108 F.2d 759 | 5th Cir. | 1940
This suit was brought by Dora B. Hendron, Emil Claude Howard and Glenn Howard against Yount-Lee Oil Co., Sun
Plaintiffs are the sole heirs at law of Z. T. Howard, who in 1904 owned the land in controversy. In 1904 the land was sold by the sheriff of Gregg County, on executions issuing from a justice of the peace court and the District Court, to W. R. Bass. Defendants hold by mesne conveyances from Bass. In October, 1934, plaintiffs brought suit against defendants in the District Court of Woods County, Texas, to recover the land, alleging the invalidity of the sale on substantially the same grounds as are urged in the suit at bar. That suit was decided against them by the District Court and on appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals the judgment was affirmed, Hendron v. YountLee Oil Co., 119 S.W.2d 171. The Supreme Court of Texas denied a writ of error.
It is apparent the plea of res adjudicata is good unless the judgments of the District Court of Woods County, the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Texas above referred to, are set aside as depriving plaintiffs of due process of law in violation of the 14th Amendment. In. the - case of Susie Williams et al. v. Allen Tooke et al., 5 Cir., 108 F.2d 758, decided this day, on allegations of unconstitutionality substantially the same as in the case at bar, we had occasion to consider the jurisdiction of a District Court of the .United. States to set aside a judgment of a state court. On authorities cited therein, we held the District Court was without jurisdiction for want of the presentation of a substantial federal question. On the authority of that case the judgment is affirmed.