Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an original habeas corpus proceeding filed in this court by relators to relieve themselves of penalties imposed by a judgment of contempt entered by the District Court of the 51st Judicial District. The judgment of contempt and imposition of penalties grew out of a violation by relators of a temporary injunction granted by the court in the following fact situation.
On May 29, 1959 R. L. Damron, a resident of Crane County, and Wm. W. Gruber, a resident of Tom Green County, presented to the judge of the aforesaid court at his chambers in Tom Green County their petition in which they sought injunctive relief against Kathleen Amberson, a resident of Dallas County, and John Coffeе, G. L. Holley and Louis Bankston, all residents of Howard County. It was alleged that plaintiffs were the owners of an interest in leasehold estates owned by Amberson Petroleum Company in certain lands located in Sterling County, which estates were subject to a deed of trust lien given to secure an indebtedness in favor of Mrs. Amberson; that the indebtedness was not due until September 10, 1959, but that the defendant, John Coffee, as substitute trustee, had posted notices of his intention to sell the property on June 2nd under power of sale contained in the deed of trust and unless restrained and enjoined from so doing would make the sale, to the plaintiffs irreparable injury. They prayed for a restraining order, for a temporary injunction and for a permanent injunction until the debt should become due.
Upon presentation of the petition to the District Judge a restraining order was issued restraining the defendant, John Coffee, from selling the property pending a hearing to be held on the prayer for a temporary injunction, which hearing was set at 10 o’clock a.m., June 8th, in the courtroom of the District Court in the courthouse at Sterling City, Sterling County, with
At the conclusion of the hearing on June 8th the court granted a temporary injunction restraining and enjoining all defendants from selling the property at trustee’s sale under the deed of trust pending final hearing and determination of the cause or until September 10, 1959, whichever was earlier in time. The- judgment contained the following order: “And the bond heretofore filed with the Clerk upon issuance of the restraining order herein be, and is hereby continued in full force and effect as a temporary injunction bond.”
On July 15th the District Judge, sitting in Sterling County, pursuant to a show cause order and after hearing, determined that on July 7th relators, Coffee and Holley, did, in violation of' the temporary injunction and in contempt of the court, sell and cause to be sold the property at trustee’s sale to relator 'Holley, and that Coffee, as substitute trustee, executed a deed •conveying the property to Holley, which deed had been filed for record and recorded in Sterling County. The court assessed a fine of $100.00 against each of the defendants and ordered them confined in jail for twenty-four hours and thereafter until the fines and costs were paid and until they should purge themselves of their contempt by executing and filing of record a re-conveyance of the property to Amberson Petroleum Company without prejudice to the rights, titles, etc. of lienholders or other persons as the same existed prior to the trustee’s sale. It is from these penalties that relators seek relief in this proceeding.
Relators recognize the collateral nature of the attack they make on the trial court’s judgment and that they are entitled to relief in this proceeding only if the judgment is void. They assert that the judgment is void for two reasons: because the trial court had no power, authority or jurisdiction to grant the temporary injunction, and because no bond was required or filed as a condition precedent to the issuance of the writ of temporary injunction as required by Rule 684, Texas Rules of
Relator’s contention that the order granting the injunction was void because the court was without power оr jurisdiction to grant it is based upon the failure of the trial judge to comply with Articles 4643 and 4656, Vernon’s Annotated Texas Civil Statutes.
Article 4643 relates to the granting of writs of injunction by nonresident judges and reads as follows:
“No district judge shall grant a writ of injunction returnable to any other court than his own except in the following cases:
“1. Where the resident judge cannot hear and act upon the application by reason of his absence, sickness, inability, inaccessibility, disqualification or refusal to act, when such facts are fully set out in the application or in an affidavit accompanying same, and if such judge refuses to act, such refusal shall bе indorsed by said judge on such writ with his reasons therefor. In such case no district judge shall grant the writ when the application therefor has once been acted upon by another district judge of this state.
“2. To stay execution, or to restrain foreclosure, sales under deeds of trust, trespasses, the removal of property, or acts injurious to or impairing riparian or easement rights, when satisfactory proof is made to such non-resident judge that it is impracticable for the applicant to reach the resident judge and procure his action in time to effectuate the purpose of the application.
