diego, Tex. The Texas Mexican Railway Company, in answering, tendered into court the sum of $478.76, being the sum given them by Lippman Levy in payment of the draft attached to the bill of lading covering said shipment, and $204.35, being net proceeds of sale of said car of grain by said railway company — same having been left on its hands —and interpleaded Lippman Levy, and upon his death, Johanna Levy and A. Levy, as the legal representatives of Lippman Levy, and the real parties in interest. Johanna Levy and A. Levy, appellants, in answer to plaintiff’s petition and the interpleader of the defendant the Texas Mexican Railway Company, alleged that they were in fact the only successors of the rights of Lippman Levy in this controversy; that the grain shipped was not of the kind and quality agreed upon; that R. Lupton had given Lippman Levy authority to inspect the grain; and that Lippman Levy' had received the grain and paid the Texas Mexican Railway Company the invoice price of same, viz., $478.76, only for the purpose of inspecting same; and they further prayed for a recovery of said sum from the Texas Mexican Railway Company, and against the plaintiff, interest on same and all costs of suit. In a supplemental petition, the plaintiff, R. Lupton, besides controverting the allegations contained in the answer of Johanna Levy and A. Levy, set up a conspiracy between Lippman Levy and the Texas Mexican Railway Company to ■defeat him in his rights to the proceeds of said car of grain, and prayed that, if he was not entitled to recover against the railway companies, as originally prayed for, or against the Texas Mexican Railway Company for conversion, he might, in the alternative, have judgment against the appellants, - Johanna Levy and A. Levy, for the value of said grain, as per contract. The suit was filed on June 18, 1909. Lippman Levy, of whom appellants are the legal heirs and successors, was impleaded by one of the original defendants, the Texas Mexican Railway Company. Lippman Levy filed an answer to the merits on the 10th day of November, 1909. The Texas Mexican Railway Company filed. an answer to the merits on the 28th day of August, 1909. Johanna Levy and A. Levy, heirs of Lippman Levy, filed an answer to the merits on the 3d day of June, 1912. Appellants and the Texas Mexican Railway Company filed pleas of privilege on June 3, 1912, the day of the trial, and the appellants filed a plea of fraud on jurisdiction on June 4, 1912, the following day after the trial began. Plaintiff below was not given judgment against any of the railway companies for conversion, but the ease was decided upon an issue of contract between plaintiff below, and appellants on plaintiff’s alternative plea in a supplemental petition. Upon a trial before a jury, the case was submitted upon special issues, and, on the basis of the jury’s answers to these, judgment was rendered in favor of defendants Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway Company and International & Great Northern Railroad Company, and in favor of the plaintiff, appellee, herein, R. Lupton, as against appellants, A. Levy and Johanna Levy, in the sum of $476.64, with interest from October 23, 1908, at the rate of 6 per cent, per an-num; and in favor of said A. Levy and Johanna Levy as against the Texas Mexican Railway Company in the sum of $478.76, and the further sum of $204.35, being the several amounts tendered into court by said railway company; and it was ordered that all costs should be taxed against the defendants A. Levy and Johanna Levy. Prom which judgment in favor of R. Lupton, and as against the said assessment of costs against them, appellants, Johanna Levy and A. Levy, prosecute this appeal.
It is well established in our practice that the amount or value alleged in the plaintiffs’ petition is the amount in controversy which fixes the jurisdiction of the court and not the amount revealed by the evidence as actually being due. Publishing Co. v. Hill, 36 Tex. Civ. App. 393, 81 S. W. 806, and cases cited; Watson v. Mirike, 25 Tex. Civ. App. 527, 61 S. W. 538. It is equally true that, where the amount involved is fraudulently stated in the petition at a greater amount than is known tó be due for the purpose of wrongfully conferring jurisdiction on the court, the case will be dismissed when that fact is properly brought to the knowledge of the court. The test is not whether the amount is correctly stated, but whether the allegation was made for the /purpose of deceiving and imposing upon the court. Railway v. Wilm, 9 Tex. Civ. App. 161, 28 S. W. 925. The objection in such case must be raised by special exception in due order of pleading. Where its determination depends upon a question of fact it should be submitted to the jury. Davis v. Railway, 12 Tex. Civ. App. 427, 34 S. W. 144, and eases there collated. This case does not, as contended by appellant, come within the rule which allows the court to dismiss upon its own motion a cause of which it has no jurisdiction. Such a condition arises only when the want of jurisdiction affirmatively appears upon the face of the pleading. This question was exhaustively discussed and the rule announced by the Supreme Court in Hoffman v. Building & Loan Ass’n, 85 Tex. 409, 22 S. W. 154. The court distinguishes this class of cases from those in which it is held that consent or acquiescence cannot confer jurisdiction over the subject-matter, and | says that the jurisdiction of the court cannot, be defeated when the case stated in the petition is within its jurisdiction unless it is made to appear, upon plea in due order, that the allegations were fraudulently made for the purpose of conferring jurisdiction. And that such fraud exists only when the jurisdictional averments are false and were known by the pleader to be false and were inserted for the sole purpose of deceiving. Davis v. Railway, supra, and cases there cited.
The third assignment is overruled, and the judgment of the lower court is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- LEVY Et Al. v. LUPTON Et Al.
- Cited By
- 8 cases
- Status
- Published