BREOF Bnk Texas, L.P. v. D.H. Hill Advisors, Inc. and D.H. Hill, Individually

370 S.W.3d 58, 2012 WL 1301231
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 17, 2012
Docket14-11-00351-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 370 S.W.3d 58 (BREOF Bnk Texas, L.P. v. D.H. Hill Advisors, Inc. and D.H. Hill, Individually) 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
BREOF Bnk Texas, L.P. v. D.H. Hill Advisors, Inc. and D.H. Hill, Individually, 370 S.W.3d 58, 2012 WL 1301231 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION

JEFFREY V. BROWN, Justice.

This is a breach-of-contract case concerning a commercial lease. Appellant Breof BNK is the landlord, and appellee D.H. Hill Advisors, Inc., is the tenant. Dan Hill, also an appellee, is Advisors’ principal investor. After a bench trial, the trial court rendered a take-nothing judgment against Breof, awarded actual damages and attorneys’ fees to Advisors and Hill, and issued findings of fact and conclusions of law in support of its judgment. We affirm.

I

In late spring and early summer of 2008, Advisors was nearing the end of its five-year lease of an office suite in Humble, and it began negotiations with Breof for a new lease in the same space. In these negotiations, Breof was represented by a real-estate agent and Advisors was represented by Hill, individually, acting in his capacity as a licensed real-estate broker. The previous lease was set to expire on October 5, 2008.

Having established a reputation at that office and not wanting to change locations, Advisors intended to stay. But negotiations dragged on for several months, partly because appellees insisted that Breof make certain improvements to the office space. The appellees asked Breof to repaint the walls, install wood flooring, carpet, and an ADA compliant restroom. 1 Installation of the restroom was particularly important to the appellees; throughout the term of its previous lease, the only restroom available to Hill and other Advisors employees was located on another floor of the office building. During negotiations, Hill made it clear that without the restroom, Advisors would not sign a new lease.

Breof agreed to install the restroom in a specified location adjacent to Advisors’ suite, and agreed to do so by November 1, 2008. The date was important to the appel-lees because the fourth quarter is Advis-ors’ busiest. In May, Breof began accepting preliminary bids from contractors for the painting and new construction. By June, it had contacted an architect to draft plans for the restroom installation. Also in June, at least one contractor toured Advisors’ suite in preparation for submitting his bid to Breof. That contractor was eventually hired to complete the remodeling Breof promised in the lease. In contrast, the architect never physically inspected Advisors’ suite, and he noted as much with an explicit disclaimer on the proposal he submitted. 2 Based on his tour *62 of the suite and the architect’s proposal, the contractor submitted his preliminary bid in June, estimating that the bathroom could be built in two to three weeks.

Lease negotiations extended into the fall of 2008. At some point, Breof s real-estate agent informed Hill that if a new lease were not signed by October 5 — the end of the previous lease term — Advisors would be subject to a holdover provision. Hill then asked for reassurances the bathroom could be built by November 1. If not, Hill told the agent, he would immediately begin to look for office space elsewhere. The agent assured Hill that the work could be done by November 1, and Hill executed the lease on behalf of Advisors on October 3. Upon signing the lease for Advisors, Hill earned a brokerage fee of $17,026.66, an amount previously agreed to by the parties, though Breof did not immediately write a check for that amount. Without any explanation , or warning, Breof waited until October 27 (more than three weeks later) to execute the lease. Without a fully executed lease, the contractor could not apply for the necessary construction permits; so during this period, no progress was made toward the improvements required under the lease.

November 1 passed without any construction on the leasehold. Sometime in mid-November, Breof asked the contractor to inspect Advisors’ suite and make a detailed estimate of remodeling costs. Finally, on November 18, Breof signed an agreement with the contractor. Only then was it discovered that the architect had based his proposal on an outdated floor plan. In addition to the floor-plan discrepancies, the contractor discovered a column in one of the walls that substantially complicated the construction. Shortly thereafter, the contractor informed Hill it was impossible to build the restroom at the location designated in the lease. Angered, Hill informed the contractor and Breof that without the restroom, “the deal is off.” He was receptive, however, when Breof told him it would look into alternative locations for the restroom: “When they said they could come in and make some changes to the mailroom to possibly make it work[,] I was okay. I was open to that.”

On December 1 and 12, Breof presented alternative plans, both of which drastically changed the suite’s layout and made the lobby area “look like a maze.” Hill rejected those plans. Breof then suggested that Advisors move its offices to the building’s second floor, which already included a bathroom. Hill and other Advisors employees spent several days making measurements and calling furniture companies about reducing the size of Advisors’ cubicles — which were too large to bring to the second floor. Advisors decided that a move to the second story “probably would have worked,” but Breof then provided several new proposals for remodeling the first-floor suite, all of which included major redesigns. On December 16, in the midst of this flurry of new proposals, Breof wrote a check to Hill for his broker’s commission; Hill deposited that check into *63 his bank account on December 23. On December 31, Advisors received a letter invoicing him for January rent and informing him that construction would likely continue until February 28, 2009. The letter also informed Hill that if he refused to pay rent, “this matter shall be turned over to the [Ijandlord’s attorney for enforcement of the [l]ease.” At that point, having “no confidence in [Breof s] ability to get things done,” Hill immediately attempted to contact Breof. After several unsuccessful attempts, Advisors vacated the suite and leased a new space elsewhere, incurring $10,063.65 in moving expenses.

Breof brought suit against Advisors and Hill for an assortment of claims, and both Advisors and Hill countersued for damages and recovery of attorneys’ fees. After a bench trial, the trial court rendered a take-nothing judgment against Breof on all of its claims. The trial court further rendered judgment in favor of the appellees on their counterclaims for actual damages of $10,063.65 and attorneys’ fees in the amount of $68,467.00. The trial court also entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. Breofs motion for new trial was denied, and this appeal followed.

II

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370 S.W.3d 58, 2012 WL 1301231, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/breof-bnk-texas-lp-v-dh-hill-advisors-inc-and-dh-hill-texapp-2012.