Jubilee Academic Center, Inc. v. School Model Support, LLC D/B/A Athlos Academies

CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 20, 2024
Docket04-23-00603-CV
StatusPublished

This text of Jubilee Academic Center, Inc. v. School Model Support, LLC D/B/A Athlos Academies (Jubilee Academic Center, Inc. v. School Model Support, LLC D/B/A Athlos Academies) 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
Jubilee Academic Center, Inc. v. School Model Support, LLC D/B/A Athlos Academies, (Tex. Ct. App. 2024).

Opinion

Fourth Court of Appeals San Antonio, Texas MEMORANDUM OPINION

No. 04-23-00603-CV

JUBILEE ACADEMIC CENTER, INC., Appellant

v.

SCHOOL MODEL SUPPORT, LLC d/b/a Athlos Academies, Appellee

From the 37th Judicial District Court, Bexar County, Texas Trial Court No. 2018-CI-22759 Honorable Monique Diaz, Judge Presiding

Opinion by: Patricia O. Alvarez, Justice

Sitting: Patricia O. Alvarez, Justice Luz Elena D. Chapa, Justice Lori I. Valenzuela, Justice

Delivered and Filed: June 20, 2024

REVERSED IN PART AND RENDERED; AFFIRMED IN PART AND REMANDED

This is an accelerated interlocutory appeal from the trial court’s order denying Jubilee

Academic Center’s combined no-evidence and traditional motion for summary judgment—which

challenged the trial court’s subject matter jurisdiction. In its motion, Jubilee asserted that, as a

nonprofit corporation that operates charter schools, it was immune from suit because none of the

plaintiff’s damages were recoverable and its immunity was not waived. The trial court denied

Jubilee’s motion, and Jubilee appeals the trial court’s order. 04-23-00603-CV

Because there was some evidence of a balance due and owed under the plaintiff’s breach

of contract claim, but future lost profits were not recoverable under the statute, we affirm the trial

court’s order in part, reverse and render in part, and remand the cause.

BACKGROUND

This is not the parties’ first appeal in the underlying dispute; our previous opinion provides

background information on the parties, the services agreement, and our previous legal

determinations. Jubilee Acad. Ctr., Inc. v. Sch. Model Support, LLC (Jubilee I), No. 04-21-00237-

CV, 2022 WL 1479039 (Tex. App.—San Antonio May 11, 2022, pet. denied) (op. on reh’g). Here,

we repeat or provide additional background information for this appeal.

A. Parties

Jubilee Academic Center, Inc. is a Texas nonprofit corporation that owns and operates

several open-enrollment charter schools in Texas. Its charter schools are organized under the

Texas Education Code. See TEX. EDUC. CODE ANN. § 12.103.

School Model Support LLC, d/b/a Athlos Academies, is an Idaho limited liability company

authorized to do business in Texas. It provides support services for schools’ physical education,

athletic, and after-school programs.

B. School Services Agreement

On July 8, 2013, Jubilee and Athlos entered into a School Services Agreement. Under the

services agreement, Athlos provided Jubilee with marketing support, training, athletic and

character development curriculum, athletic curriculum support and training, and athletic

curriculum fixtures and equipment. Athlos also granted Jubilee a limited license to use Athlos’s

trademarks at Jubilee’s participating schools. Each school had its own eight-year “Initial Term”

of service, which began on its first day of campus operations and ended on “the last day of the

school year in the eighth (8th) year.” For each month the school was operating, Jubilee agreed to

-2- 04-23-00603-CV

pay Athlos a monthly services fee. For the first two years of each school’s initial term, the services

fee was two percent of the local and state revenues Jubilee received for that school for that month.

For the third through eighth years, the monthly services fees increased to four percent.

C. Jubilee’s Athlos Academies

In 2014, Jubilee opened three campuses under the Athlos Academies name and using

Athlos’s services: one each in San Antonio, Wells Branch, and Brownsville.

In August 2016, Jubilee opened its fourth Athlos Academy using Athlos’s services:

Highland Hills. 1

D. Athlos’s Suit

Jubilee paid Athlos services fees for its San Antonio, Wells Branch, and Brownsville

campuses from September 2014 through July 2017.

On February 1, 2017, Athlos began billing Jubilee for the Highland Hills campus.

In May 2017, Jubilee’s bond offering memorandum stated Jubilee would discontinue its

relationship with Athlos, but Jubilee did not terminate the services agreement.

On August 31, 2017, Athlos billed Jubilee for services fees for the Highland Hills campus

for February–August 2017. But according to Athlos, Jubilee did not pay Athlos for the services

rendered at its Highland Hills campus.

In December 2018, Athlos sued Jubilee for breach of contract and attorney’s fees.

E. Jubilee’s Defenses

Jubilee filed a plea to the jurisdiction, which was denied.

In April 2021, Jubilee filed a combined traditional and no-evidence motion for summary

judgment. It argued that the Local Government Code’s waiver of immunity to suit for certain

1 We refer to what was the Athlos Leadership Academy – Premier campus as Highland Hills.

-3- 04-23-00603-CV

breach of contract claims did not apply, see TEX. LOC. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 271.152, and it was

immune from Athlos’s suit.

The trial court denied Jubilee’s motion, and we affirmed the trial court’s order. Jubilee I,

2022 WL 1479039, at *1–2.

F. Jubilee’s Motion for Summary Judgment

In May 2023, Jubilee filed a combined no-evidence and traditional motion for summary

judgment. It argued that Athlos had no evidence of any damages other than lost profits, lost profits

are consequential damages, consequential damages are not recoverable, and its immunity from suit

was not waived. See TEX. LOC. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 271.153(b)(1), (3).

G. Athlos’s Responsive Pleadings

Two weeks later, Athlos filed its second amended petition, and its response to Jubilee’s

motion.

In its second amended petition, Athlos’s breach of contract claim asserted that Jubilee

failed to pay any services fees for the Highland Hills campus or the 4% services fees for the

remaining years of the respective terms for each of the four campuses, and these were balances

due and owed by Jubilee under the School Services Agreement. Athlos also sought to recover its

attorney’s fees.

In its response to Jubilee’s combined motion for summary judgment, Athlos attached an

affidavit, excerpts from depositions, a declaration, a supplemental expert report, and other

summary judgment proof.

H. Jubilee’s Reply

Jubilee filed its reply. It reiterated that the services fees Athlos would have received under

the agreement if it had continued, less the expenses it avoided, are consequential damages, which

by statute cannot be recovered, and its immunity was not waived.

-4- 04-23-00603-CV

I. Trial Court’s Order

The trial court considered Jubilee’s motion, Athlos’s response, Jubilee’s reply, the

competent summary judgment evidence, and the parties’ arguments; it denied Jubilee’s motion.

Jubilee appealed. 2

PARTIES’ ARGUMENTS

A. Jubilee’s Arguments

Jubilee asserts its immunity from suit was not waived because none of Athlos’s claimed

damages are recoverable under Chapter 271. See generally TEX. LOC. GOV’T CODE ANN.

§§ 271.151–.160 (addressing adjudicating contract claims against a local governmental entity).

Specifically, Jubilee contends Athlos used a lost-profits damages model, which makes all

of Athlos’s claimed damages lost profits. Because lost profits are inescapably categorized as

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Jubilee Academic Center, Inc. v. School Model Support, LLC D/B/A Athlos Academies, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jubilee-academic-center-inc-v-school-model-support-llc-dba-athlos-texapp-2024.