Baeza v. Hector's Tire & Wrecker Service, Inc.

471 S.W.3d 585, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 8108, 2015 WL 4710148
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 31, 2015
DocketNo. 08-14-00186-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 471 S.W.3d 585 (Baeza v. Hector's Tire & Wrecker Service, Inc.) 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
Baeza v. Hector's Tire & Wrecker Service, Inc., 471 S.W.3d 585, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 8108, 2015 WL 4710148 (Tex. Ct. App. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

STEVEN L. HUGHES, Justice

Isabel Baeza appeals from a judgment in favor of Hector’s Tire & Wrecker Service, Inc. based on Baeza’s breach of contract. Baeza raises two issues on "appeal. First, Baeza contends the trial court erred in refusing to fin’d that Hector’s' claim was-barred by the affirmative defense of accord and satisfaction. Second, Baeza contends the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the trial court’s award of damages. We conclude the evi-[588]*588denee supports the trial court’s determination that Baeza failed to meet its burden to establish the defense of accord and satisfaction. Further, although we agree there is insufficient evidence to support the amount of damages awarded, we conclude there is some evidence that Hector’s suffered damages as the result of Baeza’s breach of contract. We therefore reverse the trial court’s judgment and remand for a new trial on damages, unless Hector’s accepts the remittitur we suggest below.

BACKGROUND

Baeza is the owner of a trucking company that had contracts to haul paving materials from a plant in Reeves County to locations designated by its customers. Because Baeza could not fully accommodate the needs of his customers, he contacted Hector Garcia, the owner of Hector’s Tire & Wrecker Service, Inc., in July 2010 to assist his company in providing hauling services to his customers. Hector’s had previously performed unrelated work for Baeza in 2006 and 2007.

Hector Garcia on behalf of Hector’s Tire & Wrecker Service entered into an oral agreement with Baeza in which Hector’s agreed to provide hauling services to Bae-za on an as-needed basis. The parties agreed that when requested by Baeza, Hector’s would send a truck to a plant in Reeves County to pick up materials and deliver the materials to a designated location. The parties agreed that the plant would furnish Hector’s driver with a “load ticket” specifying the amount of each load picked up from the plant, and Hector’s would then provide the load tickets to Bae-za. In turn, Baeza would bill its customers for the loads and would pay Hector’s after receiving payment from his customers. The rate for payment on the load tickets was set by Baeza, and was based on the amount and type of a particular load. Hector’s agreed to pay Baeza a 5 percent commission on the amounts billed for each load.

Hector’s began performing work for Baeza in July 2010, but shortly thereafter a dispute arose regarding whether Baeza was properly compensating Hector’s under the terms of their agreement. Because of this unresolved dispute, Hector’s stopped providing services to Baeza in late October or early November 2010.

Hector’s subsequently retained an attorney who sent a demand letter to Baeza on or about April 11, 2011, claiming that Bae-za owed Hector’s $15,042.55 for unpaid load tickets. In the letter, Hector’s attorney further demanded that Baeza pay $250 in attorney’s fees, and warned that if payment was not received within ten days, he would recommend to his client that a lawsuit be filed.

Although Baeza admittedly received the demand letter, neither Baeza nor any of his office staff directly responded to the letter. Instead, almost four months later, around July 31, 2011, Baeza sent Hector’s two checks: one for $2,376.41 and one for $3,644, totaling $6,020.41. There were no notations on the checks to indicate they were being tendered in response to the demand letter, and in fact the notation lines on both checks were left blank. Further, the record does not indicate that Baeza sent a transmittal letter or made any other communication to Hector’s explaining why he was sending the checks. Both checks were deposited by Hector’s into its bank account in August 2011.

On December 14, 2012, Hector’s attorney sent a second letter to Baeza, claiming that Baeza still owed Hector’s $9,900.25 for unpaid services. The letter further stated that if payment was not received within 30 days, Hector’s would assume the debt was valid, and proceed with the filing of a [589]*589lawsuit. There is nothing in the record to reflect that Baeza responded to this letter.

Eight months later, Hector’s sued Bae-za, alleging a breach of contract and requesting $9,900.25 in damages and reasonable attorney’s fees. In support of its claim, Hector’s attached several invoices it had allegedly submitted to Baeza and later supplemented its petition with a sworn account. The sworn account listed the invoice amounts that Hector’s had allegedly submitted to Baeza, together with a list of the payments that Hector’s had allegedly received. The account did not list any totals for the amounts billed to Baeza or the amounts received from Baeza, but it did list a final balance owed of $9,900.25. Baeza filed an answer verified by his office manager, Denise Baeza (also known as Denise Villanueva), that denied Hector’s claim and raised various affirmative defenses, including accord and satisfaction.

A bench trial was held on May 28, 2014. At trial, both parties acknowledged the existence of the parties’ oral agreement and further agreed that Hector’s was required to submit its load tickets to Baeza prior to receiving payments, and was also required to pay a 5 percent commission to Baeza on all amounts billed. However, the parties disagreed on: (1) whether Hector’s had properly provided Baeza with all of the load tickets, as required-, for payment; (2) whether Baeza had properly paid Hector’s for all of the load .tickets it had submitted to Baeza; and (3) whether Bae-za’s tender of the two checks to Hector’s in July 2011 constituted an “accord and satisfaction” fully discharging any debt Baeza owed to Hector’s.

Hector Garcia testified that at the end of every week in which his company had performed work for Baeza, he routinely placed all of the load tickets he had received in an envelope, which he placed in a mailbox at Baeza’s place of business. Hector Garcia further testified that he also generated an invoice, based on the total amount of load tickets he had received from the plant, which he then mailed to Baeza requesting payment. According to Hector Garcia, Baeza periodically sent him checks, but the amounts of the checks did not match his company’s invoice amounts; in addition, Hector Garcia testified that Baeza failed to include any references on the checks and failed to provide any other communications that would have allowed him to correlate the checks to any particular invoice Hector Garcia had prepared or to the load tickets he had submitted to Baeza. Hector Garcia testified that he therefore maintained an internal accounting system in which, he tracked the amounts of the invoices he had submitted to Baeza and the amounts of the payments that he had received from Baeza, which formed the basis of his sworn account. This account was introduced into evidence as Plaintiff s Exhibit One, together -with copies of .all of the invoices, that Hector’s had allegedly sent to Baeza. This exhibit did not list any totals for the. amounts owed or the amounts received, but listed a final balance owed of $9,900.25.

In her testimony, Baeza’s office manager, Denise Villanueva, did not directly dispute the mathematical calculations in Hector’s sworn accounting or question how Hector Garcia had arrivéd at $9,900.25 as the final balance due. Instead, she testified that based on her review of the records, she calculated that Baeza had paid Hector’s in full for all of the charges submitted.

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471 S.W.3d 585, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 8108, 2015 WL 4710148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baeza-v-hectors-tire-wrecker-service-inc-texapp-2015.