Ex parte Prickett, A-7023
| Decision Date | 31 December 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. A-7023,A-7023 |
| Citation | 159 Tex. 302,320 S.W.2d 1 |
| Parties | Ex parte Joe Douglas PRICKETT. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Richard C. Keene, San Antonio, for appellant.
Norman, Rounsaville & Hassell, Jacksonville, for appellee.
By this original habeas corpus proceeding, relator, Joe Douglas Prickett, whom we have enlarged on bond pending final decision sought release from the custody of the sheriff of Cherokee County, who was confining him pursuant to a commitment of the District Court of said county for relator's failure to deliver to his divorced wife (or to pay her the value of) certain stock certificates representing forty-odd shares of Humble Oil & Refining Company stock, which the divorce decree had admittedly awarded her in the division of the community estate, although referring to the stock only by the general language 'all other community property'. The contempt order, for all practical purposes, may be taken as merely one of enforcement of the decreed property division as distinguished from punishment.
Following the divorce decree (entered April 3, 1958) and evidently as a part of the divorce proceeding, relator's divorced wife, by sworn written application of August 4, 1958, prayed the court to enforce her decreed right to the stock by 'such special process or writ as may be necessary for the seizure and delivery of such property to the applicant-, and if necessary, to enforce its judgment by attachment, fine, or imprisonment, all as provided in Rule No. 308, Vernon's Annotated Texas Rules of Civil Procedure.' On the same day the court issued its order, copied in the footnote 1, in which the relator was directed to show cause on August 23rd as to 'why appropriate writ should not be issued for the possession of said stock as well as why such decree should not be enforced by attachment, fine or imprisonment to compel the delivery of such property to Barbara Prickett.' Following due service of the last mentioned order and a copy of the wife's application a hearing was held on August 23rd, upon which the court entered its further order, adjudging relator to be in contempt for noncompliance with the divorce decree, ordering him confined to jail, but, by a later provision of the same judgment, suspending his actual confinement for approximately a week's time, within which he was permitted to avoid confinement by delivering the stock or by paying $3,200, which was agreed and adjudged to be its value. The relator failing to meet either of these latter conditions, he was confined to jail without further hearing.
As appears from the foregoing, the entire proceeding rested on Rule 308, Tex.R.Civ.Proc., which provides 'The court shall cause its judgments and decrees to be carried into execution; and where the judgment is for personal property, and it is shown by the pleadings and evidence and the verdict, if...
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Ex parte Preston
...the money in his possession and disbelieved the sewer-flushing story. The case principally relied upon by the relator is Ex parte Prickett, 159 Tex. 302, 320 S.W.2d 1. In that case the relator's divorced wife applied to the court for the enforcement of her decree right to certain shares of ......
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Ex parte Elmore
...the relators to deliver the property to the sheriff under the provisions of Rule 308, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure. In Ex parte Prickett, Tex., 320 S.W.2d 1, we held that shares of stock commonly sold on the market did not have 'especial value' in contemplation of that rule. But that case......
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McCauley v. McCauley
...Tex. 190, 345 S.W.2d 722; Hedtke v. Hedtke, 112 Tex. 404, 248 S.W. 21; Wallace v. Briggs, 162 Tex. 485, 348 S.W.2d 523; Ex. prate Prickett, 159 Tex. 302, 320 S.W.2d 1; Reardon v. Reardon, 163 Tex. 605, 359 S.W.2d 329. See also McBean v. McBean, Tex.Civ.App., 371 S.W.2d 930. Article 4638 afo......
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Ex parte Choate, 8326
...the order of incarceration is void as to the first finding and adjudication. We also note that our Supreme Court in Ex parte Prickett, 159 Tex. 302, 320 S.W.2d 1 (1959), discharged an applicant who had been found guilty of contempt of court for failure to deliver certain shares of stock in ......