Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

34 Tex. 474

Hammak v. Lewis

Texas Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1871

Texas Supreme Court · decided 1871-07-01

Error from Robertson. Tried below before the Hon. ÍT. Hart-Davis. This action was brought in January, 1868, by Hamman against. Lewis, in the County Court of Robertson county, then exercising; the civil jurisdiction conferred upon such courts* by the Constitution of 1866. Part of the' demand sued on was a note for seventy dollars, executed in 1861 to the plaintiff' and bis* then partner by the defendant and his then partner.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““A judgment from which an appeal can be taken must show some final disposition of the case; It may be that the plaintiff take nothing by his suit, or that the defendant go hence without day and recover his costs." (Italics ours.)”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Spiller v. McGehee

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1871-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently December 1944

3 state decisions

1018711880189019001910192019301940decided

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 →

Walker, J.

¶1Hamman brought suit on a mqney demand in the county court, and recovered a judgment for four hundred and .fifty dollars.

¶2The defendant Lewis sought to take the case to the .district court by ¡certiorari. Some doubt is expressed as to the power, of the district ..court, under the Constitution of 1866, to take a case from the county court, on certiorari, when the action is based on a money demand. We think this power is clearly implied in section six, article four. It is therein provided that the district courts shall have power to issue writs of injunction, certiorari, *477and all other writs necessary to their jurisdiction, and to give them, a general superintendence and control over inferior tribunals.

¶3Under the Constitution of 1845, the case of Titus v. Latimer (5 Texas, 433,) was decided. The analogy between the Constitution and laws then in force, and those now in force, makes this case of great weight in deciding the one at bar. No member of the court had any doubt of the power of tho court to bring a case from a justice’s court before it, by certiorari ; but Judge Wheeler thought it could also be done by appeal. (See also O’Brien v. Dunn, 5 Texas, 570; Newsom v. Chrisman, 9 Texas, 113.)

¶4The next question for our consideration is the legal sufficiency of the petition for certiorari. We think that the petition in this case states enough to satisfy the court that the defendant had a meritorious defense to the greater part of the judgment; but the defendant is not clear of negligence in not making his proper defense, and if the plaintiff had been held to the proper proof of his demand, we should be strongly inclined to hold the petition as insufficient. But this was not the case. The note which the plaintiff presented to the court was for seventy dollars. This proved itself; and under the proof, this was all the plaintiff was entitled to recover. The judgment was therefore erroneous, and it may have been oppressive and unjust. (See 17 Texas, 125; 7 Texas, 237; 16 Texas, 551.)

¶5It is very doubtful in our minds whether the judgment of the district court (if any was rendered) is such an one as can be appealed from.

¶6The form of a judgment is not material, so it contains the substance required by law. (5 Texas, 177.) The plaintiff, when his motion to quash was overruled, refused to prosecute his case further, and the defendant had it dismissed for want of prosecution. There is no judgment even for costs. The only portion of the record which contains anything which could properly be regarded as a judgment is that dismissing the motion to quash. This was only interlocutory, and could not be appealed from.

¶7*478A judgment from which an appeal can be taken must show some final disposition of the case. It may be that the plaintiff take nothing by his suit, or that the defendant go hence without day and recover his costs, etc. (Hanks v. Thompson, 5 Texas, 6; Warren v. Shuman, 5 Texas, 449; Bradshaw v. Davis, 8 Texas, 345.)

¶8We think the proceedings of the district court were correct in all respects other than in not entering a final judgment for costs. We must regard this case as coram non judice, and dismiss the appeal, with the suggestion that the district court enter judgment nunc pro tunc.

¶9Ordered accordingly.

/34/tex/474 · .json · Public domain