Denton v. Cole

20 S.W.2d 361
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 25, 1929
DocketNo. 3271.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 20 S.W.2d 361 (Denton v. Cole) 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
Denton v. Cole, 20 S.W.2d 361 (Tex. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

RANDOLPH, J.

This suit was filed by ap-pellee, Cole, against appellant, Denton, to recover a sum of money alleged to be due and owing him by Denton as commissions on the sale of real estate belonging to Denton. On trial the case was submitted to a jury on special issues, and, upon the answers returned by them, the court rendered judgment for the plaintiff as prayed for in his second amended original petition, and, from this judgment, appeal has been taken to this court.

The appellant’s first proposition alleging error is as follows: “The allegations contained in paragraph 5 of plaintiff’s second amended original petition in which liability on the part of the defendant for .the payment-of a five per cent, commission on the total sale price of the property by virtue of an. implied agreement arising out of the acceptance of plaintiff’s services, even though they were not rendered at the request of defendant, set up a new and distinct cause of action from any pleaded in plaintiff’s first amended original petition and the Court erred in overruling special exceptions 2, 6A and 6B of defendant’s third amended original answer to plaintiff’s second amended original petition to the effect that such new cause of action was pleaded for the first time more than two years after plaintiff’s cause of action accrued and was therefore barred by the two year statute of limitations. (Under 1st and 2nd assignments of error.)”

In the plaintiff’s original petition filed in the trial court on April 22, 1927, and in the first amended original petition filed therein on October 21, 1927, an express contract of listing was declared on. In the plaintiff’s second amended original petition filed August 18, 1928, he seeks to recover upon an express' contract, and, in the alternative, upon an implied contract. The transaction whereby the express contract of listing occurred was in the year 1925. The defendant leveled a special exception at that portion of plaintiff’s second amended original petition setting up an implied contract, for the reason that same presents a new and distinct cause of action from any cause of action alleged in the plaintiff’s prior pleadings, and such recovery sought by the plaintiff was barred by the two-year statute of limitation .(Rev. St. 1925, art. 5526). The trial court overruled this exception, and such ruling is presented to us for review.

We are of the opinion that the appellant’s exception to the alternative pleading setting up an implied contract as being barred by limitation of two years should have been sustained. Such allegation of implied contract constitutes a new cause of action; the original and first amended original petition having declared only on an express contract. Phœnix Lumber Co. v. Houston Water Co., 94 Tex. 456, 61 S. W. 707; Clutter v. Rose (Tex. Civ. App.) 259 S. W. 1098; McCartney v. Harbin (Tex. Civ. App.) 5 S.W.(2d) 780; Prichard v. Foster (Tex. Civ. App.) 170 S. W. 1077.

But with that part of the pleading eliminated, the judgment of the trial court would find support in the pleading claiming an ex *362 press contract of listing in this: While an express contract was pleaded which appeared from the face of the pleading to have been set aside by reason of the happening of the event of defendant’s obtaining a renewal loan, the plaintiff’s pleadings set up a renewal of the listing.

The plaintiff’s pleading alleging the express contract of listing and its renewal is as follows, to wit: “That during the spring and summer of 1925, the defendant knowing that this plaintiff was engaged in the real estate business, as above set forth, came to this plaintiff and listed said property with the plaintiff for sale and authorized and instructed plaintiff to find a buyer therefor and to sell such property to such buyer for a price and sum of Sixteen Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($16,000.00), to be paid all in cash, except that the purchaser should assume and pay a loan then existing against said property in about the sum of Six Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($6,000.00), and that the defendant then and there agreed to and with this plaintiff that in the event of said plaintiff furnishing and securing a purchaser for said property for the price and terms above stated, that he would pay to this plaintiff a commission of five (5) per cent on the sale price thereof for his services, and that at the tíme of such listing, said defendant informed this plaintiff that he would shortly thereafter attempt to re-finance the loan then on and against said property and that in the event he succeeded in re-financing the same, said listing should no longer be effective ; that said defendant did re-finance and re-adjust his loan on said property shortly thereafterwards, but never did expressly or by implication cancel the previous listing thereof with this plaintiff, but on the other hand after he had so re-financed his loan, the defendant again came into the office of plaintiff on several occasions and discussed with the plaintiff the possibility and probability of his being able to make a sale of said property under his said former listing, and in said conversation told this plaintiff that he would like to sell said property and would also like to sell his home in the City of Dalhart, Texas, and would prefer to sell the latter. And this plaintiff alleges that by reason of the foregoing acts, facts and circumstances, the defendant re-listed and ratified his former listing of said property with this plaintiff for the price and terms hereinbefore stated.”

This pleading clearly alleges an express contract and a renewal thereof. The trial court submitted the express listing and the issue of the canceling and renewal thereof to the jury by the following special issue:

“Special Issue No. 1:
“(a) On the occasion of the listing of the property in question with the plaintiff, J. N. Cole, for sale, in the office of the defendant, Pern Denton, do you find and believe, from a preponderance of the evidence, that it was agreed by and between the plaintiff and defendant that such listing was to be no longer effective in the event the defendant should re-finance his loan on said property?
“(b) If so, then do you find and believe from the preponderance of the evidence that the defendant again listed with the plaintiff for -sale the said property, following the financing of a new loan thereon, and prior to the beginning of the correspondence between the plaintiff and the defendant in the month of October, 1925?”

The jury answered the first paragraph of issue No. 1 (a) in the affirmative and question (b) also in the affirmative. This being the status of the ease, we are of the opinion that, so far as the pleading is concerned, it is sufficient to present the issue of the express listing and renewal thereof. If we are correct in this holding, the failure of the trial court to sustain the defendant’s exception to the petition, on the ground of pleading of the implied contract of listing, becomes immaterial, as the judgment appears to have been rendered as well upon the renewal of the listing' as upon the other issue submitted. We therefore hold that the exception to the pleading of the implied contract should have been sustained.

The appellant insists that ¡the evidence does not sustain the verdict. Considering the evidence from the most favorable aspect to the plaintiff, we find that the plaintiff testified to the following facts:

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Related

Cole v. Denton
34 S.W.2d 1091 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1931)
Ilseng Production Co. v. Shackelford
33 S.W.2d 816 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)

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Bluebook (online)
20 S.W.2d 361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/denton-v-cole-texapp-1929.