Cushman and Wakefield, Inc. v. Fletcher

915 S.W.2d 538, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 3113, 1995 WL 730260
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 30, 1995
Docket05-94-00781-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 915 S.W.2d 538 (Cushman and Wakefield, Inc. v. Fletcher) 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
Cushman and Wakefield, Inc. v. Fletcher, 915 S.W.2d 538, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 3113, 1995 WL 730260 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

OVARD, Justice.

Appellants Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. and Cushman & Wakefield of Texas, Inc. (collectively referred to as “C & W’) appeal from a judgment in favor of appellee Richard Fletcher in his suit for breach of an employment contract. After a bench trial, the trial court awarded Fletcher damages and interest in excess of $700,000. In ten points of error, C & W contends generally that the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the trial court’s findings that C & W did not prove Fletcher was terminated for cause or with written notice, that Fletcher would have remained employed with C & W, and that he would have earned no less than $35,000 per year until his retirement. C & W also asserts that the trial court erred in awarding Fletcher lost wages until retirement, in failing to discount the future lost wages to the date of judgment, and in awarding withheld commissions, attorney’s fees, and prejudgment interest on the attorney’s fees. We affirm in part, reverse and render in part, and remand the cause to the trial court for recalculation of prejudgment interest.

FACTS

In March of 1980, C & W hired Fletcher as a retail real estate broker, and the parties entered into a written employment contract. Regarding termination, the contract provided that, by giving written notice, C & W could terminate Fletcher’s employment either with or without cause. Specifically, the contract stated the following:

5. Employment under this Agreement ... shall continue until terminated by either party giving fourteen (14) days prior written notice to the other of the election to terminate. C & W shall have the right to terminate Employee’s employment immediately by written notice to Employee where such termination is for cause, including without limitation, for Employee’s dishonesty, fraud, or misrepresentation to C & W or any third person....

It is undisputed that C & W terminated Fletcher’s employment on October 23, 1987.

*541 Fletcher sued C & W for breach of contract, alleging that C & W did not have cause to terminate his employment and failed to give him the required written notice. In response, C & W claimed that it fired Fletcher because Fletcher made misrepresentations to prospective tenants which were beyond the scope and authority of his employment. The trial court found that C & W did not prove that it had terminated Fletcher for cause. The court also found that Fletcher was never given written notice of termination. The court awarded Fletcher $218,750.01 in past lost wages, $171,048.54 in future lost wages, $35,000 in withheld commissions, and $57,000 in attorney’s fees. The court also awarded postjudgment interest and prejudgment interest on the past lost wages, commissions, and attorney’s fees.

The dispute over Fletcher’s termination centers on C & Ws involvement in a commercial development on the San Antonio Riv-erwaik. In 1983, RepublicBank and Republic of Texas Properties began developing the RepublicBank Plaza, which was to consist of a bank building, an office building, retail shops, and eventually an office tower. The bank hired C & W as its leasing agent for the Plaza. Fletcher was responsible for leasing the 22,000 square feet of retail space, room for about eight to ten shops. He was not involved in office space leasing. Leasing office space eventually became a problem due to the poor economy in San Antonio at the time. When the office building opened in April of 1985, it had just one tenant. Repub-lieBank never built the office tower.

Fletcher testified that the people working in the office building were supposed to create pedestrian traffic for the retail shops. Thus, the prospects for leasing the retail space depended upon adequate leasing of the office space. Many of the prospective tenants to whom Fletcher spoke inquired about how leasing was going in the office building. Fletcher testified that in such instances he referred the tenants to the bank or the person leasing office space. Fletcher stated that he was not privy to how much office space had been leased. In the first quarter of 1985, sixty percent of the retail space had been leased, but only one tenant had leased space in the office building.

In March of 1985, Fletcher wrote a memorandum to Charles Bridges and William Barnes with Republic of Texas Properties in which he stated that the lack of office tenants was a major problem in his retail leasing program. Prospective and committed tenants were asking Fletcher about the occupancy of the office building. Fletcher testified that he had attempted to discuss with Bridges how much office space had been leased, or was being represented as leased, but Bridges was not interested in the discussion. Fletcher testified that he wrote the memorandum in an attempt to get information about the occupancy level of the office building. Bridges did not respond to the memo.

Five retailers leased space in the Plaza. Fletcher testified that one of these businesses, D. Simon Fine Jewelers, moved out of the Plaza shortly after it moved in. David Simon of D. Simon Fine Jewelers eventually sued C & W over the lease, and Fletcher testified that Simon’s allegations involved Fletcher’s conduct. C & W hired a law firm to defend against that suit.

Fletcher testified that, in addition to the retail space actually leased, he had also obtained several letters of intent. If the retailers who signed letters of intent had signed leases, the retail space would have been about eighty percent occupied. Fletcher denied that he ever made the statement that sixty percent of the office space had been leased. Fletcher testified that he never misrepresented the occupancy levels of either the office or retail space. He also stated that, during the time he worked on the Plaza project, he did not do any act that he knew to be unauthorized or outside the scope of his employment.

On October 23,1987, James Vanderslice, C & W’s Dallas branch manager, orally terminated Fletcher’s employment. Jay Dee Allen, formerly an executive vice-president with C & W, was present during the termination meeting. Fletcher testified that C & W did not give him written notice of termination or a reason for termination. During the meeting, Vanderslice referred to a piece of *542 scratch paper. Fletcher asked if he could make a copy of the paper, and he was allowed to do so. The paper stated, “Richard your methodology and manner of doing business is not the same as C & W. In the past you have acted outside the scope of your employment eont.” Below this language, the paper also listed the words “401K,” “legal fees,” and “off the top deficit.”

Fletcher testified that he had intended to continue working for C & W until he retired. Fletcher estimated that he would retire at age seventy-five. He was seventy at the time of trial in January of 1994.

On behalf of C & W, Jay Dee Allen testified that about twenty-five percent of the office space at the Plaza had been pre-leased. When construction was completed, thirty percent of the office space had been leased. According to Allen, C & W held periodic meetings on the status of the Plaza project, and Fletcher attended these meetings.

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915 S.W.2d 538, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 3113, 1995 WL 730260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cushman-and-wakefield-inc-v-fletcher-texapp-1995.