Graham Hotel Co. v. Garrett

33 S.W.2d 522
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 16, 1930
DocketNo. 2443.
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 33 S.W.2d 522 (Graham Hotel Co. v. Garrett) 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
Graham Hotel Co. v. Garrett, 33 S.W.2d 522 (Tex. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

WALTHALL, J.

This suit was brought by the appellant Graham Hotel Company, a corporation, on May 16, 1029, against the appellees, Earl E. Garrett and the Denison Barber Supply Company, a corporation, to recover a personal judgment against Garrett for unpaid rent and the foreclosure of a contract lien and statutory landlord’s lien on personal chattels owned by Garrett, and to fix and have a foreclosure of a contract and statutory landlord’s lien on certain other chattels on which the Denison Barber Supply Company held a chattel mortgage fixed thereon by said Garrett.

The record and briefs filed in this court are voluminous, but, briefly stated, the basic facts show substantially the following: On October 19, 1928, the Graham Hotel Company owned and was then erecting, but had not finished, a hotel building in Pecos, Tex., and on that date entered into a written lease contract with appellee Garrett, a barber, for space in the hotel building for the purpose of a barber shop, for the period of one year; the lease period to begin when the premises were ready for occupancy, Garrett actually occupying the space beginning on November 15, 1928. Garrett agreed to an annual rental of $906, payable in monthly payments, in advance, of $75. At the time of' entering into the rental contract Garrett paid $75 to be applied on the last month’s rent of the year. The lease contract, among other things, provides that Garrett shall have the right to install into said ¡building and space all necessary barber fixtures and equipment suitable for the conduct of his business, but such fixtures shall be installed at his own cost and expense and to remove same at the termination of the lease; that the lessor “shall furnish steam heat in cold weather as well as hot water and cold water, without extra cost to the lessee.” The lease contract provides that:

“The lessor shall have and the lessee here now gives and grants unto the lessor a landlord’s lien on all fixtures and equipment placed in said building and space by lessee as security for the payment of the rentals herein provided for, * * ⅜ but said lien shall be inferior to any lien on said fixtures for purchasé money due thereon at the time said fixtures and equipment goes into said building or space.”

On November 1, 1928, Garrett purchased of. appellee Denison Barber Supply 'Company certain barber supply equipment to go into Garrett’s batter shop at Pecos, Tex., for the recited consideration of $750, evidenced by twenty-four promissory notes of equal amounts, one payable on December 1, 1928, and one each month thereafter, payment secured by a chattel mortgage on the personal property sold. The mortgage instrument was placed of record in Reeves county on November 8, 1928, and the equipment sold placed in *524 Garrett’s barber shop at some time prior to November 15, 1928, tbe beginning- of the lease term, the exact time not made clear. Exclusive of the $75 paid by Garrett to be applied on the last month of the lease term, Garrett paid as rent $200, the last payment being made on February 7, 1929, in part payment for that month. Appellant filed this suit on May 16, 1929; sues for the unpaid amount of the $900, the total rental for the year; alleges that at the time of filing the suit Garrett was indebted to appellee for rent to June 1, 1929, in the sum of $325; states that it still retains the $75 paid and to be applied on the last month’s rent.

On May 16th appellant duly caused a writ of sequestration to be issued and levied upon the personal property in the barber shop, consisting of the barber equipment involved in this controversy. Appellant Fidelity Union Casualty was the surety on the sequestration bond. Appellees not having replevied said property, appellant, with the same surety, re-plevied the property.

Appellant Graham Hotel Company pleaded the lease contract and its landlord’s lien, specifying the personal property then in the barber shop, the occupancy of the space in the hotel building by Garrett, to May 29, 1929, and his failure to pay the monthly rental amounts to that time as they became due.

- Garrett answered by general denial, specially pleaded as defensive matter the lease contract, the terms of monthly rental payments, and especially as to conditions precedent to appellant’s right to collect the rents. Appellant’s obligation, as stated in the lease contract, to furnish steam heat and hot water, and its failure and refusal to do so, and that by reason of such failure and refusal he never at any time owed appellant any rent money or any deposit as rent, and that by reason thereof he was entitled to have all money paid as rent and the deposit of money returned to him, for all of which he prayed.

By way of cross-action Garrett pledded the facts as above, and in addition reconvened in damages setting up the sequestration proceedings of appellant and the taking into his possession under such proceedings the personal effects of appellee in his barber shop, alleged that same was wrongful and that the grounds stated did not exist.

Appellee Denison Barber Supply Company answered by general denial and cross-action; alleged in substance its sale to Garrett of certain personal property stating the items, that such sale was on time payments evidenced by certain notes of Garrett, aggregating in amount $750, and secured by a chattel mortgage on said property. sold, that the notes bear date November 1, 1928, and that the chattel mortgage was duly filed for record, and that its mortgage is superior to liens of appellant. The Denison Barber Supply Company pleaded the provision of the rental contract authorizing Garrett to create the-lien, and that appellant is now estopped to question same; pleaded the seizure and sale under sequestration proceedings by appellant, and that by reason thereof a conversion of the property to' i-ts damage.

Appellant Fidelity Union Casualty Company adopted the answer of the Graham Hotel Company, says it is only a surety on the replevin bond of the Graham Hotel Company, and prays -that if judgment is rendered against it that it have judgment over against its principal.

Graham Hotel Company joined issues with appellees in the several matters pleaded by them, more fully referred to in discussing the several assignments.

The case was submitted to a jury on special issues. The jury found, in substance:

1. Appellant contracted at the time of the lease to furnish Garrett with hot water and steam heat for the barber shop.

2. That it did not do so.

3: Garrett did not waive the provision in the contract for steam heat.

4 and 5. Garrett, in the operation of the barber shop, suffered damages in the sum of $750 by reason of the failure of appellant to furnish hot water and steam heat.

C. Garrett was not negligent in the conduct of his business in not installing at his own expense equipment necessary" for furnishing hot water and heat for the operation of his barber shop.

7. Garrett was not financially able to equip said barber shop with equipment necessary to furnish an adequate supply of hot water and heat for the operation of the barber shop.

8.

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Bluebook (online)
33 S.W.2d 522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graham-hotel-co-v-garrett-texapp-1930.