Associate Justice, Texas Supreme Court, 1918-1934
Thomas Benton Greenwood was born July 2, 1872, in Louisburg, North Carolina. His father, an attorney, had come to Texas from Mississippi in the 1850s and settled in Palestine. Greenwood attended Palestine public schools and then studied at The University of Texas from approximately 1888 to 1890, graduating with a B.S. degree. Following his graduation, he returned to Palestine and read law in his father's office at the firm of Reagan, Greenwood & Gooch. Greenwood received his license to practice law on his twenty-first birthday, July 2, 1893, and went into practice with his father. Following his father's death in 1900, Greenwood practiced alone. In 1907 he was appointed to The University of Texas Board of Regents, and served until 1911. He was married in 1908.
In 1918 Gov. W. P. Hobby appointed Thomas Greenwood associate justice of the Texas supreme court. Greenwood was reelected to the position three times. He was particularly known for his important work in oil and gas law, and he was also an authority on negligence law and real property law.
Greenwood declined to run for reelection in 1934, and went into civil law practice in Austin with former governor Dan Moody and former district attorney J. B. Robertson. He continued practicing law until his death from a heart attack on March 26, 1946 in Austin. He was buried in the Texas State Cemetery.
Greenwood's opinions from Grubb v. McAfee (
In Memoriam,
146 Texas reports 623 (1948).Garwood, W. St. John & Parton, Virginia. Greenwood, Thomas Benton,
Handbook of Texas Online (last updated June 6, 2001).
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/GG/fgr41.htmlJohnston, V. M. A Texas Portrait: Thomas Benton Greenwood,
24(3) Texas Bar Journal 226-228, 280-281 (March, 1961).
