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21 Tex. 763

Parker v. Campbell

Texas Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1858

Texas Supreme Court · decided 1858-07-01

Error from Houston. Tried below before Hon. J. H. Reagan. This was a suit against certain of the sureties of one Elon A. Campbell, oh his bond as guardian of Geo. W. Campbell. The appellant set up among other defences specially, that said Elon A. Campbell was never properly appointed guardian of said Geo. W., that the County Court of Houston county had no jurisdiction over the person or property of said Geo.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““There is no better settled doctrine than that, where a party has solemnly admitted a fact by deed and under his hand and seal, he is estopped, not only from denying the deed itself, but every fact which it recites.””

quoted by 2 later decisions, including Texas Co. v. Van Deventer, Fikes v. Buckholts State Bank

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1858-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently January 1962

8 state decisions

30185818601870188018901900191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Wheeler. J.

¶1There is no better settled doctrine than that, where a party has solemnly admitted a fact by deed and under his hand and seal, he is estopped, not only from denying the deed itself, but every fact which it recites. (9 Wend. R. 209 ; 4 Blackf, 437.) It is, unnecessary to cite the numerous *764cases which establish this general doctrine. The case of Borden v. Houston, decided by this Court, is decisive of the present question. (2 Tex. R. 594; and see 8 Pick. 386 ; 3 Id. 38.) The defendant was not at liberty to dispute the appointment and official character of his principal in the bond. He was estopped from denying that he was the lawful guardian of the plaintiff. The Court, therefore, did not err in sustaining exceptions to the answer.

¶2There was no error in refusing a continuance. The witness resided remote from the county seat. Yet the subpoena was not issued until after the commencement of the Term of the Court; but two days appear to have intervened between the issuance of the subpoena and the day on which the application to continue was made. If the subpoena had been issued in time, the witness might have been in attendance. The delay should have been satisfactorily explained. “ The service of a subpoena upon a witness ought always to be made a reasonable time before trial, to enable him to put his affairs in such order that his attendance upon the Court may be as little detrimental as possible to his interest. On this principle, a summons in the morning to attend in the afternoon of the same day, has been held insufficient, though the witness lived in the same town, and very near the place of trial. (1 Greenl. Ev. See. 314.) Besides the affidavit appears to have been prematurely made, being three days before the trial. (Parker v. McKelvain, 17 Tex. R. 157.)

¶3There is no error in the judgment and it is affirmed.

¶4Judgment affirmed.

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