Joe T. Presswood, Inc. v. Houston Industrial Welding School, Inc.

585 S.W.2d 763, 1979 Tex. App. LEXIS 3643
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 17, 1979
DocketNo. 17312
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 585 S.W.2d 763 (Joe T. Presswood, Inc. v. Houston Industrial Welding School, Inc.) 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
Joe T. Presswood, Inc. v. Houston Industrial Welding School, Inc., 585 S.W.2d 763, 1979 Tex. App. LEXIS 3643 (Tex. Ct. App. 1979).

Opinion

DOYLE, Justice.

Appellant, Joe T. Presswood, individually and Joe T. Presswood Company, Inc., appeals from a judgment rendered in favor of appellee, Houston Industrial Welding School.

In 1976, appellant, who is an auctioneer, entered into a written contract with appel-lee to sell personal property belonging to appellee at a public auction. The merchandise to be sold included welding machines, machine shop equipment, office equipment and furniture. The gross proceeds of the sale were $59,405.50. Of this total, $5,084.00 was not collected, which amount represented a bad check written by one John Davies to pay for merchandise purchased at the auction.

Immediately following the auction, appellant accepted Davies’ check and authorized delivery of his purchased goods. Davies accepted delivery of the goods except for 42 cans of welding rods totaling an amount of $945.00 which was included in the total price of $5,084.00.

After Davies’ check was dishonored at the bank, appellant recovered all of the goods delivered to Davies, except for six items totaling a price of $840.00, Appellant offered to return said goods to appellee, but it refused to accept them. Appellee filed suit against appellant to recover the full amount of the $5,084.00 Davies' check with interest from November 9, 1976. Appellant answered by denying liability and filed a cross-action against appellee to recover reasonable storage fees for the items recovered and held in its possession from date of tender.

Trial was to the court and judgment was rendered against appellant in the amount of $4,067.89 with interest at 9% per annum from date of judgment until paid. The court in arriving at the judgment, deducted from the bad check amount of $5,084.00, the $945.00 for the 42 cans of welding rods which never left' appellee’s possession; deducted appellant’s 9% commission from the $4,139.00 amount; and then added 6% inter[765]*765est for 16 months on the $3,766.49 total, making a judgment total of $4,067.89. The court also found that $35.00 per month was reasonable compensation for storage of said goods, but denied appellant recovery for such storage fees. The court further ordered appellee to transfer title of said goods to appellant in order that the goods could be sold to mitigate appellant’s loss resulting from the judgment. The court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Appellant sets forth sixteen points of error, the first four of which complain that the trial court erred in finding that the parties entered into an oral contract whereby the appellant agreed to sell appellee’s goods for cash or checks with a letter of credit. Appellant also complains of the court’s conclusions that appellant breached the contract for sale of property by public auction by accepting an out-of-town check from John Davies and allowing the property to be taken away from the sale premises without a release. The trial court concluded that the appellant was negligent in accepting a check for payment of the goods without a bank letter of credit. This, appellant contends, was also error. These four points of error are based on the factual insufficiency of the evidence. Hence, we shall consider the entire record in passing upon them. In re King’s Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660 (1951). Calvert, “No Evidence” Points of Error, 38 Tex.L.Rev. 361 (1960). These points address the duty of the appellant under the contract with appellee.

An examination of the contract entered into between appellant and appellee on October 12, 1976, shows that appellant is authorized to act on behalf of appellee and that he will receive a 9% commission on the total gross sales. Said contract also authorized him to promote and advertise the auction, but the contract is silent as to check collections or guarantees of bad checks. The question arises as to whether parol testimony is admissible to clarify the handling of checks in the process of selling appellee’s property. In 23 Tex.Jur.2d 502 Evidence Sec. 342 (1961), page 503 the general rule is set out as follows:

In brief, the extrinsic evidence rule ordinarily requires the exclusion of parol evidence of prior or contemporaneous negotiations, conversations, representations, or statements that would add to or vary the terms of written agreements that are clear on their face.

However, in Hubacek v. Ennis State Bank, 159 Tex. 166, 317 S.W.2d 30 (1958), the Texas Supreme Court allowed an oral agreement to be admitted into evidence by parol testimony in order that holders of a note would know how they were to apply the first note payments. Therein it was stated:

the facts and circumstances surrounding the transaction pointed to the probability of the agreement . . . The collateral agreement in this case is one which might naturally have been made by parties situated as were petitioner and respondent. The proof shows that the Citizens National Bank had similar agreements with six other automobile dealers.

Under the facts presented by the case before us, the trial court properly admitted parol evidence of testimony pertaining to oral representations clarifying the procedures for handling checks in the auction of appellee’s property, since a vital point to be determined was who would assume such responsibility for any bad checks tendered.

Testimony elicited at the trial showed that H. W. Darrow Sr. and Brian Jenkins, representatives of appellee, stated that appellant orally represented that he would assume responsibility for all checks. When asked what appellant had stated when the matter of accepting checks was discussed, these answers followed:

“(Mr. Darrow) A. I said, “You assured me several times that you’d check with the bank, that you wouldn’t release anything until the man’s check had been cleared, and if it was bad, ‘you still got your equipment because we don’t let him haul if off,’ said ‘when you get that release from me, I got two men stationed at your place, they are going to deliver the [766]*766goods that was bought. Before they deliver them they have a slip from me okaying it. When you get that, they know that the check’s then good, everthing’s been paid. We don’t issue them unless we do that.’ ”
“(Mr. Jenkins) A. As I recall, the question was put to Mr. Presswood at the time of our initial meeting with him: What protection we, Houston Industrial Welding School had at the time of the auction against possibly someone buying something and failing to pay for it. He told us that all parties at the auction would have to have a letter of credit before they would accept a check from them, so that we were protected; and he also told us, at the time the auction was conducted, as the parties came to pick up the things that they had bought, he would authorize us to release these items to them, let them physically take them from the premises. That was another thing. That was protection for us. That they would have time to check out this person’s purchasing check, to make sure that it was good, prior to the time they released the items.”

Appellant by his testimony admits responsibility by stating:

“A. They agreed. They said that— I — in approaching anyone with having an auction sale, of course, we try to tell them that we accept the responsibility of collecting the funds.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Sitterle Properties v. Weidner
628 S.W.2d 127 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1981)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
585 S.W.2d 763, 1979 Tex. App. LEXIS 3643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joe-t-presswood-inc-v-houston-industrial-welding-school-inc-texapp-1979.