Chung v. Lee

193 S.W.3d 729, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 4385, 2006 WL 1391249
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 23, 2006
DocketNo. 05-05-00596-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 193 S.W.3d 729 (Chung v. Lee) 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
Chung v. Lee, 193 S.W.3d 729, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 4385, 2006 WL 1391249 (Tex. Ct. App. 2006).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by Justice WRIGHT.

Tae Mun Chung and Song Hui Kim appeal the judgment awarding Jeong Ran Lee damages for breach of contract. In two issues, appellants contend (1) the evidence conclusively established they did not breach the contract, and (2) there is no evidence of damages. We overrule appellants’ issues and affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Appellee agreed to purchase a coin-operated laundry from appellants for $170,000. Appellee paid appellants $5000 in earnest money and $55,000 as a down payment. Appellants agreed to finance the remainder of the purchase price with the equipment in the laundry serving to secure the loan. At the time of the negotiations, ap-pellee and her husband, Jea Mun Kang, asked about transferring the commercial lease for the laundry into their name. Chung told them the lease was in his name, it was due to expire in December 2001, and it would be difficult to transfer the lease. Chung asked appellee and her husband to wait a few months for the lease transfer because appellants were going to Korea. According to Chung, they would be returning in February 2002, and Chung [731]*731would take care of transferring the lease at that time. Appellee agreed to wait for the lease transfer until appellants returned from Korea.

Appellee signed the purchase and sale agreement and accompanying security agreement on October 15, 2001. She and her husband began to operate the business that same day. Appellants did not return from Korea in February 2002, and appellee and her husband tried repeatedly to contact them in Korea. Kang did not speak with Chung about the lease transfer until December 2002. According to appellee, Chung began to make excuses about why he could not transfer the lease. He then refused to transfer the lease unless appel-lee paid the remainder of the purchase price with a bank loan. Appellee contacted a bank and was told she would not be able to obtain a loan without the lease transfer. A short time later, appellee filed suit for breach of contract, deceptive trade practices, and fraud. Appellants subsequently filed suit in county court, alleging appellee breached the contract and a counterclaim in this suit alleging Kang falsely imprisoned Chung. The suit in county court was later consolidated with this suit.

A short time after appellee filed suit, Kang met with the building manager who presented him with a lease agreement, guaranty of rents, and an assignment of the lease. Kang signed the documents and returned them to the building manager. When he did so, Chung was in the office. After a discussion, Chung asked if the matter would be settled if he returned appellee’s money. Kang agreed, and the building manager tore up the documents Kang had signed. A few days later, Kim came to the laundry and told appellee that, since returning from Korea, she did not have anything to do. Kim told appellee she intended to “take over the store” and run the business. A short time later, the landlord came to the laundry and gave appellee certain documents to sign. He told appellee to dismiss the lawsuit or “get out.” Appellee did not sign the documents because she did not trust the landlord. After she refused, Kim told the landlord to “kick them out,” and the landlord gave appellee one week’s notice to vacate the premises. Appellee left the business and did not make further payments on the loan. Appellants took possession of the business and sold it to another purchaser.

Chung denied discussing transfer of the lease to appellee until he received a telephone call in Korea. According to Chung, that was the only telephone call he received from appellee or her husband regarding the lease transfer. After he returned from Korea, Chung went to see the landlord. Appellee and her husband were there, requesting a lease assignment. Later, Chung decided he would give them the lease assignment even though they “didn’t really need it.” He went to the laundry and Kang “shut the door and told [Chung] to just wait until [Kang’s] attorney arrived.” After an hour, the attorney had not arrived and Chung was hungry and tried to leave. Kang pushed Chung to the side and shut the door. Four hours later, the attorney arrived, and Kang pushed Chung into the office. The property manager came into the office a short time later. Later, Kang and Chung signed a lease transfer, but, according to Chung, the landlord would not sign it. On cross-examination, Chung explained that he did not transfer the lease because he was not required to do so until the loan was paid off.

After hearing this and other evidence, the jury determined that appellants had breached the contract and committed deceptive trade practices and fraud. However, the jury only awarded damages on the breach of contract claim. The jury also [732]*732found that appellee breached the security agreement, but her breach was excused, and found Kang did not falsely imprison Chung. This appeal, complaining only of the breach of contract claim, followed.

In their first issue, appellants contend the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to show they breached the contract with appellee. Specifically, appellants maintain that the contract provides they were to provide an assignment of the lease at closing, and they provided two documents — a sublease agreement provided at closing, and an assignment of the lease dated almost a year and one-half after closing — that satisfied this requirement. Thus, according to appellants, “as a matter of law, either appellants’ performance was excused or was rendered impracticable by appellee’s actions or refusal to act.” Appellants do not argue or analyze their factual sufficiency complaint. Thus, we limit our discussion to appellants’ legal sufficiency challenge. See Sullivan v. Bickel & Brewer, 943 S.W.2d 477, 486 (Tex.App.-Dallas 1995, writ denied)(bare assertions of error, without argument or authority, waive error); Devine v. Dallas County, 130 S.W.3d 512, 514 (Tex.App.-Dallas 2004, no pet.) (party waives issue on appeal by failing to adequately brief complaint).

Because appellants are attacking the legal sufficiency of an adverse finding on an issue on which they did not have the burden of proof, they must demonstrate there is no evidence to support the adverse finding. See Croucher v. Croucher, 660 S.W.2d 55, 58 (Tex.1983). To evaluate the legal sufficiency of the evidence to support a finding, we must “determine whether the proffered evidence as a whole rises to a level that would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to differ in their conclusions.” St. Joseph Hosp. v. Wolff, 94 S.W.3d 513, 519 (Tex.2002). We sustain a no-evidence point only if there is no more than a scintilla of evidence proving the elements of the claim. Id. at 520. In making this determination, we must “view the evidence in the light favorable to the verdict, crediting favorable evidence if reasonable jurors could, and disregarding contrary evidence unless reasonable jurors could not.” City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802, 807 (Tex.2005).

The jury found that appellants agreed they would assign the lease to appellee, appellants failed to do so, and their failure to do so was not excused.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rose v. Equis Equine
Fifth Circuit, 2025
Fermin Lopez v. Norma Bailon
Court of Appeals of Texas, 2015
James Cleveland v. Rob Taylor
397 S.W.3d 683 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012)
Sharifi v. Steen Automotive, LLC
370 S.W.3d 126 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012)
WPS, Inc. v. Surface Productions Systems, Inc.
369 S.W.3d 384 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
193 S.W.3d 729, 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 4385, 2006 WL 1391249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chung-v-lee-texapp-2006.