13 Tex. 68 | Tex. | 1854
The errors assigned, which it is material to consider, are 1st. The ruling of the Court sustaining the demurrer to the answer. 2nd. The rejection of evidence proposed by the defendant; and 3rd. Insufficiency of the evidence to support the verdict.
The answer of the defendants sought to bring again in litigation in this suit, matters which had been finally adjudicated and determined in a former suit between the same parties. It is an elementary principle, which does not require the support of argument or authority, that the judgments of a Court of competent jurisdiction are revisable only in an appellate Court, and cannot be impeached collaterally. Every matter adjudicated becomes a part of the record, which ■ imports absolute verity. So long as the judgment remains in force, it is in itself evidence of the right of the plaintiff to the thing adjudged, and gives him a right to process to execute the judg
The evidence proposed, to prove that the lot in question had been set apart to the defendant, as a homestead, by the County Court, was rightly rejected for the same reason. Its only effect, if admitted would have been, either to establish
The remaining objection to the judgment is, that the evidence was not sufficient to warrant the verdict, and entitle the plaintiff to a recovery. This objection is not tenable. The ground of the objection is that the judgment and execution, under which the premises were sold, are not embraced in the statement of facts. The statement of facts, however, shows that both were in evidence before the Court. It states that the plaintiff gave in evidence the decree, and the Sheriff's deed, “ made under an order of sale, and execution, regularly issued from said Court, upon the judgment in case No. 801,” &e. It is evident, therefore, that the judgment and execution were before the Court. And the Clerk is directed by the parties, in the statement of facts signed by their attorneys, to omit copying them into the record ; for the reason, doubtless, that no question was made upon them, and it was proposed to avoid encumbering the record needlessly by their insertion. The objection therefore is not well taken in point of fact. It
Finally, it may be observed, that it abundantly appears by the statement of facts, that the defence of the homestead exemption, sought to be .introduced by the defendants in .the Court below, and insisted on in argument in this Court, was without any foundation in fact. It is fully proved beyond a question, that the lot in controversy had ceased to be the homestead of the defendants, long before the rendition of the judgment foreclosing the mortgage, in June, 1853, and the sale under execution in pursuance thereof, in August of the same year. If, therefore, the ruling of the Court in the matters complained of had been in favor of the defendants, the final result, upon the merits of the case, must have been the same". The judgment is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.