Crawford v. PULLMAN INC.

630 S.W.2d 377
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 11, 1982
DocketC2939
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 630 S.W.2d 377 (Crawford v. PULLMAN 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
Crawford v. PULLMAN INC., 630 S.W.2d 377 (Tex. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

JAMES, Justice.

Appellant, Glacier Crawford, d/b/a G. Crawford Delivery, appeals from the granting of a summary judgment in favor of appellee, Pullman, Incorporated, Trailmo-bile Division. We reverse and remand.

Appellee, plaintiff in the court below, brought suit against appellant on a sworn account pursuant to Tex.R.Civ.P. 185. The account was based on two lease agreements providing for the rental by appellant of five pieces of equipment owned by appellee. Appellant’s First Amended Original Answer contained a verified denial which complied substantially with the requirements of Rule 185. It also contained allegations that there had been a failure of consideration and that all payments and credits had not been allowed pursuant to the lease. Appel-lee subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment under Tex.R.Civ.P. 166-A in which it alleged that the verified copies of the lease agreements and an affidavit of its branch manager constituted sufficient summary judgment evidence to establish a pri-ma facie case in its favor. Appellant filed a written response to the motion wherein he asserted that his verified answer set out affirmative defenses to plaintiff’s petition; however, this response did not point out the existence of any fact issues nor did it have attached to it any evidence to support his contentions. Based on the evidence before it, the trial court granted appellee’s motion and entered judgment that defendant was indebted to plaintiff in the liquidated principal amount of $16,164.04 plus interest in the amount of $1,373.94, and $1,000 in reasonable attorney’s fees. Appellant appeals from that judgment.

Appellant complains in his two points of error that the trial court erred in granting the summary judgment and in finding that no fact issue existed in this cause. Because Rule 166-A requires a determination of the former before the latter, we will first consider appellant’s second point of error.

In support of his second point of error, appellant argues that the mere raising of an affirmative defense as was done in his amended answer was sufficient to defeat the motion for summary judgment. Appellant’s reliance on two cases for that proposition is misguided: In Stevenson v. Reese, 593 S.W.2d 828 (Tex.Civ.App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 1980, writ ref’d n. r. e.), we held, in fact, that an affirmative defense can be utilized by the non-movant to raise “a genuine issue as to any material fact” and thereby defeat the motion for summary judgment. However, we continued by stating that when the non-movant is relying on an affirmative defense for this purpose, he must present sufficient written evidence to give rise to an issue of fact. See City of Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Authority, 589 S.W.2d 671 (Tex.1979), wherein the court held that the non-movant must expressly present to the trial court any reasons seeking to avoid movant’s entitlement, such as those set out in Rules 93 and 94, and he must present summary judgment proof when necessary to establish a fact issue. In the instant case, appellant’s amended answer contained only allegations that there was a failure of consideration and that all payments and credits had not been allowed. No proof in the form of affidavits, interrogatories, admissions or depositions was introduced to support the alleged existence of these facts.

Appellant, relying also on Cloys v. Turbin, 608 S.W.2d 697 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1980, no writ), states: “In responding to the Motion for Summary Judgment, the respondent [sic] needs only to be sufficient to raise an issue of fact to an element or elements to negate Movant’s Summary Judgment evidence.” This language used by appellant does not correctly track the language of the court in Cloys. There, the motion for summary judgment was filed by the defendant in the case. The court stated as follows:

Further, the controverting summary judgment evidence introduced by the *379 non-movant need only be sufficient to raise an issue of fact with respect to the element or elements negated by the mov-ant’s summary judgment evidence; it need not be sufficient to meet the burden of persuasion that the non-movant plaintiff would have at trial. 608 S.W.2d at 700. (Emphasis ours)

In the case before us, the motion was filed by plaintiff-appellee. At trial, appellant would have the burden of going forward with the evidence to to prove his affirmative defenses by a preponderance of the evidence. Although his burden to raise a fact issue in support of his response would not have been as great, some evidence of the existence of a fact issue was required. None was here presented to the trial court. Because appellant waived his affirmative defenses by failing to introduce any evidence in their support, we cannot consider those issues on appeal. 1

We next consider, under appellant’s first point of error, whether appellee was entitled to judgment as a matter of law. It is well established that a defendant’s verified denial of the correctness of a plaintiff’s sworn account in the form required by Rule 185 destroys the evidentiary effect of the itemized account attached to the petition and forces the plaintiff to put on proof of his claim. Rizk v. Financial Guardian Ins. Agency, Inc., 584 S.W.2d 860 (Tex.1979). Because a verified denial was filed in the case at bar, appellee was thus required to prove his case as at common law. Rizk, supra; Texas Hauling Contractors Corp. v. Rose Sales Co., 565 S.W.2d 240 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1978, no writ); McCown v. Owen, 389 S.W.2d 191 (Tex.Civ.App.—Fort Worth 1965, writ dism’d); Davis Bumper to Bumper, Inc. v. American Petrofina Co. of Texas, 420 S.W.2d 145 (Tex.Civ.App.—Amarillo 1967, writ ref’d n. r. e.); Opryshek v. McKesson & Robbins, Inc., 367 S.W.2d 357 (Tex.Civ.App.—Dallas 1963, no writ); J. E. Earnest & Co. v. Word, 137 Tex. 16, 152 S.W.2d 325 (1941, judgmt. adopted).

This suit is based on two lease agreements, copies of which were attached to the original petition and the motion for summary judgment. At the bottom of each of the leases appears the following statement: “I, Phillip J. Alvarez, duly sworn as a notary public do hereby testify that these are exact duplicates of the originals.” However, reference is made on the front of the leases in two separate places to a reverse side. It is undisputed that a copy of the reverse side was neither attached to the original petition nor introduced in support of the summary judgment.

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Bluebook (online)
630 S.W.2d 377, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crawford-v-pullman-inc-texapp-1982.