Dowdy v. Hale Supply Company

498 S.W.2d 716, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2243
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 13, 1973
Docket17415
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 498 S.W.2d 716 (Dowdy v. Hale Supply Company) 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
Dowdy v. Hale Supply Company, 498 S.W.2d 716, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2243 (Tex. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

BREWSTER, Justice.

Paul Dowdy filed this suit to remove an alleged cloud from the title to two tracts of land that he owned. The cloud came from the filing of Mechanic’s Liens by Hale Supply Company and H & R Fabricating Company, defendants, to secure the cost of materials they had furnished to one Jess Lynch who had contracted with Dowdy to move a motel from one tract of land that Dowdy owned to another tract that he also owned. Defendants sought to fix the liens against both the tract that the motel was moved from and the tract to which it was moved. The defendants answered and filed cross-actions against Dowdy to recover from Dowdy the cost of the materials they had sold to Jess Lynch, which materials were to be used by Lynch in performance of his job of moving the motel. The cross-actions also sought a foreclosure of the Mechanic’s Liens and a recovery of attorney’s fees from Dowdy under Art. 2226, Vernon’sAnn.Tex.St.

In a non-jury trial the court rendered judgment awarding Hale Supply Company a personal judgment against Dowdy for $1,889.75 and awarding H & R Fabricating Company a personal judgment against Dowdy for $653.81. The judgment also provided for the foreclosure of the Mechanic’s Liens against both tracts and it then proceeded to award the two defendants a personal judgment against Dowdy for attorney’s fees in the amount of $800.-00.

The plaintiff, Dowdy, has appealed from this judgment.

We call attention to the fact that at least six of Dowdy’s eight points of error do not comply with presently effective rules relating to briefing cases on appeal.

*718 Rule 418, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure requires that a point of error be in such form as to point out to the appellate court the particular error or ruling of the court below that is claimed to be reversible error. Dowdy’s last six points of error do not perform that function. See Jones v. Hortenstine, 291 S.W.2d 761 (Amarillo Tex.Civ.App., 1956, no writ hist.); Flock v. Kelso, 366 S.W.2d 698 (Amarillo Tex.Civ.App., 1963, no writ hist.) ; and State v. Rose, 402 S.W.2d 794 (Dallas Tex.Civ.App., 1966, no writ hist.). They consist merely of abstract statements or conclusions as to what Dowdy claims the law is on given subjects, without in any way showing how such statement of the law relates to a particular ruling made by the court below that he claims to be prejudicial error. They do not comply with Rule 418, T.R.C.P. State v. Rose, supra.

With the points being worded as they are, it takes considerable reading of the briefs and of the record before one unfamiliar with the case can even tell what particular rulings the trial court made are being complained of on appeal.

We will, however, consider these points on the basis of the statements and argument made under them in view of the liberal rulings that have been made by the courts on this point. See Russell v. Houston Belt and Terminal Railway Co., 363 S.W.2d 160 (Beaumont Tex.Civ.App., 1962, ref. n.r.e.); and Miller v. Thomas, 226 S.W.2d 149 (Amarillo Tex.Civ.App., 1949, writ ref.).

Dowdy’s first point of error is that the trial court erred in rendering judgment against him for the $800.00 attorney’s fees.

We sustain this point.

The attorney’s fee was awarded the ap-pellees by the trial court on the theory that such fee was authorized by Art. 2226, V. A.C.S., because this suit is to recover for the sale price of materials furnished.

The law is that Art. 2226, V.A.C.S. was intended to and only applies to claims for personal services rendered, labor done, or materials furnished by the claimant for and/or to the person or corporation against whom the claim is being asserted. See Tenneco Oil Company v. Padre Drilling Company, 453 S.W.2d 814 (Tex.Sup., 1970); Long v. Smith, 466 S.W.2d 32 (Corpus Christi Tex.Civ.App., 1971, ref. n. r.e.) ; and University State Bank v. Gifford-Hill Con. Corp., 431 S.W.2d 561 (Fort Worth Tex.Civ.App., 1968, ref. n.r. e.). The facts in those cases were similar to the ones involved here, and in each instance attorneys’ fees were not allowed.

The undisputed evidence here showed: that Dowdy had no contractual relations whatever with either of the appellees; that he had contracted with Jeff Lynch to move a motel for him to another tract of land that he owned; that Lynch had purchased all of the materials involved from the ap-pellees and that such materials were delivered to Lynch for his use in performing the contract to move the motel; that Lynch did not pay for the materials and later abandoned the job; and that none of the materials involved were furnished by either of the appellees for and/or to Dowdy, the person against whom the claim is being asserted.

We hold that since the materials involved were not furnished by the appel-lees for or to Dowdy, the person against whom the claim is being asserted in this case, that the trial court erred in awarding attorney’s fees to the appellees on the theory that they were authorized by Article 2226, V.A.C.S.

In his third point of error Dowdy contends that certain of the court’s findings of fact are so against the weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust and that this court should set them aside and hold them to be of no force and effect.

*719 Contained in the evidence as plaintiff’s Exhibits Nos. 1 and 2 were the invoices showing an itemized list of the materials furnished to Lynch by each of the appel-lees and the prices that appellees charged Lynch for each of those items.

The undisputed evidence showed that after Lynch abandoned the job that Bill Hale and his father heard that he had left and came to the jobsite and picked up, with Dowdy’s consent, a bunch of these materials that had been sold to Lynch by each of the two appellees.

Bill Hale, referred to above, was a partner in the appellee, H & R Fabricating Company, and was also vice-president of the appellee, Hale Supply Company, which was a corporation.

With reference to picking up the materials Hale testified: “So ... we were trying to protect our . . . our money, or goods and material, whatever you might call it. We thought to the best of our judgment we tried to recover what we could.”

The evidence showed that the angle iron that was sold to Lynch by H & R that was repossessed was taken to the company yard and stacked in a pile and was apparently still in that stack at trial time.

The court’s finding of fact No.

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Bluebook (online)
498 S.W.2d 716, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2243, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dowdy-v-hale-supply-company-texapp-1973.