155 S.W. 686 | Tex. App. | 1913
This is a suit for damages instituted by appellant against J. H. Kirkpatrick and A. H. Jones, executor of the estate of B. L. Naylor, deceased, which he alleged accrued to him by reason of a breach of a rental contract by appellees, and the ouster of appellant from certain irrigated garden lands, known as the Barnes tract, between the Frio and Somerset roads in the city of San Antonio, and the conversion and appropriation of his crops growing thereon, whereby he claimed to have been damaged in the sum of $5,933.80. Appellees pleaded in bar of the suit a judgment in the justice's court in a forcible detainer suit, wherein appellees recovered possession of the said premises from appellant, and were placed in possession of the same by a writ of possession issued out of said justice's court on July 25, 1910. That was the date fixed by appellant in his pleadings on which he alleged that he had been unlawfully dispossessed of the property. Under instructions from the court, a verdict was returned by the jury for appellees.
The evidence showed, without contradiction, that on April 13, 1910, appellees instituted an action of forcible detainer of the property described against appellant in the justice's court of precinct No. 1, Bexar county, and on June 24, 1910, judgment was rendered in said court against appellant, adjudging the premises to appellees, and on July 25th appellant was regularly and legally dispossessed of the premises by the constable, acting under a writ of possession issued out of said justice's court.
Through the first and sixteenth assignments of error it is claimed that the judgment was void, because it was not tried on the day named in the citation for appellant to appear, or on the day to which it may have been postponed for good cause supported by affidavit. If there were anything in the record that indicated that the cause was not postponed in accordance with the statute, that would not render the judgment void, and the irregularity could not be inquired into in a collateral proceeding, as this undoubtedly is. The justice's court had jurisdiction of the person of appellant and of the subject-matter, and the judgment rendered in that court cannot be collaterally attacked, however erroneous it may be. The improper postponement of a case of forcible detainer for more than six days could not affect the jurisdiction of the justice's court. Clayton v. Hurt,
When appellant was evicted from the land of appellees, he had no right whatever to the crops he may have planted thereon, no matter whether of much or little value. The judgment of eviction absolutely determined all rights claimed in connection with the land in favor of appellees. At the time the forcible detainer suit was filed the crop, if planted, was in a very immature condition, and, if pending the suit appellant expended his labor thereon, he did so at his own risk. Rankin v. Hooks, 81 S.W. 1005; Samson v. Rose,
The court did not err in instructing the jury to return a verdict for the appellees. There was nothing presented by the evidence that would justify a verdict for appellant. The justice's court judgment adjudged the possession of the land to appellees, and that carried possession of the crops. By that judgment appellant was adjudged a trespasser on the land. There was no testimony that tended to show that appellees used the molasses that appellant left on the land.
This is a plain case of a tenant, who agreed to pay money rent each month, refusing to pay the same, and seeking to recover damages for his eviction by and through a legal writ from the owners of the land. They did not act arbitrarily or in an oppressive manner towards appellant, but bore with him for a long while, and, finding at last that he would not pay his rent, resorted to the law to obtain their rights. None of the assignments of error is meritorious, and all of them are overruled.
The judgment is affirmed.