North East Independent School District v. Aldridge, A-10983
| Decision Date | 30 March 1966 |
| Docket Number | No. A-10983,A-10983 |
| Citation | 400 S.W.2d 893 |
| Parties | NORTH EAST INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT, Petitioner, v. Guy ALDRIDGE, Respondent. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
Foster, Lewis, Langley, Gardner & Hawn, Willis T. Taylor, San Antonio, with above firm, for petitioner.
Frank Y. Hill, Jr., San Antonio, for respondent.
Guy Aldridge appealed from a trial court judgment awarding a recovery from him by North East Independent School District of damages in the sum of $30,000.00. The Court of Civil Appeals dismissed the appeal upon a holding that the trial court's judgment was not a final judgment. 392 S.W.2d 607. We reverse the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals and order the appeal reinstated.
School District's suit was based upon an alleged breach of a written contract between it and Aldridge. By the terms of the contract Aldridge agreed to sell and School District agreed to buy a tract of 20.963 acres of land at a price of $3,500.00 per acre, and Aldridge obligated himself to construct a sewer line along a section of the southern boundary and streets along the northern and western boundaries of the tract. The petition alleged that School District had fully performed its obligations, but that Aldridge had failed to construct the sewer line and the streets. Aldridge's amended answer included a plea in abatement, a general denial, a plea that the contract was in reality made by School District with King-O-Hills Development Company for which he acted only as agent in executing the contract, and, with permission of the court, a cross-action against King-O-Hills Development Company to recover any sum which he might be adjudged liable to pay to School District. At a later date he filed a supplemental answer in which he pleaded that School District was estopped to assert its claim against him. King-O-Hills was duly cited and filed its answer to the cross-action. The record indicates that on June 5, 1964, the case was set for trial on the jury calender for the month of October, 1964.
School District moved for summary judgment on its claim against Aldridge for the damages sued for, or, alternatively, on the issue of Aldridge's personal liability for damages for breach of the contract. Aldridge filed an answer to the motion in which he asserted that there was an issue of fact concerning his personal liability inasmuch as School District knew that in executing the contract he was acting only as agent for King-O-Hills Company, and also an issue of fact concerning the amount of the damages. On July 8, 1964, the trial court granted School District's motion on its alternative prayer and rendered judgment that Aldridge was personally liable for damages for breach of the contract. The judgment also directed that 'this cause proceed to trial upon the sole remaining issue of the amount of damages to which the plaintiff is entitled.'
On October 5, 1964, the attorneys for School District and the attorney for Aldridge entered into a written stipulation that the damages suffered by School District as a result of the failure to construct the sewer line and streets amounted to $30,000.00. Thereupon, the court rendered judgment that North East School District recover of and from Guy Aldridge the sum of $30,000.00 with interest and costs. The judgment was approved as to form by the attorneys for both parties. There is no mention in the judgment of the third-party defendant, King-O,-Hills Company, and no disposition is made therein of the crossaction by Aldridge against such defendant. It was because of the failure of the judgment to dispose of the cross-action that the Court of Civil Appeals held that it was not a final judgment. It is that holding which we are called upon to review.
The finality of judgments for appealability has been a recurring and nagging problem throughout the judicial history of this State. We have steadfastly adhered through the years to the rule, with certain exceptions not applicable here, that an appeal may be prosecuted only from a final judgment and that to be final a judgment must dispose of all issues and parties in a case. Gulf C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Fort Worth & N. O. Ry. Co., 68 Tex. 98, 2 S.W. 199, 3 S.W. 564 (1886); Davis v. McCray Refrigerator Sales Corp., 136 Tex. 296, 150 S.W.2d 377 (1941). The rule is deceiving in its apparent simplicity and vexing in its application.
In Linn v. Arambould, 55 Tex. 611 (1881), this Court reviewed many of the earlier decisions and announced rules for determining finality which no doubt were thought adequate to settle all future questions in the area. If so, the thought died aborning. In one of the rules announced, the Court said that to be final 'the judgment must in substance show intrinsically, and not inferentially, 1 that the matter in the record had been determined in favor of one of the litigants, or the rights of the parties in litigation had been adjudicated.' 55 Tex. 619. That rule has long since passed into limbo. It was too simple. By its application most judgments easily became black or white-final or interlocutory; but all too often judgments which were obviously intended to be final were being held interlocutory because of careless draftsmanship. The rule had to be changed to accommodate oversight or carelessness.
In 1896 this Court decided Rackley v. Fowlkes, 89 Tex. 613, 36 S.W.77. No question of finality of a judgment was involved; only a question of res judicata. In a prior suit the plaintiff sought to recover title to land and rents from the land. The trial court's judgment awarded recovery of title to the land but did not mention the issue of rents. The plaintiff then filed a second suit for rents. This Court held that the defendant's plea of res judicata should have been sustained in the absence of a showing by the plaintiff that in his first suit he withdrew his court for rents or the court refused to decide it. The holding was bottomed upon a rule stated by the Court, as follows (36 S.W.78):
'The proposition seems to be sound in principle and well supported by authority that where the pleadings and judgment in evidence show that the pleadings upon which the trial was had put in issue plaintiff's right to recover upon two causes of action, and the judgment awards him a recovery upon one, but is silent as to the other, such judgment is prima facie an adjudication that he was not entitled to recover upon such other cause.'
The Court arrived at the rule by indulging 'the presumption that the (trial) court performed the duty devolved upon it upon the submission of the cause by disposing of every issue presented by the pleadings so as to render its judgment final and conclusive of the litigation * * *.' Taking no notice of the rule announced in Linn v. Arambould, or of the distinction between rules governing finality of judgments and those relating to res judicata, the Court in Davies v. Thomson, 92 Tex. 391, 49 S.W. 215 (1899), applied the rule quoted from Rackley v. Fowlkes in holding that a judgment which awarded plaintiffs relief they sought in one particular would 'be construed' to deny relief they sought in another particular. Davies v. Thomson has been followed by our latest decisions on the subject. See Gamble v. Banneyer, 137 Tex. 7, 151 S.W.2d 586 (1941); Vance v. Wilson, Tex.Sup., 382 S.W.2d 107 (1964).
The decision in Davies v. Thomson obviously did not necessarily settle the issue of finality of a judgment which granted relief to a plaintiff but failed to dispose expressly of a cross-action or counterclaim by the defendant against the plaintiff. The Courts of Civil Appeals were badly divided in their rulings on the finality of judgments of that character. The issue was settled by this Court in favor of finality in Trammell v. Rosen, 106 Tex. 132, 157 S.W. 1161 (1913). The Court dealt a final blow in that case to the rule announced in Linn v. Arambould by indicating, in effect, that it was a dictum. For the first time the Court spoke of the disposition of issues by implication and by necessary implication; but it did so only in referring to holdings of various Courts of Civil Appeals. It should be noted...
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