Englebrecht v. W. D. Brannan & Sons, Inc.

501 S.W.2d 707, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1015, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2574
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 15, 1973
Docket8398
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 501 S.W.2d 707 (Englebrecht v. W. D. Brannan & Sons, 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
Englebrecht v. W. D. Brannan & Sons, Inc., 501 S.W.2d 707, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1015, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2574 (Tex. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinions

REYNOLDS, Justice.

Ronald Englebrecht, a farmer in Sherman County, has appealed from an adverse judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of W. D. Brannan & Sons, Inc., a Texas corporation, on its sworn account suit for aerial spraying services. Affirmed.

A recapitulation of the evidence is necessary to properly assess the appellate points of error. Following a conversation between Englebrecht and W. D. Brannan, who with his son John operated the aerial spraying business under the name of W. D. Brannan & Sons, Inc., Brannan agreed to, and successfully did, spray water grass and weeds on certain designated acres in En-glebrecht’s fields. Thereafter, Englebrecht called W. D. Brannan and requested that he come to Englebrecht’s farm for consultation with him about the application of chemicals to an additional 295 acres of milo. As a result of this consultation and upon Englebrecht’s instruction that he wanted the chemical Aatrex applied at the rate of a pound and a half per acre mixed with oil, an agreement was reached for the spraying at a cost of $5.10 per acre to En-glebrecht. The spraying was done by W. D. Brannan and his son John.

Several days later Englebrecht went to the Brannans’ office and paid for the first spraying, but he withheld payment for the spraying on the 295 acres because the weeds had not been killed. Disputed is the testimony of what actually was said during the conversation had at that time. It is W. D. Brannan’s testimony that Englebrecht indicated that the chemicals had not killed the weeds and that Englebrecht did not intend to pay for the application. Upon Brannan’s inquiring what Englebrecht wanted him to do about the situation, En-glebrecht said that he could go out and look at the field, but that the weeds already had been cultivated out of it. En-glebrecht’s version of the conversation is that W. D. Brannan stated he would call Ciba-Geigy Chemical Company and see what they said about the chemical. Engle-brecht specifically denied having told Brannan that the weeds already had been cultivated out of the crop. In neither recount of the conversation is there any indication of any request by Englebrecht that Brannan refly the field, nor any offer by Brannan to do so, nor any refusal by Brannan to respray.

Brannan did not respray. Several days later, Englebrecht retained the services of B & B Flying Service to respray the field of milo. The weeds were killed as a result of this aerial application. Englebrecht failed to honor the corporation’s demands for payment for the aerial application, and this suit resulted, terminating in the appealed judgment for $1,504.50, phis interest and costs.

[709]*709The first three of Englebrecht’s eight points of error present the ultimate question of whether the court erred in failing to hold as a matter of law that Engle-brecht’s defensive plea of custom was an absolute defense. In this connection, En-glebrecht contends that the testimony, and particularly that of W. D. Brannan, conclusively established the existence of a custom among aerial spray applicators in Sherman County that in the event the first application of chemicals did not kill the weeds, the aerial applicator would respray until satisfactory results were achieved or no charge would be made to the farmer. Englebrecht then argues that by application of the universal rule that established customs are a part of the contract unless the contract negatives them, the corporation is not entitled to judgment. It is manifest from the cited rule that for a custom to become a part of the contract, it must be an established custom; i. e., the custom must be shown to exist either as a matter of law or by a factual determination. An evaluation of the testimony to arrive at its legal effect is required.

The extracted portion of W. D. Bran-nan’s testimony relied upon by Englebrecht shows Brannan’s statements that, although he could not guarantee the chemical used, he never had refused to respray for any customer in the past and, had he had an opportunity, which he denied, to correct Englebrecht’s complaint, he would have resprayed. Then, the following occurred:

“Q. If you had had an opportunity to respray this and had refused to do it would you still think you had the money coming ?
“A. If I would have refused to do it? No, I wouldn’t expect him to pay me no, sir.”

Interrelatedly, the jury found that Engle-brecht gave Brannan an opportunity to respray and to correct any complaint or defect, but there was no corresponding submission or finding that Brannan, having the opportunity, refused to respray.

Englebrecht and Wayne Lynch, the B & B Flying Service pilot who effectively resprayed the acreage, testified that the custom contended for by Englebrecht did exist in Sherman County. To the contrary, Hershel Francis, an aerial applicator, testified that if a farmer was not satisfied with an application, it was not the custom that the applicator would not be paid.

Neither the testimony of Bran-nan nor the evidence as a whole conclusively established that the custom depended on actually existed in Sherman County. Brannan’s testimony did not establish there was a custom in Sherman County, but merely outlined his respraying policy, a part of which was non-payment if there were both opportunity and refusal to respray, which he denied were existent in this instance. This testimony, coupled with the other contradictory testimony of custom, simply raised a fact issue relative to Englebrecht’s defensive plea. Englebrecht, by failing to request the submission of this independent ground of defense not conclusively established under the evidence, waived his defense of custom. Rule 279, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, and the plethora of cases annotated thereunder citing the rule. The first three points are overruled.

Englebrecht attempts to attack, by his sixth and seventh points of error, the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the jury’s findings to special issue no. 2 that the aerial application was in a good, workmanlike manner, and to special issue no. 3 that a proper mixture of chemicals, oil and water was furnished. However, the sufficiency of the evidence to support the submission of, or the answers to, the special issues was neither interposed as an objection to the court’s charge nor in En-glebrecht’s motion for new trial; therefore, the points are waived. Rule 374, T. R.C.P. Notwithstanding the waiver, a considerate review was made of this record evidence because Englebrecht, as an alternative to his motion for new trial, moved [710]*710for judgment non obstante veredicto on the assertion, inter alia, that the evidence does not support the special issue no. 3 finding. The review reveals undisputed, detailed testimony of the process of mixing the Aa-trex, oil and water, and the manner of its application which, without further address to its particularization, is ample to support the jury’s determinations of the facts inquired about in special issues nos. 2 and 3. Points six and seven are overruled.

By his eighth point of error, En-glebrecht contends that the jury’s answers to special isSues nos. 2 and 3 are in irreconcilable conflict because the jury found, responsive to special issue no. 7, that the weeds were not killed.

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Related

Haney Electric Co. v. Hurst
624 S.W.2d 602 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1981)
Englebrecht v. W. D. Brannan & Sons, Inc.
501 S.W.2d 707 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
501 S.W.2d 707, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 1015, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2574, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/englebrecht-v-w-d-brannan-sons-inc-texapp-1973.