Opinion by
Appellee, on August 1,1887, consigned ninety-one head of cattle to R. M. Flautt & Co., commission merchants in New Orleans, Louisiana, for sale on the New Orleans market, and return of proceeds, less $400 drawn by him on said Mautt & Oo. against said cattle at the time of shipping same.
On the 7th of the same month appellants proposed to appellee to purchase the said cattle and take the proceeds of the sale thereof, less the $400 already drawn on same, and give him therefor $150, the money to be paid 'and the proceeds of the sale delivered on receipt by appellee of the account of sales or sale bills from said Flautt & Co., which proposition appellee then and there in terms accepted. The cattle were sold on the 6 th and 7th days of said month, and the proceeds of the sale thereof, less the said $400, and the account of sales, were remitted to appellee by said Flautt & Co., and were by appellee received in due course of mail on the 13th of said month of August; but appellee refused to deliver to appellants the account of sales or the proceeds of the sale, or any part thereof, or to make known to appellants the amount of such proceeds, though repeatedly requested so to do, and notwithstanding there was a balance of said proceeds remaining, after deducting the said $400, the $150 promised by appellants to be paid to appellee, and all costs and expenses incidental to the shipping and marketing of said cattle. On the 14th of said month appellants tendered to appellee on said contract in legal tender money $150, and demanded the Account of sales and the proceeds of the sale, less the said $400; but appellee still refused to deliver the same, or any part thereof, or to make known to appellants the amount said cattle sold for. Appellants in their petition set out the diligence used by them to ascertain the amount said cattle brought on the New Orleans market, and their inability to discover it, and
The appellee answered to the petition:
1. General denial.
2. Specially, that if appellants and appellee ever entered into any contract, it was essentially different from the one declared on in the petition; and that such contract was entered into on a Sunday; and the parties at the time of consummating it, being traders and dealers in cattle and their proceeds, the contract was contrary to the statutes of the state, and therefore void and incapable of enforcement; that the contract was not a bona fide sale of the cattle, but was a speculation and gambling on the price they should bring on the market, and in law was a wager; and that if appellee entered into any such contract, he did not deal with appellants on equal terms, they being in possession of facts which it was their duty to make known to him, regarding the price said cattle sold for, and which was intended for him.
Appellants filed first supplemental petition by way of replication to appellee’s answer, and pleaded specially that, subsequent to the time of making the said contract, appellee ratified the sale of the said cattle on secular days, and treated the same as valid, legal and binding.
The cause was tried before the court without a jury, and judgment rendered on November 3,1887, that plaintiffs take nothing by their suit, and defendant go hence and recover costs, etc.
In his conclusions of fact and law the trial judge found and concluded that the contract being made on Sunday was in violation of article 183 of the Penal Oode of Texas, and cannot be enforced. Held: In the view we take of the case it is unnecessary to decide whether or not the trade was void because in contravention of the Sunday law. It certainly was not in contravention of article 183 of the Penal Code, which prohibits “labor” on Sunday. The word “labor” does not embrace the simple making
§ 447. Same; tuager; rules as to. The trial judge concluded further that, in legal effect, the contract was a wager on the market price of the cattle sold in New
The attendant facts and the terms of the contract, as stated by the witnesses, are substantially: that appellee shipped from Taylor, Texas, to New Orleans, Louisiana, for sale, ninety-one head of cattle. Server, one of the appellants, saw the -cattle the day they were shipped. On the following day appellee offered to sell said cattle to said Server for $550, but Servei* declined to purchase. Meantime, Server was receiving daily advices by telegrams from his correspondent at New Orleans as to the state of the market there. In a few days after appellee’s offer to sell, Server instructed his partner, Bland, that if he saw appellee, and the latter would take $550 for the cattle, to buy them. Thereafter Bland met appellee and bought the cattle on the following terms: Appellee owed Bland $50, and had already dr^wn a check for $400 against the proceeds of the sale of-said cattle. The cattle had not yet been sold in New Orleans. Bland testified:
Reversed and rendered.
