Opinion
Application No. 16522.
Decided February 27, 1929.
Jurisdiction — Award of Industrial Accident Board.
The Texas Employers' Insurance Association having filed suit in R. county to set aside an award in favor of plaintiff by the Industrial Accident Board, that court was the dominant tribunal to determine its jurisdiction over such case by reason of the injury having been received in R. county. The plaintiff could not, pending this action, maintain a suit filed by him later and elsewhere to recover on the award to him by the Board under claim that such court had no jurisdiction because the injury was not received in R. county.
Petition to the Supreme Court by Neal for writ of error.
Neal sued the Texas Employers' Insurance Association in the District Court of Callahan County, for judgment on an award in his favor by the Industrial Accident Board. He recovered judgment which, on appeal by the Board, was reversed and remanded (11 S.W.2d Series, 847). Neal thereupon applied for a writ of error which is here refused.
Scarborough Wilson and B. L. Russell, for plaintiff in error.
The recitation in an award by the Industrial Accident Board reciting the county in which the accident occurred is superfluous and immaterial, and is not an excuse for the insured company to fail to bring the suit in the proper county, to-wit, the county where the accident did occur. Lumberman's Reciprocal Assn. v. Franklin, 286 S.W. 195; Lumberman's Reciprocal Assn. v. Turner, 296 S.W. 901; Mingus v. Wadley, 295 S.W. 1084; Security Union Casualty Co. v. Frederick, 295 S.W. 302; Tinkle v. Lumberman's Reciprocal Assn., 299 S.W. 285.
The record in this case shows that the petition of the Texas Employers' Insurance Association to set aside the award in favor of the plaintiff in error Neal by the Industrial Accident Board was filed in the District Court of Reeves County on January 12, 1928, which was before the filing of the instant suit by Neal in the District Court of Callahan County to mature the award. This being so, the issues as to whether or not the accident occurred in Reeves County and as to the jurisdiction of the District Court of that county to entertain the suit filed by the Texas Employers' Insurance Association are justiciable questions in the District Court of Reeves County, for the determination of which that court is one of dominant jurisdiction. Cleveland v. Ward, 116 Tex. 1.
The writ of error is accordingly refused.