Johnson v. Downing and Wooten Construction Co.

480 S.W.2d 254, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2522
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 19, 1972
Docket553
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 480 S.W.2d 254 (Johnson v. Downing and Wooten Construction 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
Johnson v. Downing and Wooten Construction Co., 480 S.W.2d 254, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2522 (Tex. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

BARRON, Justice.

This is a breach of contract case in which plaintiff-appellant, Wayne A. Johnson, seeks the equitable remedy of specific performance. On February 3, 1969, Johnson and defendant-appellee, Downing and Wooten Construction Company, entered in *256 to an earnest money contract whereby Johnson was to purchase from appellee several lots in the Spring Branch Estates Addition. His purpose was to construct a garden-type apartment complex thereon. The price was $83,853.00, payable $20,000.00 at closing and the balance to be represented by a vendor’s lien note bearing 7% interest per annum. Defendants named were C. Foster Wooten, Lloyd S. Downing, Downing and Wooten Construction Company and its successor, Downing and Wooten Enterprises, Inc.

Purchaser, Johnson, was to have 60 days to obtain the necessary financing to construct such apartment units. By addendum, dated March 31, 1969, this closing date was extended an additional 30 days. Thereafter, appellee failed to comply with the terms of the contract and attempted return of the earnest money, alleging that Johnson was unable to obtain the necessary financing. This tender was refused, and after futilely attempting to perform under the contract, Johnson filed suit for specific performance and loss of rental value and in the alternative for damages. He later elected to proceed to judgment on the former alternative.

Special issues were submitted to the jury and answered in favor of appellant Johnson. The jury found that Johnson did obtain the “necessary financing”; that Wooten did intentionally relinquish this requirement of “necessary financing”, and that $16,700.00 was a fair rental value of the property from April 30, 1969, to date of trial. The judgment, reciting that both appellant’s motion for judgment and appel-lees’ motion for judgment non obstante veredicto were sustained in part and denied in part, ordered specific performance of the contract and after allowing an $11,700.-00 offset, granted “damages” of $5,000.00 to appellant. Appellant filed a limited appeal urging three points of error in the trial court’s allowing this offset or balance.

We are met at the outset with a motion by appellant Johnson to strike appellees’ ten cross-points of error. Judgment granting specific performance and “damages” for reasonable rental value of $16,700.00 in favor of appellant to be offset by $11,700.00 (7% per annum interest from April 30, 1969, to date of trial) was entered in this cause on June 7, 1971. Pursuant to Tex. R.Civ.P. 353(c), appellant limited his appeal “ . . . from, and only from, that portion of Judgment of said Court granting/awarding Defendants an offset for interest on the unpaid purchase price against the reasonable rental value of the property . . . ”, and filed such notice on June 11, 1971. At the bottom of this notice attorney for appellant certified that a copy had been forwarded, by certified mail, return receipt requested, to appellees’ attorney, contemporaneously with this filing.

Paragraph (c) of Rule 353, added in 1962, prohibits limitation by appellant of the scope of appeal unless such limitation is designated in a separate notice served upon the adverse party and filed within 15 days after judgment or order overruling a motion for new trial. The general commentary to Rule 353, Tex.R.Civ.P. states that the purpose of such change “ . . . is to insure that the appellee will have notice of the appellant’s intention to limit the scope of his appeal, so that the appellee, if dissatisfied with some other severable portion of the judgment, may also perfect an appeal and avoid the situation in which the appellee was left in Connell Const. Co. v. Phil Dor Plaza Corp., 158 Tex. 262, 310 S.W.2d 311 (1958).” (Emphasis added.)

As pointed out in the Connell case, supra, before the addition of paragraph (c), Rule 353(a) provided and now provides two methods of giving notice of appeal — one in open court noted on the docket or embodied in the judgment or order overruling the motion for new trial or other minutes of the court, and the other by filing notice with the clerk within 10 days after the judgment or order overruling the motion for new trial is rendered. The judgment recites that plaintiff, John *257 son, excepted to the judgment and gave notice of appeal. By giving notice of appeal in this manner, appellant has met his first burden (a motion for new trial being unnecessary since that portion of the judgment appealed from was based upon the overruling of a motion for judgment on the verdict in part and the granting in part of a motion for judgment non obstante vere-dicto. Rule 324, Tex.R.Civ.P.). To effectively limit his appeal, appellant must give notice of such limitation to his adversaries under Rule 353(c) within 15 days. Four days after judgment rendition, appellant filed what he refers to as a “Notice of Appeal In Writing”, whereby the appeal was limited, and he certified that a separate copy of same had been sent to ap-pellees. This comports with Rule 353(c), and the purpose of the rule is substantially accomplished.

To go one step further, while the commentary states that “The requirement of a separate notice apparently negatives the practice of incorporating such limitation within the notice of appeal itself or in the appeal bond”, this practice is not condemned. As shown in Connell, supra, before the addition in paragraph (c), if one desired to limit his appeal and failed to give notice of such in open court, he must then give such notice by filing it with the clerk. There were no other requirements as now imposed by paragraph (c) which require the bringing of this fact to the attention of appellees. It is now incumbent upon appellant to do so by separate notice. Savage v. Murphy, 466 S.W.2d 335 (Tex.Civ.App.. — Dallas 1971, writ ref’d n. r. e); Humble Oil and Refining Co. v. City of Georgetown, 428 S.W.2d 405 (Tex.Civ.App. —Austin 1968, no writ); Gerst v. Guardian Savings and Loan Association, 425 S.W.2d 382 (Tex.Civ.App. — Austin 1968), Aff’d in part and reversed on other grounds, 434 S.W.2d 113 (Tex.Sup.1968); Harms Marine Service, Inc. v. Swiere, 411 S.W.2d 602 (Tex.Civ.App. — Beaumont 1966, writ ref’d n. r. e.). There is no indication as to what kind of separate notice is required, only that it be a separate notice to meet the purpose of such paragraph, i. e., to apprise the adversaries of the scope of the appeal. Appellant has accomplished this by timely delivering a copy of his “Notice of Appeal In Writing” to appellees. Appellant’s motion to strike is granted and appellees’ cross-points are stricken with the possible exception of cross-points 1, 2 and 3 dealing with no evidence, insufficient evidence and overwhelming weight points in regard to the jury’s findings of reasonable rental value.

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Bluebook (online)
480 S.W.2d 254, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-downing-and-wooten-construction-co-texapp-1972.