Womble v. Atkins
Decision Date | 02 May 1958 |
Docket Number | No. 15433,15433 |
Citation | 314 S.W.2d 150 |
Parties | Nettie Edna WOMBLE, Appellant, v. Lee ATKINS et al., Appellees. |
Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Roland Boyd, McKinney, Strasburger, Price, Kelton, Miller & Martin, Dallas, Gullett & Gullett, Denison, for appellant.
J. E. Abernathy, McKinney, John C. Harris, William H. Duls, Burford, Ryburn & Ford, Bruce Graham and Clarence A. Guittard, Dallas, for appellees.
Appellant Nettie Edna Womble filed suit March 22, 1955 against appellees Lee Atkins and O. E. Carlisle, whom she designated as 'formerly independent executors of the Estate of C. T. Tatum.' She sought to cancel a release executed by her on August 17, 1953. As grounds for cancellation she alleged fraud committed by Atkins and Carlisle, independent executors, and their attorney in inducing her to execute the release. By the terms of the written instrument and for a consideration of $25,000 and 473.44 acres of land, she had given up all claims against the estate of C. T. Tatum, deceased.
Appellees Atkins and Carlisle filed an answer setting up the defense of res judicata. Thereafter they filed a motion for summary judgment on the same grounds. The trial court sustained the motion for summary judgment and dismissed appellant's suit with prejudice.
We quote from appellees' motion:
Appellant filed no reply in the trial court to appellees' motion for summary judgment.
In her first point on appeal appellant says that the motion for summary judgment was fatally defective because it was not sworn to, and was not supported by depositions, admissions, or affidavits--the only thing referred to in the motion being an opinion by this Court, which opinion, says appellant, was not any part of the proper record before the trial court.
We agree with appellees that a motion for summary judgment need not be sworn to, and need not be supported by affidavits or other evidence if the allegations in the plaintiff's petition together with matters of which the court may take judicial notice, demonstrate that plaintiff has no cause of action. In this connection our Supreme Court has said: Willoughby v. Jones, 151 Tex. 435, 251 S.W.2d 508, 513.
The question we must answer then is this: Does the decision of this Court in Atkins v. Womble, 300 S.W.2d 688, come within the category of 'other records of which the trial court might properly take notice'?
In our opinion the trial court in the instant case properly took judicial notice of our opinion and decision in Atkins v. Womble, 300 S.W.2d 688. The two cases were tried by the same judge, Hon. W. C. Dowdy, 59th Judicial District of Texas. Both cases originated in Collin County, Texas, though the earlier case, after a mistrial in Collin County, was transferred to Grayson County in the same Judicial District for a second trial. The parties in the two suits are the same except that in this suit the beneficiaries named in the will of C. T. Tautum, deceased, are not made parties, although they can hardly be considered disinterested persons. It is certain that the release which appellant seeks to cancel in this case is the same release passed on in the former trial. This is shown by the reference to the present suit in our former opinion where at 300 S.W.2d, page 695, we said: Our holding that the trial court properly took judicial notice of our opinion and decision in the first suit finds support in a number of cases: Pridgen v. Denson, Tex.Civ.App., 298 S.W.2d 276; McKay v. Dunlap, Tex.Civ.App., 244 S.W.2d 278; Fey v. Woods, Tex.Civ.App., 229 S.W.2d 923; Victory v. State, 138 Tex. 285, 158 S.W.2d 760; Cocke v. Wright, Tex.Civ.App., 23 S.W.2d 449. We overrule appellant's point No. 1.
In her points Nos. 2, 3, and 4 appellant contends that (2) the judgment of this Court in the appeal styled Atkins v. Womble, 300 S.W.2d 688, was not res judicata of the issues involved in this case; (3) it is obvious from...
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