Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. Valero Energy Corp.

953 S.W.2d 861, 1997 WL 592618
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 30, 1997
Docket13-96-281-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 953 S.W.2d 861 (Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. Valero Energy Corp.) 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
Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. Valero Energy Corp., 953 S.W.2d 861, 1997 WL 592618 (Tex. Ct. App. 1997).

Opinion

OPINION

RODRIGUEZ, Justice.

This is the second appeal resulting from the application of the indemnity provision of a contract (“the Contract”) entered into between appellants M.W. Kellogg Company, M.W. Constructors, Inc., M.W. Kellogg Constructors, Kellogg Rust Synfuels, Inc., and Henley/MWK Holding, Inc. (collectively referred to as “Kellogg”) and Ingersoll-Rand Company and Dresser-Rand Company (collectively referred to as “Rand”), and appel-lees Valero Energy Corporation, Valero Refining & Marketing Company and Valero Refining Company (collectively referred to as ‘Valero”).

In 1982, Kellogg contracted with Valero to serve as general contractor in the expansion of Valero’s Corpus Christi oil refinery. Rand was hired by Kellogg as a subcontractor on the project. Valero filed suit against Kellogg in 1986, alleging various negligence and deceptive trade practices causes of action arising out of the Contract. Valero added Rand as a defendant in 1989 seeking actual and exemplary damages, as well as attorney’s fees. The Contract contained the following indemnity provision:

6.8 OWNER [Valero] shall release, defend, indemnify and hold harmless CONTRACTOR, [Kellogg] its subcontractors and affiliates and their employees performing services under this Agreement against all claims, liabilities, loss or expense, including legal fees and court costs in connection therewith, arising out of or in connection with this Agreement or the Work to be performed hereunder, including losses attributable to CONTRACTOR’S negligence, to the extent CONTRACTOR is not compensated by insurance carried under this ARTICLE....

(Emphasis added).

Both Kellogg and Rand filed interlocutory motions for summary judgment asserting the indemnity provision barred Valero’s claim. The trial court granted the motions, and, after the trial court severed Valero’s claims from the remaining parties and issues in the lawsuit and Valero appealed, we affirmed. 1 The remaining claims were abated pending resolution of the appeal. 2

After our mandate issued, the trial court dissolved the abatement and Kellogg and Rand filed motions for summary judgment seeking their attorney’s fees, court costs, and *863 litigation expenses incurred in defending Va-lero’s claims asserted in Valero I. Kellogg and Rand also sought to recover their attorney’s fees and costs incurred in pursuing their contractual claim for attorney’s fees pursuant to the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code. 3

Valero filed its own motion for summary judgment on the indemnity claims, asserting (1) the claims were compulsory counterclaims not timely urged and therefore waived when the trial court granted the summary judgments; (2) the claims were time-barred; and (3) the claims were not cognizable under § 38.001. The trial court granted Valero’s motion and denied the motions of Kellogg and Rand. Kellogg and Rand independently perfected their appeals.

Standard of Review

We review summary judgment procedures according to the following standards: (1) the movant for summary judgment has the burden of showing there is no genuine issue of material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law; (2) in deciding whether there is a disputed material fact issue precluding summary judgment, evidence favorable to the nonmovant will be taken as true; and (3) every reasonable inference must be indulged in favor of the nonmovant and any doubts resolved in its favor. Nixon v. Mr. Property Management Co., 690 S.W.2d 546, 548-49 (Tex.1985).

When a movant asserts multiple grounds for summary judgment, and the order does not state the theory upon which the trial court based its judgment, the nonmovant must show on appeal the failure of at least one element of each theory asserted. See Gibbs v. General Motors Corp., 450 S.W.2d 827, 828 (Tex.1970). Otherwise, we affirm the summary judgment if any one of the theories advanced is meritorious. McDonald v. Houston Brokerage, Inc., 928 S.W.2d 633, 636 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1996, writ denied); Martinez v. Corpus Christi Area Teachers Credit Union, 758 S.W.2d 946, 950 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1988, writ denied).

RAND’S APPEAL

In its first point of error, 4 Rand asserts the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in this case because the summary judgment in Valero I did not dispose of Rand’s claim for attorney’s fees. The crux of Rand’s argument is that because parties and issues remained after the court granted summary judgment in Valero I, and because the trial court severed out only the causes of action which formed the basis of the summary judgment in Valero I, the summary judgment in Valero I did not address Rand’s counterclaim, which had not yet been filed.

Rand’s argument, while facially persuasive, fails. The issue is not whether the summary judgment in Valero I addressed Rand’s counterclaim for attorney’s fees, but whether Rand should have asserted the counterclaim in response to Valero’s claim for damages before the trial court granted summary judgment in Valero I. In other words, was Rand’s claim for attorney’s fees a compulsory counterclaim that is now barred by the application of res judicata?

The following dates are relevant:
08-24-89 Valero sues Rand
10-25-91 Summary judgment granted in Valero I
12-23-91 Severance granted and non-severed cases abated
06-30-94 Court of Appeals opinion issues
08-25-94 Abatement dissolved
09-16-94 Rand files its counterclaim for attorney’s fees

Rand bases its argument on the fact that only those issues asserted in the summary judgments in Valero I were severed out and made final; all other issues remained. This is precisely the point made by Valero—that at the time Rand filed its claim for attorney’s fees, no claims were pending between Rand and Valero. Valero I was concluded and the trial court’s decision had been affirmed; *864 thus, the doctrine of res judicata precluded Rand from asserting its claim for attorney’s fees in cause number 91-6592-B.

Res judicata prohibits a cause of action once finally determined between the parties on the merits by a competent tribunal from afterward being litigated in a new proceeding. Gracia v. RC Cola-7-Up Bottling Co., 667 S.W.2d 517

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
953 S.W.2d 861, 1997 WL 592618, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ingersoll-rand-co-v-valero-energy-corp-texapp-1997.