Goodpasture, Inc. v. Skaggs

532 S.W.2d 384, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3393
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 30, 1975
DocketNo. 5475
StatusPublished

This text of 532 S.W.2d 384 (Goodpasture, Inc. v. Skaggs) 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
Goodpasture, Inc. v. Skaggs, 532 S.W.2d 384, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3393 (Tex. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

HALL, Justice.

The appellees are in the business of buying and selling junk iron and pipe and other scrap metal. In late November or early December, 1972, they made an oral agreement with the appellant, Goodpasture, Inc., to purchase several thousand tons of junk from Goodpasture at the price of $18.00 per ton. The junk consisted of water wheels and other parts of old irrigation systems, trucks, cement mixers, tanks, and other unusable scrap iron located on farms and other properties owned by Goodpasture in and around Terry County. The appellees brought this suit against Goodpasture for damages on the theories, originally, of breach of the oral contract and quantum meruit. The essence of the appellees’ pleadings was this: When the contract was made, the appellees and Goodpasture knew that some of the scrap iron, specifically the water wheels, was not worth $18.00 per ton by reason of its weight and quality, but that other parts of the junk was worth more than $18.00 per ton, and $18.00 was agreed upon by the parties as a mean value per ton; that the water wheels alone were not worth more than $3.00 per ton; that Goodpasture was anxious to have the water wheel scrap removed first, and appellees agreed to this procedure, knowing the junk they would finally buy would have a total value of $18.00 per ton; that after the appellees had removed 685.51 tons of junk which was mostly water wheels, paying $18.00 per ton therefor in keeping with the agreement, and had removed many other loads of water wheels from the fields to Goodpasture’s place of business at “Thirty Acres” and cut them up, Goodpasture refused to continue with the contract. The ap-pellees prayed for $100,000 for breach of the contract; and, under an alternative “quantum meruit” count, they sought $10,-100 as the difference between the $18.00 per ton already paid by them for the 685.51 tons of junk and its actual value of $3.00 per ton, and $6,000 as their expense for removing the remainder of the scrap to Goodpasture’s business location and cutting it up.

Goodpasture filed a general denial; a special plea that the oral contract pleaded by appellees violates Sections 2.2011 and 26.01,2 Vernon’s Tex.Codes Ann., Bus. & C., and will not support their cause of action; and a counterclaim on sworn account for [387]*387$2,753.81 allegedly still unpaid by the appel-lees for the scrap iron bought and hauled off by them, with additional counts for attorneys’ fees and pre-judgment interest.

During the course of the trial, the appel-lees filed a trial amendment in which they alleged that (1) the oral contract “by reason of the same being in a sum and for junk in excess of $500 and other reasons and the same not being in writing and signed by the parties, is and was unenforceable”; (2) there was no consideration or a failure of consideration for the amount paid by appel-lees to Goodpasture “in excess of $3.00 per ton” for the water wheels and other junk actually received by them; and (3) for “removing [other] water wheel systems [which Goodpasture refused to deliver to appellees] out of the sand, hauling the same into the Defendant’s property, and cutting the same up” they were entitled to recover on quantum meruit the sum of $7,855.

It is undisputed that the appellees received delivery of 685½ tons of junk from Goodpasture, at the rate of $18.00 per ton, before Goodpasture refused further delivery under the contract. It is also undisputed that the junk received by the appellees was composed of both water wheels and material of much higher value, although how much of each, and its value, is disputed. Disputed, too, is the question of which party first breached and caused the ending of the agreement between them. Also, on the trial the parties stipulated that the balance owed to Goodpasture by the appellees on the account for junk delivered to the appellees at the rate of $18.00 per ton was the sum of $2,059.92; and that the number of tons not paid for “would be this [sum] divided by 18.”

Trial was to a jury. Answering special issues numbered as follows the jury found that (1) the agreement of $18.00 per ton was based upon knowledge by appellees and Goodpasture “that junk of a higher value than the water wheel systems was included therein arriving at said price”; (2) the market value of the junk received by the appel-lees was $12.00 per ton; (3) the reasonable value “of the services performed by the [appellees] in pulling out, hauling in, and cutting up the water wheels left on the defendant’s premises” is $8,000; (4) Good-pasture requested the appellees to perform the services enumerated in special issue no. (3), above; (6) the services performed benefited Goodpasture; and, (7) Goodpasture should have reasonably expected to pay ap-pellees for these services. The jury failed to find that (5) the services were performed by the appellees “with the expectation of being entitled to charge [Goodpasture] compensation therefor.”

The appellees moved the court to disregard the jury’s answer to special issue no. (5) on the grounds that (a) there is no evidence to support the answer and (b) the question inquired about therein (whether the appellees expected to get paid for the services when they were rendered to Good-pasture) is immaterial, and render judgment for the appellees on the remainder of the* verdict, and on the parties’ stipulation. The court granted this motion in its entirety. That is, it disregarded the answer to Special Issue No. 5 on the grounds that there is no evidence to support it and that the inquiry made therein is irrelevant, and rendered judgment on the remainder of the verdict and the stipulation “that Plaintiffs should have and recover of and from the defendant the sum of $4,113.06, and the sum of $8,000.00, and that the Defendant should be entitled to offset thereof the sum of $1,835.52 for a total recovery on behalf of the Plaintiffs in the amount of $10,-277.54.”

The record shows that upon the closing of proof by all parties, but before the case was submitted to the jury, Goodpasture moved for an instructed verdict on the grounds that “[t]here is no evidence in the case to show that services were being rendered by the [plaintiffs] with the expectation of being entitled to charge the defendant therefor; there is no evidence to show that the services as performed benefited the defendant in any manner; there is no evidence to [388]*388show that the defendant should have expected to pay for the work performed by the plaintiffs.” The motion was overruled. Goodpasture timely filed objections to the court’s charge to the jury on a number of grounds which we need not detail, including one to the effect that Special Issue No. 1 constituted an improper measure of damages on quantum meruit. The objections were all overruled.

After judgment, Goodpasture filed what it denominated a “Motion For Judgment On Finding Of Jury,” asserting that the oral contract was enforceable to the extent performed, entitling Goodpasture to recover on its cross-action under the jury’s finding; that the answer to Special Issue No. 2 was immaterial; and that, for sundry reasons, the verdict would not support a recovery by plaintiffs on quantum meruit. The record fails to show that this motion was called to the attention of the trial court or acted on by it. Therefore, contrary to the assignments of error in Goodpasture’s brief, nothing relating to the motion is preserved for review. Tex-Wash Enterprises, Inc. v. Robna, 488 S.W.2d 504, 505 (Tex.Civ. App.—Waco, 1972, writ ref., n. r. e.).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
532 S.W.2d 384, 1975 Tex. App. LEXIS 3393, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodpasture-inc-v-skaggs-texapp-1975.