Flanary v. Mills

150 S.W.3d 785, 2004 WL 2185930
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 28, 2004
Docket03-03-00184-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by53 cases

This text of 150 S.W.3d 785 (Flanary v. Mills) 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
Flanary v. Mills, 150 S.W.3d 785, 2004 WL 2185930 (Tex. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

OPINION

MACK KIDD, Justice.

Randall K. Flanary, doing business as Easyliving Homes and Easyliving Homes, Inc. (“Flanary”) 1 , and San Angelo Easyliv- *788 mg Homes Inc. appeal a judgment favoring Roy Mills. After a trial to the court, the district court found that Flanary breached a fiduciary duty and committed fraud. The court awarded Mills $207,467.66 in damages and attorney’s fees. Although all appellants joined in the notice of appeal, Flanary alone filed the only brief by an appellant. He complains that the district court failed to file adequate findings of fact and conclusions of law. He also contends that the judgment is erroneous because he had no duty to Mills, and complains that the evidence supporting the damage award was insufficient. We will affirm the judgment.

BACKGROUND

Testimony in this case came from Mills, Flanary, Flanary’s wife, financial experts, and San Angelo-area homebuilders.

Mills testified that, although Flanary is his uncle (his mother’s brother), they grew up like brothers because Flanary is only six or seven years older. Mills testified that they have always been close; he said that he has always trusted and looked up to Flanary. After working in construction for more than a decade, Mills worked for Flanary in his oil-industry business until a fellow employee died on location; Flanary moved Mills into another, safer position to protect him, but Mills felt he was not qualified for the job and relinquished it to someone more qualified who would give his uncle more value for the money.

Mills returned to construction and built a house for Flanary. In 1995, Mills formed Roy Mills Roofing and Construction with Flanary’s financial support. Mills said that they agreed to an even split of the company, that they would pay them own expenses, and that profits would stay in the company as capital. There was not a written agreement establishing the partnership. Mills testified that Flanary provided the initial capital, but that the company repaid that money. Flanary and his wife maintained the checkbook for the company.

In 1996, Flanary gave his share of the roofing company to his son, Steve Fla-nary, 2 and started Easyliving Homes with Mills. Mills said that he contributed $15,000 to Easyliving and that Flanary contributed $62,000; Mills brought to the company his lengthy experience in home-building. Mills testified that, like the roofing company, he and Flanary had equal ownership and were entitled to an equal share of profit and loss. Mills testified that they agreed to pay their own personal expenses — e.g., cell phone, car payments, gasoline, insurance — to accelerate the capitalization of the company. They began building them first Easyliving home in February 1996. Although the company was not incorporated, its bank accounts were opened in the name of “Easyliving Homes, Inc.” Mills’s framing company provided framing services for Easyliving. Flanary provided cabinetry services. Both held themselves out as general contractors for Easyliving.

The company was incorporated as San Angelo Easyliving Homes, Inc. in 1996, although Mills testified that it never did business under that name; he said it used Easyliving Homes or Easyliving Homes, Inc. Mills did not see the articles of incorporation until he filed this lawsuit. Mills testified that the incorporation did not *789 change the equal sharing of the business. He testified that, as with the roofing company, he trusted Flanary to handle the company checkbook.

Mills testified that, after their first house netted a profit of $3000, they started building larger houses for bigger profit margins. Mills said that the only representation Flanary made about the business is that it was doing fine — until Mills inquired about withdrawing some of his share of the profits to help build his own house. Fla-nary then told him that the business had actually been losing money. Flanary asserted that Mills had only contributed $5000 to the company, but later acknowledged that Mills had invested $15,000. Flanary eventually gave Mills a check from Easyliving for $7,254.86 as his share of the proceeds from the four years of the company’s existence. Mills said he told Flanary he would need to see the company’s books before he would accept that amount as settling his interest; he said Flanary responded, “You’ll never see the books,” and drove away. Mills never saw the books, even after suing Flanary and making discovery requests. Flanary supplied some checks and asserted that Mills owed Easyliving various amounts, but Mills testified that Flanary never supplied supporting documentation. Mills testified that he did not use company funds for personal expenses, but that checks drawn on Easyliving’s account showed that Fla-nary had used the company’s accounts to pay personal utility bills and income tax and to provide personal loans. Mills testified that he had not heard Flanary say that Mills did not own a share of the company until Flanary’s deposition.

Mills testified that he expected Easyliv-ing to make about $20,000 profit per house. He testified that Easyliving’s profit margins should have been higher than other builders’ margins because he and Flanary were supposedly giving much of their labor to the company. Mills testified that Pres-tonwood Homes, the construction company he formed in 2000 with his son, had an average profit of $22,000 per house for the six homes they had built. He testified that these houses are comparable to the ones he built for Easyliving, that home prices are about the same, and that he uses many of the same subcontractors as before.

Tony Jones and Rocky Templin own construction companies that build houses in the same general area as Easyliving did. They testified that Mills was an equal partner in Easyliving Homes, although Templin conceded that he did not know the specifics of the corporate form or the shareholders’ contributions to the company. Templin testified that neither Mills nor Flanary told him that their Easyliving business had ended before 2000. Temp-lin’s goal was a 15 percent profit per house. Jones said he tried to make between ten and fifteen percent profit per home.

Lona Flanary testified that the roofing company was an equal partnership between Mills and Flanary from which they agreed to take profits and invest them in the new construction company, leaving the roofing company to Steve Flanary. She testified that Mills and Flanary owned equal shares of the construction company. She said that, after a dispute between Mills and Steve Flanary over the roofing company, she did not want Flanary to be partners with Mills any more. She believed that the relationship terminated, although she never spoke to Mills about business again. She testified that she and her husband did not believe that Mills continued to have any ownership interest in the corporation. No stock certificates were ever issued, nor were any minutes or resolutions kept. The corporation was dissolved effective December 27, 2000.

*790

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Bluebook (online)
150 S.W.3d 785, 2004 WL 2185930, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/flanary-v-mills-texapp-2004.