“3. When the rеsident judge cannot be reached by the ordinary and available means of travel and communication in sufficient time to effectuate the purpose of the writ sought. In such case the applicant or his attorney seeking a writ on the ground of such inaccessibility shall attach to his application an affidavit fully stating the facts of' such inaccessibility and his efforts made to reach and communicate with said judge, and the result thereof, and unless such efforts appear to have been fair and reasonable the application shall not be heard. Such injunction may be subsequently dissolved upon it being shown*228 that the petitioner did not first make reasonable efforts to procure a hearing upon said application before the resident judge.”
Article 4656 reads as follows:
“Writs of injunction granted to stay proceedings in a suit, or execution on a judgment, shall be returnable to and tried in the court where such suit is pending, or such judgment was rendered; writs of injunction for other causes, if the party against whom it is granted be an inhabitant of the State, shall be returnable to and tried in the district or county court of the county in which such party has his domicile, according as the amount or matter in controversy comes within the jurisdiction of either of said courts. If there be more than one party against whom a writ is granted, it may be returned and tried in the proper court of the county where either may have his domicile.”
1 It is settled that Art. 4656 only applies to and governs the issuance and return of writs and trial in cases in which the relief sought is purely or primarily injunctive. Southwest Weather Research, Inc. v. Jones,
The petition presented to the Judge of the District Court of the 51st Judicial District in chambers in Tom Green County shows on its face that Damron and Gruber sought injunctive relief only. It also shows on its face that one of the defendants was a resident of Dallas County and the other three were residents of Howard County. We take judicial notice that neither Dallas nor Howard County is in the 51st Judicial District. It further shows on its face that the restraint sought was not to stay proceedings in a suit or execution on a judgment, but was to restrain a sale under a deed of trust. With those facts before him the District Judge, without requiring an affidavit or proof that it was impracticable to reach the District Judge of Howard County or one of the District Judges of Dallas County and procure action from one of them in time to halt the sale, granted
In asserting that the proceedings are void relators rely on Bridges v. Williams, Texas Civ. App.,
In Bridges v. Williams, a suit solely for injunctive relief filed in the 77th Judicial District in and for Limestone County, the District Judge granted an ex parte writ of temporary injunction against a resident of Caldwell County, which was not within the 77th Judicial District, and made the writ returnable to his own court. On appeal the Court of Civil Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court, dissolved the writ of injunction and ordered the suit dismissed. In the course of its opinion the court pointed out that plaintiff’s petition showed on its face that the defendant was a resident of Caldwell County, and said: “The petition shows upon its face that the judge of the 77th Judicial District of Texas was without statutory right or power to issue the temporary writ of injunction, as well as without authority to make the same returnable to his court.”
In City of Dallas v. Armour, the plaintiffs in a suit against residents of Dallas County to cancel a contract performable in Dallas County and to enjoin its performance pendente lite presented their petition to the District Judge of the 66th Judicial District, Hill County, and, upon the theory that the District Judges of Dallas County were disqualified to act, secured an ex parte writ of temporary injunction returnable to the District Court of the 14th Judicial District of Dallas County, where the
In Box v. Olivеr, the Judge of the District Court of the 77th Judicial District granted an ex parte writ of injunction, pending further order of the court, against the sheriff of Robertson County, a county not within the 77th Judicial District. On appeal the Court of Civil Appeals, citing Articles 4643 and 4656, dissolved the injunction, holding that “the court was without authority to make the order” of restraint.
In Anderson v. Southwestern Presbyterian Home, etc. the plaintiff filed suit in the District Court of the 66th Judicial District, Hill County, seeking purely injunctive relief against a resident of Tarrant County, a county not within the 66th Judicial District. After hearing, the court overruled the defendants’ plea of privilege and by separate order granted a temporary injunction. On appeal the Court of Civil Appeals held both orders to be erroneous and reversed and ordered the cause transferred to one of the District Courts of Tarrant County. With reference to the order granting the writ of temporary injunction, the court said that the trial court “was without the statutory right or power to issue the temporary writ of injunction against the defendant in Tarrant County and that it was likewise ivithout authority to make the writ returnable to the district court of Hill County.”
