Anahuac, Inc. v. Wilkes

622 S.W.2d 634, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4512
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 7, 1981
Docket13258
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 622 S.W.2d 634 (Anahuac, Inc. v. Wilkes) 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
Anahuac, Inc. v. Wilkes, 622 S.W.2d 634, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4512 (Tex. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

SHANNON, Justice.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the district court of Travis County in a construction contract case. In the summer of 1977, Anahuac, Inc., contracted to build a Handy Dan store located in Austin. Thereafter, Anahuac entered into a subcontract with James H. Collins to furnish labor and materials to do the concrete work on the project. Other parties on appeal are Cen-tex Materials, doing business as Travis Materials, Larry Wilkes, and the Burke Company who are subcontractors to Collins..

The main dispute before this Court is between Anahuac, the general contractor, and Collins, the subcontractor. In its cross-action against Collins and his bonding company, Anahuac pleaded that Collins breached the contract and that it had to complete the concrete work on the Handy Dan job to its damage of over $50,000. In his cross-claim against Anahuac, Collins alleged that when he had substantially completed the work on the Handy Dan project, Anahuac barred him and his employees from the job site and that as a result, he was unable to complete the contract. Collins sued to recover $48,919.60, the sum he claimed due under the contract.

After a bench trial, the district court rendered judgment, among other things, that Anahuac take nothing; that Collins recover $48,919.60 and attorney’s fees from Anahuac and that Collins’ mechanic’s and materialmen’s lien against the Handy Dan property be foreclosed. The judgment provided further that Collins’ subcontractors, Travis Materials, Larry Wilkes, and the Burke Company, recover- against Collins $14,036.31, $19,474.00 and $3,374.18, respectively, along with attorney’s fees. The judgment, however, recited that each mechanic’s and materialmen’s lien claimed by Collins’ subcontractors was not properly perfected and it further canceled each such lien.

The Handy Dan structure consisted of a concrete slab with concrete tilt walls. Proper construction was dependent upon the orderly pouring of the slab and walls. There is no question but that there were major problems with Collins’ work. In fact, the job architect described the concrete work, generally, as “just horrible.” One major problem was a mistaken pour resulting in a smaller part of the slab being of red concrete than was required by the plans and specifications. Because red concrete on one side of the store is a Handy Dan trademark, the job architect required that part of the concrete slab be removed and a new pour made to obtain the specified dimensions of red concrete. In addition, the architect testified that the floor, as finished, was not level and was “really too wavy” in places.

A second key mistake in the concrete work occurred in the pour of the walls in that the joist pockets were incorrectly placed. Joist pockets are cut outs in the concrete walls where steel joists are fitted. When the wall panels, as poured, were erected, the joist pockets did not line up. The pockets had to be “reengineered” to provide supports for the joists. Whoever laid out the joist pockets missed a dimension on the wall panel and, as a result, all of the measurements were off.

Another deviation from the plans and specifications that caused even more difficulty was Collins’ failure to chamfer the wall panels. The plans required that all exposed sharp corners be chamfered so that the concrete work would be neat instead of ragged and so that the panels would not have nicked corners. Collins testified that he chamfered some panels but not others. The job architect required that the corners be patched and ground down, all of which was expensive and time consuming.

Finally, the reveal and labrado in the concrete wall panels were unacceptable to the architect. The reveal, as we understand, is an architectural form that is cast *636 into wall panels to give relief to the panels; it consists of a groove or a dividing line in the concrete. The labrado is a form or mold in which concrete is poured so as to give the concrete wood-grain appearance. The reveals did not meet on the outside walls and had to be redone by sawing and chipping. The labrado had rough edges which required patching.

Although no one disputes that there were mistakes in the concrete work, Collins and his foreman testified by way of excuse that in making the respective pours, they followed the directions of Anahuac’s representative at the job site.

The contract price for the concrete work was $142,841.75. Pouring concrete began in August of 1977. After the architect’s inspection report at the end of October, 1977, Anahuac began issuing checks made out jointly to Collins and some of his suppliers, because the suppliers had informed Anah-uac that Collins had not paid their August and September bills. Collins was barred from the job in December, 1977, and at that time he had been paid $92,422.15. Anah-uac’s evidence was that Collins, after direction, corrected some of the problems in the pour, but that he failed to remedy the problems with the reveal and the labrado.

The district court, upon request, filed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The district court found globally that Anah-uac wrongfully terminated Collins’ performance under the contract. The court found no facts supporting its determination that Collins was wrongfully terminated. The court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law make no reference to the provisions of the contract that purport to govern the performance of the contract.

Both parties pleaded the contract and sought to recover under it. Collins made no effort to avoid any provision of the contract; neither did he plead or prove fraud, ambiguity, overreaching, or bad faith.

To protect the general contractor from deficiencies in the concrete work, the contract provides in paragraph eleven:

“... if Subcontractor shall fail in any other manner to perform the whole or any part of any covenant or agreement contained or assumed herein then and upon the occurrence of such an event (and Contractor’s finding and judgment with respect thereto shall be final and bind Subcontractor absolutely), Contractor shall have the right, after sending the Subcontractor notice of its intention by mail or telegraph twenty-four (24) hours in advance (1) to provide materials and labor in addition to or in place of any supplied by Subcontractor and deduct the cost thereof and expense relating thereto from the contract price payable hereunder, and after or without exercising said privilege, also (2) to bar Subcontractor from said project (with or without terminating this subcontract) and take over and complete the work covered hereby, either by itself or by contracting with others to do so or by any combination of such methods, all at the expense of Subcontractor ...”

An examination of paragraph eleven demonstrates that Collins agreed to place the final decision regarding adequacy of his performance in Anahuac’s hands. Anah-uac’s satisfaction was the conclusive test of whether the concrete work was properly performed. The validity of such contractual provisions is well recognized, 44 A.L.R.2d 1114, and the judgment of the party regarding adequacy of performance will be upheld if made in good faith. Black Lake Pipe Line Co. v. Union Const. Co., 538 S.W.2d 80 (Tex.1976).

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622 S.W.2d 634, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 4512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anahuac-inc-v-wilkes-texapp-1981.