West Texas Compress & W. Co. v. Panhandle & S. F. Ry. Co.

• Citation: 15 S.W.2d 558
• Decision Date: 27 March 1929
• Docket Number: (No. 1199-5204.)
• Parties: WEST TEXAS COMPRESS & WAREHOUSE CO. v. PANHANDLE & S. F. RY. CO. et al.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

15 S.W.2d 558

WEST TEXAS COMPRESS & WAREHOUSE CO. v. PANHANDLE & S. F. RY. CO. et al.

(No. 1199-5204.)

Commission of Appeals of Texas, Section A.

March 27, 1929.

Error to Court of Civil Appeals of Seventh Supreme Judicial District.

Suit by West Texas Compress & Warehouse Company against Panhandle & Santa Fé Railway Company and another, in which the Attorney General appeared on appeal. An order dissolving a temporary injunction was affirmed , and plaintiff brings error. Affirmed.

Bean & Klett, of Lubbock, for plaintiff in error.

Callaway & Reed, of Dallas, Madden, Adkins & Pipkin, of Amarillo, Roscoe Wilson, of Lubbock, Terry, Cavin & Mills, of Galveston, and Coates & Mastin, Cecil N. Cook, and John N. Jackson, all of Fort Worth, for defendants in error.

CRITZ, J.

This is an injunction suit originally instituted by West Texas Compress & Warehouse Company, hereinafter designated plaintiff, in the district court of Lubbock county, Tex., against Panhandle & Santa Fé Railway Company, hereafter designated the railroad, and Lubbock Compress Company. By agreement of the parties, the Texas Compress Association was permitted to intervene. Also the Attorney General of Texas appeared in the Court of Civil Appeals and in this court amici curiæ and for the railroad commission.

The petition of the plaintiff is as follows:

"Now comes the West Texas Compress and Warehouse Company, a private corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Texas, with its general office and principal place of business in the City and County of Lubbock, State of Texas, complaining of the Panhandle & Santa Fé Railway Company, a private corporation, organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Texas, with its general office in the City of Amarillo, Potter County, Texas, with a line of railway running through Lubbock County, Texas, where it does business as a common carrier of goods for hire, and of the Lubbock Compress Company, a private corporation, organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Texas, with its general office and principal place of business in the City of Fort Worth, in Tarrant County, Texas, both the companies herein complained of being called defendants; and as cause of action plaintiff represents to the Court:

"That the plaintiff is and has been for several years in the business of receiving, compressing, storing and shipping cotton for pay in the City of Lubbock, Texas; and that the defendant Lubbock Compress Company is and has been engaged in a similar business during said period just outside the City limits.

"That the plaintiff and defendant Lubbock Compress Company are and have been competitors in the aforesaid business, and that the plaintiff is and has been doing and enjoying a large volume of business; that the plaintiff has promptly complied with all laws and regulations and is lawfully entitled to engage in the aforesaid business; that it promptly and faithfully performs its duties and is ready, willing and able to take care of all business tendered it; but that the defendants have formed and entered into an unlawful conspiracy to wrong, injure and damage the plaintiff, and the plaintiff's business, and to defraud and discriminate against the plaintiff and the plaintiff's business, by agreeing and undertaking, the plaintiff alleges and believes, to prevent cotton shipped and consigned for compress by plaintiff, and to prevent the plaintiff receiving the pay for such service, and on the contrary divert and transfer such business to plaintiff's competitor, to wit, the Lubbock Compress Company, so that the latter company may do such compression and receive said fees.

"That the defendants are engaged in such unlawful practice and are carrying out such agreement, and that there are now in defendant's shipping yards at Lubbock, Texas, two carloads of cotton, to wit, Car No. LV-5623 and Car No. B & O 267592, that were shipped by the Texas Farm Bureau Association from Levelland, Texas to the Texas Farm Bureau at Houston, Texas, for compression in transit at the West Texas Compress and Warehouse Company, at Lubbock, Texas; that the plaintiff is ready, willing and able to receive said cotton and compress the same as it should be compressed; but that the defendant refuse to let the plaintiff have said cotton, but on the contrary declare that the cotton will be compressed, and the fees received by the Lubbock Compress Company, which fees in the particular case will amount to some $45.00 or $50.00.

"That it appears that the defendants have entered into the aforesaid conspiracy and are threatening to carry out the same with reference to other cotton, compression of which will probably run into many thousands of bales, the compression fees of which are about $1.00 per bale.

"That it further appears that notwithstanding the fact that the Texas Farm Bureau desires and intends for its cotton to be compressed by plaintiff, nevertheless the defendants are undertaking to prevent such cotton belonging to said Bureau from being compressed by plaintiff; that the cotton that plaintiff will likely receive for compression for said Bureau during the present season will probably amount to ten thousand bales or approximately $10,000.00.

"That the practice as aforesaid will continue and the plaintiff will suffer irreparable damages unless the defendants and each of them are restrained from interfering with cotton shipped intended or marked for compression by plaintiff; that the plaintiff will likely suffer damages in the sum of $10,000.00 or more, unless your Honor's most gracious writ of injunction is granted; the plaintiff being without any other adequate remedy at law. That for a fuller statement of facts on which this petition is based, plaintiff's exhibits A, B, C, D, and E are hereto attached and made a part hereof, and are to be sworn to.

"Wherefore, plaintiff prays that temporary, as well as permanent injunction issue in its favor, restraining the defendants and each of them from preventing plaintiff from compressing cotton that is consigned for compression by plaintiff, and that they be further restrained from diverting such cotton, or any cotton, to the Lubbock Compress Company; that on final hearing such injunction be made permanent; also that said R. Co. be restrained from refusing to issue or accept bills of lading marked to be compressed in transit at West Texas Warehouse & Compress Co., and that the plaintiff have such other and further relief to which it may be entitled, either in law or equity."

Attached to said petition, and made a part thereof, are Exhibits A, B, C, D, and E. We do not think it necessary to state the contents of the exhibits.

The petition was presented to the district judge, and he indorsed thereon his fiat, granting the injunction as prayed for, on the giving of bond, etc.

The bond provided for was duly filed, and writ of injunction issued.

Both defendants and intervener filed various pleas, answers, and motions to dissolve the temporary injunction. Upon hearing, the trial court ordered the temporary injunction dissolved. From this order the plaintiff appealed to the Court of Civil Appeals for the Seventh District, at Amarillo, which court affirmed the...