Rhoads v. Harris
Rhoads v. Harris
Opinion of the Court
So far as necessary to state, this suit was instituted by B. R. Harris against A. H. Allen, J. W. Allen, B. B. Griffin, A. Q. Mustain, and J. A. Rhoads, to recover the amount of principal, interest, and attorneys’ fees due upon a series of five vendor’s lien notes, each in the principal sum of $100, all of which notes were due and all of which had been executed by A. I-I. Allen, and secured by a vendor’s lien on a lot known as the “hotel property” and- described in plaintiff’s petition. It appeared in the development of the case that J. W. Allen subsequently acquired the legal title to the hotel property and later exchanged it to B. B. Griffin for certain lands owned by Griffin in- county, Tex.; and that in the exchange J. W. Allen assumed the payment of the vendor’s lien notes declared upon. Griffin and J. W. Allen specially pleaded that at the time of said exchange the .defendant J. A. Rhoads was jointly interested in the hotel property and a partner in the transac- *622 tión of the exchange, and that after said exchange J. W. Allen paid to the said defendant J. A. Rhoads said notes, receiving a promise at the time of their release; it being alleged that at the time J. A. Rhoads owned and possessed the notes. Allen therefore prayed that he might recover of the said defendant Rhoads such sum, if any, as the defendant Griffin, under his cross-plea, should recover of him (J. W. Allen). There appears to have been no real controversy between the plaintiff Harris and the defendants, and judgment was finally rendered in plaintiff’s favor as against A. H. Allen for the amount due upon the notes, and as against all of the defendants save A. Q. Mustain, who was discharged, enforcing the vendor’s lien. It was further adjudged that the defendant Griffin on his cross-plea recover of the defendants J. W. Allen and J. A. Rhoads the sum adjudged in the plaintiff’s favor. It was further adjudged that J. W. Allen take nothing on his cross-claim against J. A. Rhoads, and the defendant J. A. Rhoads alone appeals.
As will be seen from our statement of the case, the controversy as now presented to us is only between B. B. Griffin and J. A. Rhoads. The court peremptorily instructed the jury that Griffin was entitled to a judgment jointly and severally against both J. W. Allen and J. A. Rhoads for the amount of the judgment which the jury should find for Harris, and appellant’s only assignments of error are to the action of the court in refusing to submit the issue of partnership between him and the defendant J. W. Allen. There is no dispute in the evidence of the fact alleged by Griffin in his cross-plea that J. W. Allen assumed the payment of the notes declared upon by the plaintiff. He alleged that Rhoads and Allen were partners in the ownership of the hotel property, and as such sought to hold Rhoads as such partner, and the court’s charge, of course, may be construed as an assumption that both allegations had been established by the undisputed evidence, and appellant’s insistence is that his evidence tended to refute the allegation of partnership.
We will not set out and analyze the testimony of appellant on the issue of partnership, inasmuch as we have concluded that the undisputed evidence shows that appellant was liable to Griffin, irrespective of whether Allen and Rhoads were technically partners in the exchange of lands that had been made between J. W. Allen and B. B. Griffin, and such doubtless was the view of the trial court. Appellant admitted that, while the title to the hotel property was in J. W. Allen, nevertheless he knew of that fact and was interested in it and consented to the exchange. The contention was that Allen was but his agent in the exchange; that the agreement between him and Allen was to the effect that Allen should receive a part of the profits as commissions only. It is undisputed, also, that in the exchange Allen took title to the Griffin lands in the name of J. A. Rhoads; that later Allen sold the Griffin lands to a party in Et. Worth, receiving therefor a net sum of something like $2,000, of which appellant Rhoads received a part as his share.
We conclude that all assignments of error should be overruled, and the judgment affirmed.
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