In the four cases analyzed it was unnecessary to the decisions of the Courts of Civil Appeals that the validity or invalidity of the injunction orders be adjudicated, and any statements in the oninions that the orders were void or indicating that the respective trial courts were without jurisdictional povrer to enter them may be treated as dicta. Each of the cases was before the respective Courts of Civil Appeals by appeal from the trial court’s order, and dissolution of the various orders of restraint was proper on the ground that they were irregularly and erroneously granted. The cases analyzed are therefore not regarded as controlling or as particularly persuasive.
Article 4643 was originally enacted in 1907 as a proviso to Article 2989 of the Revised Civil Statutes of 1895. Acts of Regu
2 Article 4656, with a few minor and unimportant changes in verbiage, is derived from what may be termed the first comprehensive practice act governing judicial proceedings in the State of Texas. It was enacted by the First Legislature of the State of Texas in 1846. Gammel’s Laws of Texas, Vol. 2, pp. 1669, 1711-1712.
Articles 4643 and 4656 are but two of a series of Articles in Title 76 of the Revised Civil Statutes of 1925 dealing with injunctions. As written they formed а logical procedural whole applicable to our practice before adoption of the Rules of Civil Procedure in 1941. They contemplated that a trial judge could, upon presentation of a sworn petition therefor and before the filing of suit, grant a writ of temporary injunction without a hearing, Arts. 4647 and 4648, effective upon the filing of bond, Art. 4649, whereupon the party to whom the writ was granted would file his petition and the court’s order with the clerk of the proper court, Art. 4650, the clerk would issue the writ, Art. 4652, and it would be served by an officer and returned to the court from which it issued, Art. 4653, or to the court to which it was made returnable. Art. 4656Í Restrаint under a temporary writ continued, unless dissolved, until the case was finally disposed of. Riggins v. Thompson,
The proceedings leading up to the judgment of contempt against relators were undoubtedly irregular and erroneous. Upon presentation of the petition to the District Judge it was his duty to make any restraining order granted by him returnable to a District Court of Dallas or Howard County, and he was authorized to grant it in the first instance only upon the filing of an affidavit showing the inaccessibility of the district judges of those counties and that fair and reasonable efforts had been made by the plaintiffs to reach such judges but that it was impracticable to reach them and to obtain action from one of them in time to halt the sale. Not only were the proceedings in the granting and return of the restraining order irregular and erroneous, but the proceedings in trying in Sterling County the right of the applicants to a temporary writ and in making it returnable to the District Court of the 51st Judicial District Court were also irregular and erroneous. But the important question here is not whether the proceedings were irregular and erroneous, but whether they were wholly void. We hold that they were not.
3 The only types of suits in which the return of a writ as required by Article 4656 has been held jurisdictional are those to stay proceedings in a suit or execution on a judgment, Baker v. Crosbyton Southplains R. Co.,
4 ' We also hold that orders entered by a nonresident judge granting a temporary restraining order and a temporary writ of injunction without requiring the filing- of the statutory affidavit and the making of statutory proof of the inaccessibility of and efforts made to reach a resident judge, as provided by Art.' 4643, are not void. If the Legislature had intended that such orders should be void, there would have been no point in providing in the Article for a dissolution of writs granted in the absence of such affidavit and proof, with the burden placed on the person enjoined to prove facts entitling him to dissolution. Moreover, significance may be attached to legislative elimination from the article in the 1925 codification of all express language indicating that in the absence of the required affidavit a.nonresident judge would have no power to act.
5 The requirement of Article 4643 for affidavit and proof before a nonresident judge is authorized to grant a writ and the requirement of Article 4656 for making writs returnable to and triable in the county of residence of the defendant are procedural and not jurisdictional requirements. Violation of the requirements of the two statutes may be corrected at very little expense and in a very brief time through orderly channels of procedure. There is no showing in the record before us that relators sought to have the restraining order dissolved or opposed the granting of the writ of temporary injunction on the ground that the granting of such relief was violative of Arts. 4643 and 4656. Judgments which are rendered without observance of statutory requirements which are purely procedural are not void, however irregular or erroneous they may be. 25 Texas Jur. 809-812, Judgments, section 308; Freeman v. Freeman,
In asserting that the order and the writ were void relators rely on San Felipe Ind. School Dist. v. Nelson, Texas Civ. App.,
The relators are remanded to the custody of the sheriff of Sterling County there to remain until discharged according to the terms of the trial court’s judgment.
