Babb v. Patterson
Babb v. Patterson
Opinion of the Court
This was a suit for partnership settlement between appellant and J. H. Patterson, appellee. Appellant, who was plaintiff below, filed his original petition on March 25, 1920, alleging that, during the month of August, 1919, appellant and appellee Patterson entered into a contract for the purpose of buying and selling real estate; that thereafter they entered into an agreement whereby they agreed to purchase from D. P. Prince a farm of 405 acres of land in Navarro county, Tex., and later sold the land to J. El. Farmer; that, as a result of their sale and partnership, appellant and appellee Patterson jointly owned the personal property described in said petition.
Appellees Ernest Prince and J. E. Farmer were made parties defendant as debtors to said partnership.
Appellant further alleged that all of the property, notes, etc., sued for were in the possession of appellee Patterson, who denied that appellant was entitled to any interest therein. Appellee Patterson answered, denying any general partnership, claiming that he and appellant acted as agents in buying certain real estate and in selling the same, and that, as to these matters, a settlement was made.
Appellee further alleged that he himself purchased the 405 acres of land from D. P. Prince, together with all of the farm implements, mules, wagons, and other personal property thereon situated and used in connection therewith for the sum of $81,000, and that said purchase was a straight purchase by and for himself, with the purchase of which appellant had nothing to do; and that said transaction was in no way connected with whatever business they had together of selling and buying land for other persons on a commission basis; that the only interest appellant had in said transaction was a sale which was afterwards made by appellee to J. E. Farmer, of the 405 acres of land; that whatever appellant had to do therewith was in assisting in the sale of said property to J. E. Farmer; and that appellant was in no way interested in the profits which were realized from the sale of this property; and that the only interest which he had therein was in the 5 per cent, commission of the purchase price for which said land was sold by Babb & Patterson, as the property of appellee Patterson to said Farmer.’
The trial resulted in judgment in favor of appellant against appellee Patterson for the sum of $50, with 6 per cent, interest and costs of suit, and in favor of said appellant against appellee J. E. Farmer for $50 with 6 per cent, interest and costs of suit; from which judgment this appeal is prosecuted.
The case was submitted to the jury upon 22 special issues of fact, of which it is only necessary to discuss No. 1 and the answer thereto, as by same the controlling issue in the case was submitted.
Appellant’s cause of action was based upon his claim to one-half of the profits arising from and growing out of the transaction involving the purchase and sale of the Prince property, appellant contending that same was a partnership transaction between himself and appellee Patterson and therefore he was entitled to one-half of all profits derived from the purchase and resale of same. Appellee Patterson contested with appellant his alleged cause of action, as per the abridged statement of his pleadings above set out.
Special issue No. 1, submitted by the court in the general charge, was as follows: “Did J. H. Patterson take an option on the 405 acres of land called the Prince land, and buy the personal property and crops thereon situated for the joint benefit of the firm of Babb & Patterson, and take the title thereto in the name of J. H. Patterson for the benefit of said firm?” To which the jury answered, “No.”
If the option on the 405 acres of land was acquired for the joint benefit of the firm of Babb & Patterson, and the personal property and crops thereon situated purchased by appellee for the joint benefit of said firm, said transactions would have been between Patterson and Babb, and the personal property would have been owned by said copart-nership.
On the 15th day of September, 1919, Prince executed a written instrument to appellee Patterson by which there was secured to ap-pellee Patterson an option to purchase said 405 acres of land for $72,600, net to Prince, and by which Patterson was to pay as much as $15,000 in cash and assume $14,000 sec-cured by liens against said 405 acres of land the remainder of the consideration to be paid for said land to be evidenced by said Patterson’s notes of not less than $5,000 each. In said transaction it was further contracted between Prince and appellee Patterson that, in the event Patterson did not become the purchaser of said 405 acres of land as per the terms of the contract between them, then Patterson should become the tenant of Prince as to said 405 acres of land for the year 1920. There was evidence to the effect that the real estate firm of Babb & Patterson had nothing to do with said transaction; that said Babb did not desire to enter into the purchase of any of this property with Patterson, but that it was an individual undertaking of Patterson’s and continued throughout, until Parmer became the purchaser of said 405 acres for the price of $81,000; that Patterson unconditionally purchased the mules, wagons, cows, farming implements, crops and other personal property involved in this suit as his own property, and that he also acquired an option to-purchase the 405 acres of land as his own-property from Prince, at a price of $72,000, and that the only interest appellant Babb had was in the commission on the sale of said real estate to Parmer, which was sold' to him for $81,000, and that $4,050 was a reasonable commission for such sale; that appellant had received his part of said commission, to wit, $2,025.
Appellee Patterson, by cross-assignment, complains of the rendition of judgment against him for the sum of $50, on the ground that there was no pleading on the part of appellant authorizing the verdict of the jury finding that there was due by ap-pellee to appellant the sum of $50, by virtue of the transaction in which the J. O. West home was sold to D. Ray.
We find appellees’ second cross-assignment of error without merit, and same is overruled.
Not finding any material error disclosed by the record, the judgment of the trial court is in all things affirmed.
Affirmed.
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