Fred Miller Brewing Co. v. Coonrod
Fred Miller Brewing Co. v. Coonrod
Opinion of the Court
Appellant, a Wisconsin corporation, sued to recover the sum of $1,535.-60 from E. L. Coonrod, appellee, who, it was alleged, owed it a certain check for that • amount issued to appellant, drawn on the Farmers’ & Mechanics’ National Bank of Fort Worth, Tex. The bank refused payment thereof, whereupon appellant brought its suit against appellee, Coonrod, for payment of the check, and caused a writ of garnishment to be issued and served upon said bank. The bank answered, admitting indebtedness sufficient to pay the check.
The original petition charged that the check was given in part payment and settlement of controversies between appellee, Coon-rod, and appellant, which differences had been the cause of a previous suit between the same parties in the district court of Tarrant county, Tex., and pending at the time of the settlement and issuance of the check. Appellant performed the terms of the agreement and delivered valuable property then in its hands, held as collateral security.
The appellee, Coonrod, filed his answer, admitting the execution and delivery of the check, and that he had ordered the payment of said check stopped, because it was issued *1100 under duress, threats, and undue influence on the part of appellant; that the undue influence consisted of the fact that, unless the check be issued as demanded and money paid, appellant would withhold from him the possession of a certain life insurance policy which it then held as security for a loan theretofore made to him by appellant; that the $1,535.00 was demanded before appellant would turn over the life insurance policy, security for the amount represented as due and owing by him to appellant under a 'prior contract relating to the sale by appellant to him of a certain beverage known as “Vivo,” which was npt due, and' there was no right at that time to demand payment.
Appellee, Coonrod, further pleaded that he was not liable to pay said check because the same had been issued in payment of an indebtedness which accrued under a contract by and between appellant and himself, void and unenforceable because in violation of the anti-trust statutes and anti-monopoly statutes of this state. He also, by reconvention, sought to recover damages against appellant for unlawfully causing the issuance of the writ of garnishment.
This case was tried without the intervention of a jury, and the court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law too lengthy to copy, but we will set out hereafter such portions as are deemed material. Thero is no statement of facts filed, and the correctness of the facts found by the trial court are challenged by neither party. The court found there was no duress that compelled the appellee to sign the check. The appellant challenged the conclusions of law and the judgment of the court upon the facts, or that there was any particular territory given and agreed upon prescribing the place of sale. It may be said that all the facts involved otherwise were found in favor of appellant. The court found to the effect:
“That the contract in controversy was void and unenforceable in any court in this state because in violation of the anti-trust statutes; that the check had been issued in compliance with the terms of a settlement for a debt accruing by reason of the operation of said void contract and said plaintiff could not recover on said cheek. He also found that the method of handling the beverage known as ‘Vivo,’ its transportation, sale, and resale under the contract, did not constitute interstate commerce, and that the parties to said contract had not waived its provision relative to the restriction on the purchase and sale of said beverage, but that the terms of the settlement of all matters and things in controversy between the parties at that time and in compliance with the terms of which settlement the said $1,535.60 check was issued were, because of the operation of the anti-trust statutes, void and unenforceable, and that plaintiff could not recover the amount of said check and could not force a restoration of the property of plaintiff received by said Coonrod under the terms of the settlement, but that in all other respects, and leaving out of the consideration the anti-trust statutes, the settlement agreed upon by the parties was valid, binding, and enforceable.”
“In the findings of fact should be stated only the facts established 'by the evidence, and not the evidence from which the court finds such facts. A fact stated by the court in such findings must, in the absence of a statement of facts, be presumed to have support in the evidence adduced on the trial, just as would the verdict of a jury in a like case. The presumption of law is in favor of .the correctness of the action of the trial court, and it is incumbent upon the party seeking revision of such finding in the appellate court to bring up the evidence in the mode prescribed by law.”
The chief assignments are that the court erred in holding the contract between the *1101 parties void and unenforceable because in violation of tbe anti-trust statutes in Texas, and contend that it does not violate tbe law because it does not show any restricted territory. Tbe clause in tbe contract which, tbe court found void was:
“Territory: -. In consideration of granting tbe purchaser the exclusive privilege to sell in the territory aforesaid, the purchaser agrees that during the continuation of this contract he will neither sell nor be directly or indirectly interested in the sale of any nonintoxicating cereal beverage other than that of this company.”
As tbe court correctly found tbe contract did not constitute interstate commerce, it simplifies and reduces tbe question down to whether it violates tbe anti-trust statute of Texas.
It will not be overlooked that in giving the exclusive privilege to appellee to sell in tbe particular territory be was required to agree on bis part that “be will neither sell nor be directly or indirectly interested in tbe sale of any nonintoxicating cereal beverage other than that of tbe company.”
It is strenuously contended by appellee that, the cheek being given for the exact amount due on the illegal contract, all other facts concerning the settlement of an illegal contract are not eliminated, the effect of which contention is to treat the matter as though there had been no settlement of other controversies out of which the check came into existence, but just as though the check represented the illegal transaction necessary to be shown to recover or that the illegality of which consideration might be shown to defeat its recovery.
The appellant, on the other hand, contends that the cheek represerlts not only the settlement of controversies between the parties, but the payment of the debt, and needs no portion of the illegal contract to aid; that the case was complete when it pleaded the execution and delivery of the check and the consideration for the issuance thereof; that *1102 the original contract was obliterated by the terms of settlement and whatever obligations might have arisen under it had been executed. When parties enter into illegal contracts they are alike unfavored. The courts are no more in favor of aiding the one to enforce such a contract than they are disposed in favor of the one who by such a plea uses it to escape his obligation to the one with whom he was linked to violate the law. As said in Hall v. Edwards (Com. App.) 222 S. W. 169:
“Plaintiff in error not seeking the enforee.ment of the contract, and not invoking it to sustain a remedy, its illegality is no defense. To permit this defense, under the facts herein, would be to create a right or title in defendant in error dependent entirely upon such contract. It would, in effect, be to enforce the contract on her behalf, enabling her to reap a benefit thereunder. The same principies which govern courts in declining to enforce an illegal contract in aid of a plaintiff’s title inhibit its use to create a title in a defendant. Wooden v. Shotwell, 2d N. J. Law, 789.”
For the reasons given, the appellant has shown a good cause of action on the check sued on. It is therefore the opinion of this court that the judgment of the trial court be reversed and here rendered in favor of appellant against appellee for the sum of $1,535.60, with 6 per cent, interest from the 25th day of March, 1919, the day the payment was refused.
Reversed and rendered.
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