Opinion delivered October 7, 1959.
Notes
. — Emphasis ours throughout.
Dissenting Opinion
joined by Justice Hamilton, dissenting.
I agree with the result reached in the majority opinion that the temporary injunction issued by Judge Mays was not void, but voidable and irregular. This was a matter that could have been corrected by a prompt appeal under the provisions of Art. 4662, Vernon’s Ann. Texas Civ. Stats.
I disagree that the injunction was not void by virtue of the fact that the order of the judge did not require a bond to be given and no amount was fixed for the bond.
It is not disputed that the only bond in the reсord is the bond given to secure the temporary restraining order. It contains no provisions that secure the issuance of a temporary injunction, or protect anyone by virtue of the issuance of a temporary injunction. In fact, it was issued ten days prior to the hearing on the issuance of a temporary injunction.
I do not believe that it can be questioned that the order of May 29, 1959 issued only a temporary restraining order. The life of that restraining order is specifically stated to be “operative until and pending the hearing below ordered.” The hearing was ordered for 10:00 a.m. on June 8, 1959 in the District Courtroom of Sterling County, Texas in Stеrling City. The court ordered a bond given before the District Clerk should issue the restraining order. By virtue of its own provisions and also by Rule 680, Texas Rules Civ. Proc., and innumerable cases, this restraining order expired June 8, 1959 and was of no further force and effect. Fort Worth Street Railway Company v. Rose-
It is true, as declared by the majority, that a temporary restraining order is a species of injunction. The above authorities and others hold that it is a separate and distinct order from either a temporary injunction or a permanent and perpetual injunction. The Rules of Civil Procedure recognize that fact for Rule 680 deals only with such restraining order.
Rule 684 also recognizes such fact. That rule provides that “in the order granting any temporary restraining order or temporary injunction, the court shall fix the amount of security to be given by the applicant * * *; before the issuance of the temporary restraining order or temporary injunction * * *; if the restraining order or temporary injunction shall be dissolved * * *; where the temporary restraining order or temporary injunction is against the state * * * the liability of the applicant shall be for its face amount if the restraining order or temporary injunction shall be dissolved * * (Emphasis added) It is apparent from thе above wording in Rule 684 that the two species of injunction are separate and distinct.
Rule 685 continues this distinction between the two types of injunctive relief by using the following language: “Upon the granting of a temporary restraining order or an order fixing a time for hearing upon an application for a temporary injunction * * *.” Rule 686 further carries forward this distinction. This Rule makes a difference in the form of citations to be issued in the temporary restraining order and temporary injunction. Rule 688 also recognizes this difference.
The order entered June 18, 1959 reciting a hearing and judgment of June 8, 1959 nowhere continues the restraining order, nor does it mention the restarining order except where the court provides the restraining order bond shall be extended to cover the temporary injunction. I say the court had no right to so order. The temporary restraining order expired and was of no further force and effect. Riggins v. Thompson, supra, and other authorities therein cited. When the restraining order ex
“We wish to expressly state that we were in error in our original disposition of this cause wherein we held that the bond given in connection with the issuing of the temporary restraining order might be substituted for the bond required by law for the issuing of a temporary injunction. This, of course, cannot be done.”
The case of Porter v. Guggenheim, Texas Civ. App. 1937,
The effect of the majority opinion is to subject the surety on the temporary restraining order bond to new and additional liabilities for which it did not contract when signing the original" bond. It also overloks the plain provision of the first sentence of Rule 684 “in the order granting any tеmporary restraining order or temporary injunction, the court shall fix the amount of security to be given by the applicant.” (Emphasis added). The trial court did not comply with this provision as no bond was set or given for the temporary injunction. No surety nor sureties have bound themselves for liability under the temporary injunction; nor does the record show any agreement on the part of the sureties on the restraining order bond to be bound for the temporary injunction.
I believe the trial court had no right or authority to make the surety liable for more than it contracted in its original un
Opinion delivered October 7,1959.
Rehearing overruled November 11, 1959.
