GB Tubulars, Inc. v. Union Gas Operating Co.

527 S.W.3d 563, 2017 WL 2819261, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 5937
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 29, 2017
DocketNO. 14-15-00671-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 527 S.W.3d 563 (GB Tubulars, Inc. v. Union Gas Operating Co.) 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
GB Tubulars, Inc. v. Union Gas Operating Co., 527 S.W.3d 563, 2017 WL 2819261, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 5937 (Tex. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

OPINION

Martha Hill Jamison, Justice

Union Gas Operating Company sued GB Tubulars, Inc. after the failure of an oil and gas well in which Union Gas used equipment purchased from GB Tubulars. Union Gas asserted numerous causes of action premised on the incident, including several theories of products liability, negligence, and breach of express and implied warranties. The jury found among other things that GB Tubulars breached an express warranty causing Union Gas to incur $3 million in damages. The jury additionally found that Union Gas was negligent and therefore responsible for 45 percent of its own damages and that a reasonable and necessary fee for Union Gas’s attorneys in this case was zero. The trial court granted Union Gas a new trial on the attorney’s fees issue, which was then retried to the bench. In its final judgment, the trial court awarded Union Gas damages for breach of an express warranty and attorney’s fees but did not reduce the damages award based on Union Gas’s own negligence.

In five issues on appeal, GB Tubulars contends that (1) the trial court erred in admitting evidence of other well failures; (2) the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to support the jury’s findings on breach of an express warranty; (3) the trial court erred in submitting multiple jury questions premised on the same facts; (4) the trial court erred in refusing to take into account Union Gas’s negligence in determining the amount of damages to award; and (5) the trial court erred in granting Union Gas a new trial on attorney’s fees. We affirm.

I. Overview

In 2010, Union Gas drilled the Dubose #2H well in the Eagle Ford Shale formation in Gonzales County, Texas. Union Gas engineering consultant Russell Chabaud testified that he consulted GB Tubulars’ website, viewed its products specifications on a datasheet published there, and decided to select certain GB Tubulars’ couplings for use in the well.1 In September 2010, Union Gas purchased couplings from GB Tubulars and began installing casing strings (joints joined together by the couplings) in the well. After installation and during hydraulic fracking operations in. the well, the well failed on September 21, 2010 when casing joints and couplings separated. Union Gas ultimately had to plug and abandon the well.

After an investigation by consultant Viking Engineering into the causes of the failure, Union Gas sued GB Tubulars, raising the following theories of recovery: strict products liability based on a design defect, a manufacturing defect,- and a marketing defect; breach of an express warranty; breach of the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose; negligence; negligent misrepresentation; and several varieties of-[567]*567violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, including false, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices, breach of express warranties, breach of implied warranties, and unconscionable conduct. "During trial, both sides presented expert witnesses who testified regarding causation of the well failure. Union Gas also presented evidence regarding failures in other wells where GB Tubulars couplings were installed. GB ’Tubulars objected to this evidence on the ground that the other incidents were not sufficiently similar to the subject occurrence.

The trial court submitted to the jury all twelve theories of recovery noted above. The jury found no design or manufacturing defect existed and no breach of an implied warranty of merchantability, negligent misrepresentation, or unconscionable conduct occurred. However, the jury found that there was a marketing defect, that GB Tubulars breached five express warranties as well as the implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose and express and implied warranties under the DTPA, and that GB Tubulars committed negligence, which was defined to include negligent marketing. For each tort that the jury found GB Tubulars committed, it found damages in the amount of $3 million. The jury also found that 45 percent of Union Gas’s damages were caused by its own negligence. Although the jury affirmatively answered several predicate questions, it found the amount of Union Gas’s reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees to be zero.

After the jury returned its verdict, Union Gas moved to accept the verdict into the record. Union Gas subsequently filed a motion for new trial arguing that “zero” was an inappropriate response to the jury question on attorney’s fees. The trial court granted the motion, and the parties agreed to retry the attorney’s fees issue to the bench. Union Gas also elected to recover damages under its breach of express warranties cause of action. In its final judgment, the trial court awarded Union Gas $3 million for breach of express warranties and $950,000 in attorney’s fees. The court further awarded prospective attorney’s fees should GB Tubulars appeal the judgment.

II. Sufficiency of the Evidence

We begin with GB Tubulars’ second issue—asserting the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the jury’s finding on breach of express warranties—because legal sufficiency is a potential reverse and render point. See Horrocks v. Tex. Dep’t of Transp., 852 S.W.2d 498, 499 (Tex. 1993); see also In re Estate of Parrimore, No. 14-14-00820-CV, 2016 WL 750293, at *4 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Feb. 25, 2016, no pet.) (mem. op.) (“We address these issues first because, if successful, they would provide appellants with the greatest relief.”).2

When reviewing for legal sufficiency, we consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the finding and indulge every reasonable inference that supports the challenged finding. City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802, 822 (Tex. 2005). We credit favorable evidence if a reasonable factfinder could and disregard contrary evidence unless a reasonable fact-finder could not. Id. at” 827. If there is more than a scintilla of evidence to support the finding, the legal sufficiency challenge fails. BMC Software Belgium, N.V. v. Marchand, 83 S.W.3d 789, 795 (Tex. 2002). [568]*568In reviewing the factual sufficiency of the evidence, we consider all of the evidence and set aside the judgment only if it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence that it is clearly wrong and manifestly unjust. Cain v. Bain, 709 S.W.2d 175, 176 (Tex. 1986). The factfinder is the sole judge of witness credibility and the weight to be given testimony. Keller, 168 S.W.3d at 819. Where, as here, the parties have not objected at trial to the substance of the law set forth in the jury charge, we review sufficiency of the evidence in light of legal standards contained in the unobjected-to charge. See Osterberg v. Peca, 12 S.W.3d 31, 55 (Tex. 2000) (“[I]t is the court’s charge, not some other unidentified law, that measures the sufficiency of the evidence when the opposing party fails to object to the charge.”).3

The jury charge contained a series of questions relating to alleged express warranties. The charge defined “express warranty” as “an affirmation of fact or promise made by GB Tubulars [which became] a basis of the bargain.

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527 S.W.3d 563, 2017 WL 2819261, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 5937, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gb-tubulars-inc-v-union-gas-operating-co-texapp-2017.