Barfield v. Howard M. Smith Co.

415 S.W.2d 667, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2504
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 8, 1967
DocketNo. 7711
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 415 S.W.2d 667 (Barfield v. Howard M. Smith Co.) 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
Barfield v. Howard M. Smith Co., 415 S.W.2d 667, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2504 (Tex. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

CHAPMAN, Justice.

This suit originated in an action by appellants, Bourdon Rea Barfield as Trustee for the children of his brother, Oliver Eakle Barfield; the latter as Trustee for Bourdon Rea Barfield’s children; and the parents of the two named trustees against appellee, Howard M. Smith Company, a retail clothing store corporation, seeking recovery of $32,800 allegedly due under a lease agreement between the parties. They will hereinafter be referred to as the Barfields and Smiths or appellants and appellee or by their respective names.

The lease agreement out of which the present controversy arose was executed June 12, 1958, for a term from August 1, 1958, through June 30, 1965. The previous lease under which they had been operating was entered into on November 3, 1952, for the period from January 1, 1953, through December 31, 1972. That lease did not terminate with the execution of the later lease, but was absorbed into the 1958 lease in controversy when 3,240 additional square feet of floor space constituting a part of the Barfield Building was leased adjacent to and incorporated into the floor space adjoining the Barfield Building represented by the 1952 lease.

The 1952 lease provided for a guaranteed base rental with additional rent based on [669]*669a sliding scale of percentage related to the gross sales in excess of $500,000 of the clothing store called “Huh Clothiers.” In submitting the year-end reports required to be made forty-five days after the end of each year the Smiths incorrectly treated the $20,000 base rental of the 1952 lease as though it were a part of the percentage rental, including in their “Remittance Slip” an item reading “4% of $500,000 = $20,-000.” This was not in accordance with the terms of the lease, since no percentage rental was provided for on the first $500,-000.

The 1958 lease provided for a base rental for the Barfield Building space of $4,800 a year, 3.67% of all gross sales in excess of $925,000 each year but not in excess of $1,150,000 attributable to the Barfield Building; and a sum of 2½'% of all gross sales each year in excess of $1,150,000 attributable to the area covered by the prior lease. The percentages provided for in the 1952 lease below $925,000 were also allocated to the area covered by the 1952 lease.

The parties, before the 1959 payment, had operated under the 1952 lease for five months, paying ¾2 each month of the $20,-000 base guarantee under the 1952 lease for seven months and $2,066.67 per month for the last five months. The latter figure was the monthly rent resulting from the base guarantee of $4,800 per year for the new space added to the monthly rent under the $20,000 base guarantee of the 1952 lease.

From 1959 through 1965 payments for each preceding year were made by deducting the sum total of the monthly prepayments from the total percentage rents. The payments on such basis were accepted by appellants and the “Remittance Slips” retained by them.

Prior to the expiration of the 1958 lease, appellants still having raised no objection to the method or amount of payments, the parties executed a third lease terminating on December 31, 1972. The third lease was executed on August 1, 1964, some eleven months before the expiration of the 1958 lease. Subsequent to the expiration of the 1958 lease and subsequent to the execution of the 1964 lease, Bourdon Rea Barfield, who was managing the rentals for the Barfields raised, for the first time, a question concerning the method used by appellee in calculating rentals, which method had been used at least since 1952. He sought recovery of an additional $4,800 per year for 1958 through 1963 and $4,000 for 1964. The parties not being able to reconcile their differences, suit was filed for $34,800 and tried to the court. A take-nothing judgment was rendered and appellants requested findings of fact and conclusions of law.

From the various findings, the court concluded appellants were equitably estopped to recovery upon the contract as written; were barred by the four-year statute of limitation, Article 5527, Vernon’s Ann.Tex. Civ.St., for the years 1958, 1959 and 1960; are barred by laches; and that B. R. Bar-field, acting on behalf of the Barfield family, with full knowledge, or with sufficient notice or means of knowledge of their rights remained inactive for such length of time before repudiating the method employed by the Smiths for calculating the annual rentals under the 1958 lease agreement that the Smiths were induced to suppose such method was acceptable and the Barfields thereby acquiesced therein until “ * * * such method is now unimpeachable.”

None of the parties appear to find fault with the court’s fact findings to the effect that the 1958 lease constituting the basis of this action was clear and unambiguous; that the manner in which the Smiths yearly calculated and paid the rentals on such lease was incorrect; that the parties prior to the execution of the 1958 lease did not mutually agree that they might be yearly calculated and paid in the manner in which they were calculated and paid for the operating years 1958 through 1964; and that the parties did not as a result of mutual [670]*670mistake believe at the time the 1958 lease was executed that it provided for the computation of annual rentals in the manner in which they were subsequently calculated by the Smiths.

By their first point of error appellants contend the court erred by entering a defendant’s judgment based upon equitable estoppel.

Among the numerous other facts found by the trial court is Fact Finding No. 6 as follows:

“That BOURDON REA BARFIELD knew not later than February of 1959, that the defendant in computing the yearly rental due at the end of each lease payment period deducted the sum total of the monthly prepayments from the total percentage rents, in arriving at the year end balance due to plaintiffs and that this was inconsistent with the clear and unambiguous terms of the lease agreement of June 12, 1958.”

These findings of fact just quoted having not been challenged are binding on our court. Murphy v. Boyt, 180 S.W.2d 199 (Tex.Civ.App.Amarillo, 1944, writ ref’d w. o. m.); Laredo Brick Co. v. Urdiales, 263 S.W.2d 332 (Tex.Civ.App.-San Antonio, 1953, no writ); Waters v. King, 353 S.W.2d 326 (Tex.Civ.App.-Dallas, 1961, no writ); Browne v. General Electric Company, 402 S.W.2d 957 (Tex.Civ.App.-San Antonio, 1966, writ dism’d); Saner-Whiteman Lumber Co. v. Texas & N. O. R. Co., 282 S.W. 267 (Tex.Civ.App.-Galveston, 1926, rev’d on other grounds).

In the last cited case the Galveston court said, “ * * * this finding of fact is not complained of in any assignment presented by appellant, and is therefore binding upon this court, regardless of what the evidence may be on the issue.” Whether the quote just made is a correct statement of the law or not is actually immaterial here, because there is probative evidence in the record to support the trial court’s findings of fact above quoted. The record shows B. R.

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Related

Barfield v. Howard M. Smith Company of Amarillo
426 S.W.2d 834 (Texas Supreme Court, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
415 S.W.2d 667, 1967 Tex. App. LEXIS 2504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barfield-v-howard-m-smith-co-texapp-1967.