Adams v. Austin Savings & Loan Ass'n

605 S.W.2d 358, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3952
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedAugust 14, 1980
DocketNo. 8475
StatusPublished

This text of 605 S.W.2d 358 (Adams v. Austin Savings & Loan Ass'n) 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
Adams v. Austin Savings & Loan Ass'n, 605 S.W.2d 358, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3952 (Tex. Ct. App. 1980).

Opinion

KEITH, Justice.

Plaintiff below appeals from a take nothing judgment which denied to him a recovery of damages he had sought in his suit alleging breach of contract, breach of warranty, and fraud involving the sale of lots in a subdivision and the financing of improvements thereon. Defendants were Austin Savings & Loan Association (hereafter “S&L”) and its president, Wayne J. Riddell (hereafter simply “Riddell”).

Plaintiff has appealed upon fourteen assignments which he has grouped into seven units for the purpose of argument. We affirm for the reasons now to be stated.

Factual Statement

We are confronted with an immense record and our factual resume will be condensed severely so as to keep this opinion within reasonable limits.

In January, 1974, plaintiff and S&L entered into an elaborate and extensive written agreement whereby for a consideration in excess of one million dollars, plaintiff acquired certain lots in Las Cimas Subdivision in Austin. Under this agreement, S&L had certain obligations to perform with reference to construction of streets, financing homes and duplexes upon the lots, etc.

Plaintiff was a builder and real estate investor with extensive holdings and activities, many of his ventures being financed by S&L. As frequently happens in such cases, disputes arose between the parties, particularly when plaintiff went into technical default upon some of his obligations, while at the same time contending that S&L had failed to perform all of its obligations as agreed.

By April of 1975, upon plaintiff’s default upon notes due upon certain duplexes he had purchased from one Neans financed by S&L, it posted notice of foreclosure thereon.

Thereafter, on April 11, 1975, plaintiff and S&L entered into an agreement, the introductory paragraph reading:

“This agreement is entered into this 11th day of April, 1975 by and betweenr Bryan Adams and Austin Savings and Loan Association, for the consideration and subject to the terms and conditions stated herein.”

This preamble was followed by eight numbered paragraphs, each dealing with a separate subject, and was followed by paragraph 9 which read:

“In consideration of the foregoing Agreement, Bryan Adams does hereby forever release and discharge Austin Savings from any and all claims or causes of action he might otherwise have ....”1

The 1975 agreement provided, inter alia, that plaintiff would receive, and he did collect, $25,000 in cash.

In his suit, plaintiff sought damages for the breach of the 1974 agreement; but sought no damages for the failure of S&L to perform the promises made in the 1975 agreement. Both defendants interposed the second or 1975 agreement containing the release and plead accord and satisfaction in bar to plaintiff’s claims for damages for breach of the 1974 agreement. Plaintiff responded, by supplemental petition, contending that the release was conditioned upon performance by S&L of the promises contained in the second agreement; and, when it defaulted thereon, he was entitled to pursue his claim for damages for breach of the original contract.

Upon the trial of the case, many issues of fact were submitted to the jury and all [360]*360were answered favorably to plaintiff’s contentions and substantial damages were awarded.

The trial court sustained Riddell’s motion for peremptory instruction and granted the motion of S&L for judgment non obstante veredicto. Plaintiff challenges such actions by appropriate points of error, not all of which will be mentioned in our disposition of the case. S&L also has a myriad of cross-points challenging the factual sufficiency of the evidence.

Opinion

In our consideration of plaintiff’s points of error, we are confronted with and recognize that judgment non obstante vere-dicto is authorized only in cases in which an instructed verdict would have been proper or where a special issue has no support in the evidence.

In considering the propriety of the granting of a motion for instructed verdict or a motion for judgment non obstante veredicto, a “no evidence” point of error is presented. In deciding such question, we must consider only the evidence and inferences which support the finding, disregarding all contrary evidence. Lucas v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co., 552 S.W.2d 796, 797 (Tex.1977); Henderson v. Travelers Insurance Co., 544 S.W.2d 649, 650 (Tex.1976); Eubanks v. Winn, 420 S.W.2d 698, 701 (Tex.1967); Garza v. Alviar, 395 S.W.2d 821, 823 (Tex.1965).

Plaintiff, while not contending in so many words that the second contract is ambiguous, does argue that “[t]he surrounding circumstances ... point to performance being a condition of the agreement . . . [and] that it was the intent of the parties that the agreement require performance by [S&L] and not merely a promise to perform.” Citing Hohenberg Brothers Co. v. George E. Gibbons & Co., 537 S.W.2d 1, 3 (Tex.1976), he argues that the language found in paragraph 9 of the second agreement points “to performance being a condition of the agreement.”

We do not share plaintiff’s view of the holding in Hohenberg. The contract now in dispute was not executory nor were S&L’s promises simply conditions precedent. Instead, as we view the instrument, it was a completed contract and the promises were covenants, not conditions. Making application of the “general rule” applied by the Hohenberg Court in its discussion of conditions and covenants, we are of the opinion that the language used in the second contract was a covenant and not a condition.

In the recent case of Harris v. Rowe, 593 S.W.2d 303, 306 (Tex.1979), the Court reaffirmed the rule that “[a]n accord and satisfaction constitutes a bar to any action on the original contract.” Thus, we must determine if S&L discharged its burden of establishing the affirmative defense of accord and satisfaction.

As stated in Harris v. Rowe, supra:

“This defense rests upon a new contract, express or implied, in which the parties agree to the discharge of an existing obligation in a manner otherwise than originally agreed. The tender of the alternate satisfaction is upon the condition that the acceptance will constitute a discharge of the underlying obligation.”

At the risk of being redundant, but in order to relate our facts to the law as set out above, we note the language of the release:

“In consideration of the foregoing Agreement [not the performance of such agreement], Bryan Adams does hereby forever release and discharge [not upon performance of the promises, he will in the future release] Austin Savings from any and all claims or causes of action which he might otherwise have ....”2

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605 S.W.2d 358, 1980 Tex. App. LEXIS 3952, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-austin-savings-loan-assn-texapp-1980.