Ace Sign, Inc. v. Crawford

905 S.W.2d 794, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 2160, 1995 WL 516889
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 31, 1995
DocketNo. 09-94-250 CV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 905 S.W.2d 794 (Ace Sign, Inc. v. Crawford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ace Sign, Inc. v. Crawford, 905 S.W.2d 794, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 2160, 1995 WL 516889 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

[796]*796OPINION

BURGESS, Justice.

Ace Sign, Inc. (Ace) and James R. Willett (Willett) sued Larry Crawford (Crawford), Southwestern Bell Media, Inc. (Bell) and Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc. (Yellow Pages). Ace and Willett alleged they were wrongfully excluded from the yellow page directoiy for the year 1989-1990. They alleged causes of action under the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA), for negligence and breach of contract. The DTPA allegations urged unconscionable action under Tex. Bus. & Com.Code Ann. § 17.50(a)(3) (Vernon 1987); breach of implied warranty and misrepresentations under TexJBus. & Com.Code Ann. § 17.46(b)(5, 7,12) (Vernon 1987) (laundry list violations).

Willett, the president of Ace, became delinquent in his payments for 1988-1989 yellow page advertising. Crawford, a sales representative for Yellow Pages, the authorized sales agent for Bell, went to Ace to discuss the delinquent bill and advertising in the 1989-1990 yellow pages. On September 22, 1989, Willett paid the delinquent bill by credit card and Ace and Yellow Pages executed an agreement for advertising in the 1989-1990 yellow pages. When the yellow pages were published, Ace discovered the display advertising had been omitted from the yellow page advertisements. This lawsuit ensued.

All defendants filed a motion for partial summary judgment alleging Willett had no individual claim, the plaintiffs claims were nothing more than breach of contract and the limitation of liability clause limited Ace’s damages to the amount paid for the omitted advertising. They also alleged the breach of warranty cause of action was precluded by the agreement. They argued there were no DTPA violations under the laundry list because there was no genuine issue of material fact concerning any misrepresentations. They further argued plaintiffs pleading did not state a claim for unconscionable action because no factual basis was pled. Finally, they argued the negligence cause of action was not available because a failure to publish yellow page advertising was, as a matter of law, a breach of contract action and not a tort.

Plaintiffs filed a response attaching certain pages of Willett’s deposition. They claimed this portion reflected misrepresentations made by Crawford, thereby creating a fact issue on the DTPA laundry list. They admitted a cause of action for breach of contract or for breach of warranty would carry the limitation of liability. However, they did not address any other issues raised in the motion for partial summary judgment. Plaintiffs filed a supplemental response and attached a copy of Willett’s second deposition. They alleged this deposition contained additional misrepresentations by Crawford and thus further established there was a genuine issue of material fact concerning any misrepresentations. Plaintiffs then filed an amended original petition alleging specific misrepresentations and acts of negligence along with the unconscionable action, breach of warranty and breach of contract.

The trial judge granted a partial summary judgment in favor of the defendants which stated, in pertinent part:

[Tjhere being no genuine issue of material fact, as follows:

a. Plaintiffs’ only cause of action is for breach of contract;
b. Defendants are entitled to rely on the Limitation of Liability clause of the Agreement for Directory Advertising for all purposes;
c. Defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law that plaintiffs take nothing on their alleged cause of action for negligence;
d. Defendants are entitled to a take nothing judgment, as a matter of law, as to all of the plaintiffs’ claims for violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The next day1 the court granted a final judgment reflecting the partial summary judgment had been granted and stated:

[797]*797[A]t which time the attorney of record for the Defendants announced that his clients would stipulate that they breached the contract with the Plaintiffs herein, and that under the terms of the contract, the Plaintiffs were entitled to recover the amount that they paid for the items of advertising which were omitted, which is the sum of $3,594.00. In addition, the court ruled that the Plaintiffs were entitled to recover reasonable attorney’s fees for said breach of contract, which the parties stipulated would be the sum of $18,000.00_

Plaintiffs filed a motion for new trial contending they were entitled to go to the jury on various causes of action under the DTPA, with the exception of the breach of warranty, citing Posey v. Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc., 878 S.W.2d 275 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1994, no writ) which was delivered May 26, 1994, but apparently not released for publication until after the partial summary judgment and final judgment had been signed. A concluding paragraph asked the trial court to vacate the final judgment and allow the plaintiffs to try their case to a jury. The docket sheet reflects an order denying the motion for new trial was signed on July 18,1994, yet no order is contained in the transcript.2 In any event, the motion for new trial was overruled. See Tex.R.CivP. 329b(c).

Appellants urge three points of error. The first point alleges the trial court erred in granting the summary judgment as it pertained to the DTPA claims under section 17.46(b)(5, 7, 12) (laundry list violations) and section 17.50(a)(3) (unconscionable action) and the negligence causes of action. As a subset, they argue no contract exists between Willett, individually, and the defendants, therefore summary judgment against him was improper. The second point alleges the trial court erred in only awarding the breach of contract amount of damages because a fact issue exists as to the actual damages under the DTPA and negligence causes of action. The final point of error alleges the trial court erred in limiting the attorneys fees to $18,000, because a fact issue exists as to what reasonable attorney’s fees would be under a recovery for violations of the DTPA. Point of error one is naturally dispositive of the remaining two.

There are primarily three cases that speak to the issue of DTPA causes of action where errors and omissions in yellow page advertising is the issue, Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. DeLanney, 809 S.W.2d 493 (Tex.1991), Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. FDP Corp., 811 S.W.2d 572 (Tex.1991) and Posey v. Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages, Inc., 878 S.W.2d at 275.3

In DeLanney, an ad was deleted from the yellow pages. DeLanney sued Bell alleging negligence and violations of the DTPA The trial court directed a verdict against DeLan-ney on the DTPA claim. Questions were submitted to the jury on the negligence claims, which the jury found in favor of De-Lanney and awarded damages. The court held that Bell’s duty to publish the ad arose solely from the contract and did not sound in tort. Since DeLanney did not request jury questions on breach of contract, this cause of action was waived. The DTPA question was never presented on appeal. Consequently, DeLanney

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Related

Crawford v. Ace Sign, Inc.
917 S.W.2d 12 (Texas Supreme Court, 1996)

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Bluebook (online)
905 S.W.2d 794, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 2160, 1995 WL 516889, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ace-sign-inc-v-crawford-texapp-1995.