69 Tex. 482 | Tex. | 1888
Judgment was rendered below in favor of the appellee upon his plea of personal privilege, setting up that he was, at the commencement of this suit, a resident of Brown county, and not of Fayette county, where the suit was instituted. The facts established by the evidence show substantially, that the appellee for several years before this suit was brought, was a resident' of Fayette county, where he had been engaged in the practice of medicine. That about September 1, 1885, he went to Brown county with the intention of making it his home for the future, and formed a copartnership there for the practice of his profession; that he entered regu
Upon this state of facts, the court found that the appellee was not a resident of Fayette county when this suit was brought, and we think the finding correct. He had quit his business there and was regularly pursuing it in a different county. He had sold out his home in Fayette and removed all his personal effects therefrom to his new place of residence, and did everything necessary for a complete change of residence except to take his family away before this suit was commenced. He was prevented by sickness from removing them at an earlier day. Had his family left, the removal would have been complete under the strictest construction that could be given to the law governing such cases. When a man is in the act of removing from one county to another, but has left his family in the place of his former home, it may be sometimes uncertain to which county his residence belongs. In such ca.se it has been said that he has two residences, in either of which he may be sued. (Brown v. Boulder, 18 Texas, 432.) In that case the defendant had gone to another county for the purpose only of preparing a home for his family, and had taken with him only a portion of his property. Here the appellee had actually moved himself to the county, and had taken there all of his movable property. There the defendant had not sold out Ms
Affirmed.
Opinion delivered January 13, 1888.