Blalock v. Jones

1 S.W.2d 400
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 14, 1927
DocketNo. 2924.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1 S.W.2d 400 (Blalock v. Jones) 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
Blalock v. Jones, 1 S.W.2d 400 (Tex. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

RANDOLPH, J.

This suit was brought by Jones, as plaintiff, against John W. Blalock and I. C. Enochs, as defendants, to recover money alleged to be due him as commissions on the sale of lands. Judgment in favor of plaintiff against both defendants and in favor of Enochs over against Blalock, from which judgments both defendants appeal, but the -defendant Bialoek has filed no brief in this court.

The plaintiff’s original petition is based upon an alleged express contract to pay him 5 per cent, commissions on the amount of the sales price of the land, upon certain terms, including $5 per acre cash. Defendant Enochs answered, and specially pleaded: That John W. Blalock, his sales manager, was not authorized to employ plaintiff as a subagent. That he did not list his lands with the plaintiff for sale, and never agreed to pay the plaintiff any sum as commissions. That on May 20, 1926, the plaintiff transferred and assigned to the defendant Enochs any and all commissions that were then due from Blalock to the plaintiff, and that, if the plaintiff ever had any cause of action against the s-aid Bla-lock for .commissions, all such rights- and. commissions were transferred by the plaintiff to defendant Ehoehs, as aforesaid. That, by supplemental contract between defendant Enochs and defendant Bialoek, it was expressly provided:

“It is distinctly understood between the parties hereto that no commission accrues to Bla-lock or any of his employees or subagents until and after the notes taken have been paid, in case, thus providing the receipt by I. C. Enochs of the entire earnest money, which in no event shall be less than one-sixth of the sale price.”

That none of the purchasers named in plaintiff’s petition have paid the one-sixth of the purchase price provided in said contract. That, if the plaintiff was employed as a, sub-agent or solicitor for said Bialoek, he was charged with notice of all the provisions of agency contract existing between the said Enochs and the said Blalock.

By way of cross-action, the defendant Enochs pleaded that Bialoek was without power to pledge his (Enochs’) credit, and, if he did so, and the plaintiff recover against him, that he (defendant Enochs) recover over against said Blalock.

Defendant Blalock filed an answer, wherein, after a general denial, he pleads that the written contract entered into provided, among other things, that the plaintiff should sell the land 'belonging to Enochs for $30 per acre, of which consideration $5 per acre should be paid in cash, and further provides that no commissions are due, owing, or payable until such initial cash payment is received from the purchaser; that none of the sales set out in plaintiff’s petition were made under and by reason of the contract pleaded by plaintiff, but that, subsequent to the making of the written contract, the plaintiff and defendant Blalock entered into a verbal contract which superseded the said written contract; that, by said verbal contract, it was agreed by and between plaintiff and defendant that plaintiff should have the right to solicit purchasers for and to make sales of the land on a plan known as the “nothing down plan”; that purchasers buying land under this plan would not be required to make any cash payment, but, instead, would be required to cultivate a certain number of acres of land out of each labor purchased the first year, and a greater number of acres each year thereafter ; that purchasers would be required to-assume the' school debt against the land purchased, and the balance of the consideration, to be evidenced by notes of the purchasers in favor of said Enochs, payable either in fourteen installments or by applying one-fourth of all cotton and one-third, of all crops on the land each year until the debt should be fully liquidated; that defendant Blalock agreed to pay to plaintiff, for any sale made under-said verbal contract, 2 ½ per cent, commission on the selling price of the land, it being understood that no commission should be due or payable until the purchaser for any tract of land should first break out, in a farmerlike manner, the number of acres of land stipulated in the purchaser’s contract that such, purchaser. should cultivate the first year; that, pursuant to said verbal contract, the plaintiff did secure purchasers, who are named in the petition, and who entered into written contracts with the defendant Enochs. It is further set out as to certain such purchasers’ failure to comply .with the. terms of their contract to break and cultivate the amount of land provided in said contract, al *402 so setting out tlie names of other purchasers who complied with their contracts, and admits that the;2% per cent, is due to plaintiff for such sales, and pleading offset of same against a debt due defendant Blalock by plaintiff, leaving a balance due to Blalock of $3.47.

Plaintiff, by supplemental petition, after general denial, specially pleads that, if it is true that the defendant Blalock was not authorized to employ a subagent or solicitor, as alleged by defendant Enochs, then the plaintiff alleges that the defendant Enochs knew and understood that the plaintiff was employed by Blalock as subagent, and knew that the plaintiff was selling lands belonging to him (Enochs), and accepted the services of plaintiff as such agent, and accepted purchasers so produced by the plaintiff, entered into contracts with them, and consummated such contract, with full knowledge that the plaintiff had produced Such purchasers, and was the procuring cause of said sales, and thereby became liable and bound to pay to the plaintiff a sum of money equal to the reasonable value of the services rendered by plaintiff to said Enochs. Plaintiff further alleges that defendant Enochs is thereby es-topped from denying such agency, and, in this connection, plaintiff further alleges that such services rendered by him were .reasonably worth the sum of 5 per cent, of the total amount of said sales.

Plaintiff further alleges, in said supplemental petition, that he did assign any and all commissions then due him from Blalock to Enochs, but that such assignment was for the purpose of securing Enochs in the repayment of money advanced to the plaintiff by Enochs on or about said date, and was intended for no other purpose; that, at the time of the assignment of said commissions, the said Enochs was liable for same, and said purported transfer was without consideration, and is and was void, for that reason; denies any notice or knowledge of the contract between Blalock and Enochs, and sets up the new contract as to the sale of the land on the “nothing -down plan,” in the breaking of the land instead of the cash payment, and that, after said contract was entered into, it was not required that the payment of commissions should be conditioned upon the payment of the initial or cash payment; and that Enochs and Blalock expressly waived said condition, which had been exacted by them for the sale of the land. Substantially the same issues were incorporated in plaintiff’s second supplemental petition, in reply to defendant Blalock’s answer.

Defendant Enochs presents five propositions for our consideration on his appeal, but we will consider only such questions as are important to a disposition of the case on appeal.

The plaintiff, as shown above, in his petition sought a' recovery of the 5 per cent, on the sales price of the land, based on a written contract.

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Bluebook (online)
1 S.W.2d 400, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blalock-v-jones-texapp-1927.