First City Bank of Richardson v. Global Auctioneers, Inc.

708 S.W.2d 12, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12173
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 11, 1986
Docket9373
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 708 S.W.2d 12 (First City Bank of Richardson v. Global Auctioneers, 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
First City Bank of Richardson v. Global Auctioneers, Inc., 708 S.W.2d 12, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12173 (Tex. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

BLEIL, Justice.

First City Bank of Richardson appeals the trial court’s judgment in a suit on two promissory notes. First City complains of the sufficiency of the evidence to support the jury’s finding on the amount due on the notes, the trial court’s refusal to award it attorney’s fees as called for in the notes, the exclusion of certain evidence, the effect of one of the jury findings on the judgment, and the submission of certain issues to the jury. In a cross-point, Global Auctioneers, Inc. and Joe Bailey, defendants in the suit on the promissory notes and cross-plaintiffs in a cross-action against First City, complain of the trial court’s failure to award them the exemplary damages found by the jury.

Global had several accounts with First City. On August 21,1981, First City transferred $300,000.00 from one of the Global accounts to the overdrawn accounts of another business without authorization. On August 24, First City transferred another $200,000.00 from one of the Global accounts, again without authorization. On August 25, the president of Global and owner of half of its stock, Joe Bailey, was informed of the $300,000.00 transfer. He went to First City to protest the unauthorized transfer and was told that it was too late to reverse the transfer. Bailey was then informed that the additional $200,-000.00 was in the process of being transferred out of one of Global’s accounts. When he asked that that transfer be stopped, he was referred to Walter Smith, a senior executive vice-president for First City.

Bailey protested to Smith about the unauthorized transfers. Smith suggested Bailey speak with Paul Davis, who owned the other half of Global’s stock and all of the stock in the various business entities to which the funds transferred from Global’s account had gone. Smith called Davis on the phone and spoke to him out of Bailey’s hearing. Bailey then spoke to Davis on the phone. Davis told Bailey that if he would allow the transfer of the additional $200,-000.00 to the Davis companies, he would return the money within a week. Bailey, after asking Davis to hold the phone a moment, asked Smith specifically what Smith thought Bailey should do. Smith responded that Davis was financially sound, that Bailey had nothing to worry about and that Davis would return the entire $500,000.00 within seven days. Smith did not mention the serious financial difficulties of the Davis entities. Bailey then agreed to the transfer of the additional $200,000.00. The $500,000.00 was never returned.

On September 1, 1981, Bailey, in his capacity as president of Global, executed a promissory note to First City in the amount of $369,104.16. On September 15, 1981, Bailey, again in his capacity as president of Global, executed a promissory note to First City in the original principal amount of $165,000.00. These are the two notes that are the subject of this suit.

First City filed this suit to recover the amount due and owing on the notes. Global in its answer and counterclaim alleged the affirmative defenses of duress, estop-pel, fraud by First City, unconscionable action or course of action by First City, deceit and misrepresentation by First City, conversion, and conspiracy between First City, Davis, and another person. Global alleged as counterclaims a breach of the bank’s fiduciary duty; a breach of the bank’s obligations of good faith and fair dealing; conversion; fraud; deceit; misrepresentation; conspiracy; a breach of the bank’s implied warranty of good faith, fair dealing and performance; and unconscionable action and course of action. Global *15 sought actual and punitive damages against First City.

The jury found that the total amount due to First City by Global on the notes was $435,000.00, that First City transferred $300,000.00 from Global’s account without authority, and that Smith made a false representation to Global with the intent of inducing Global to transfer $200,000.00 to Davis. The jury also found that Global could have discovered the falsity of the representation made by Smith by its own reasonable investigation. The jury found that Smith knew that the representations he made were false and the representations were made with a purported special knowledge as to facts that would occur or exist in the future, but that the false representations were not made with malice. The jury then found that the unauthorized transfer of Global’s funds caused Global $300,000.00 damages and that the false representation of a material fact caused it $200,000.00 damages. The jury also found exemplary damages against First City in the amount of $125,000.00. The trial court entered judgment for Global and Bailey in the amount of $65,000.00. This apparently represented $300,000.00 damages for the unauthorized transfer, and $200,000.00 damages for the misrepresentation, offset against the $435,000.00 due First City on the notes.

First City contends that the trial court erred in refusing to admit part of a letter into evidence. David Nowell, a third party defendant, wrote the letter to First City setting out the persons authorized to make transactions concerning three groups of accounts representing three different business entities, one of which was Global. Global objected to the letter because during discovery it had specifically requested all written agreements by which funds could be transferred out of Global’s accounts with First City, and First City had only mentioned signature cards and corporate resolutions in its answer. First City apparently learned about the letter only after the trial had started. The trial court allowed the letter to be introduced into evidence after the part concerning the Global accounts had been deleted, because this information concerning the Global accounts had been sought in discovery and was not produced, and its production now surprised the other party. The part of the letter concerning the Global accounts was properly preserved for review on appeal through a bill of exceptions.

A party who has responded to a request for discovery that was correct and complete when made is under no duty to supplement his response to include information thereafter acquired, except that the following must be supplemented not less than thirty days prior to the beginning of trial unless the court finds that a good cause exists for permitting or requiring later supplementation. A party is under a duty seasonably to supplement his response if he obtains information upon the basis of which he knows that the response was incorrect or incomplete when made or he knows that the response, though correct and complete when made, is no longer true and complete and the circumstances are such that failure to amend the answer is in substance misleading. Tex.R.Civ.P. 166b(5)(a). A party who fails to supplement seasonably his response to a request for discovery in accordance with paragraph 5 of Rule 166b is not entitled to present evidence which the party was under a duty to provide in a supplemental response unless the trial court finds that good cause sufficient to require admission exists. Tex. R.Civ.P. 215(5). Because there were documents concerning the authority to transfer funds out of Global’s accounts other than the signature cards and corporate resolutions mentioned by First City, First City’s response to Global’s discovery request was incorrect. First City did not seasonably supplement its response, and fails to show that the trial court abused its discretion by not finding that good cause existed for the failure to supplement and in excluding this evidence.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
708 S.W.2d 12, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 12173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-city-bank-of-richardson-v-global-auctioneers-inc-texapp-1986.