Loftus v. Ray

46 S.W.2d 1034
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 11, 1932
DocketNo. 2620
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 46 S.W.2d 1034 (Loftus v. Ray) 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
Loftus v. Ray, 46 S.W.2d 1034 (Tex. Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

WALTHALL, J.

Appellee brought this suit against appellant to recover damages for the conversion of specific articles of personal property consisting of household goods! itemized, and the value of each article stated, and which household goods appellant alleges he was using in the operation of a rooming house; also, that appellant in converting said property to his own use and benefit was actuated by malice and by a bitter, resentful, and malicious feeling of ill will toward appellee, and by a desire to injure and damage appellee, by reason of which appellee sought to recover exemplary damages, stating same.

Appellant answered by general demurrer, which was not' passed upon by the court, and by general denial, and other pleas reflected in the special issues submitted to the jury and which issues we need not more fully state.

The jury found that appellant agreed with appellee that appellee might- remain in said building (rooming house) and operate his business without the payment of any rent until appellant should give appellee notice to vacate said premises; that there was a market value on May 1, 1930, of the property described in appellee’s petition, except as to the bathtub, plumbing fixtures, lumber, and lighting fixtures; that the reasonable market value of the property described in appellee’s petition, except the items above mentioned, was $650; the jury found against appellant on the issue of exemplary damages and stated the amount that appellee was entitled to receive at $2,000.

The court received the jury’s verdict and entered judgment for -appellee for the amount found. The jury having made no finding on the items of bathtub, plumbing fixtures, and some pieces of lumber and lighting fixtures, the court found that “under the uncontro-verted testimony in this case the market value of said property as of May 1st, 1930, is $315.00.” The court in the judgment added that value as found to the amount found by the jury on the other items, and entered judgment for the -aggregate amount of $2,965.

The court overruled appellant’s motion for a new trial, and appellant appeals.

Opinion.

Appellant’s first two propositions complain of the court’s finding that appellee owned and had the right to remove the bathtub, plumbing fixtures, lumber, and lighting fix[1035]*1035tures, on the ground that no evidence was offered as to appellee’s ownership of such property; that the record shows that such property was attached to and was a part of the building; that the value of such property was controverted and such issue should have been submitted to the jury and not found by the court.

The uncontroverted evidence shows that appellee owned the furniture, having-purchased it from O. H. Stell, and Stell purchased it from S. O. Moodie. Both Moodie and Stell testified to such fact. Appellee testified that when he purchased the rooming house from Stell, those partitions were already there. Moodie testified that he personally placed the partitions and fixtures in the rooming house when he first leased from appellant. The lease from appellant to Moodie provides: “It is further understood and agreed that any material supplied in making improvements or alterations on said premises by said Moodie or assigns may be removed at the termination of this lease.”

The second and third floors constituted the rooming house in question. Moodie's lease extended from 1919 to 1924. Thereafter appellant leased to Tarrant and Abernathy to 1927. By a sublease, with approval of appellant, Tarrant and Abernathy extended the lease involved here, to Moodie, to the- second and third floors, to 1927. While the Tarrant and Abernathy lease and the Moodie sublease were in force, appellant made a new lease to Tarrant ending 1929. We have said that in order to say that we understand that the Tarrant lease contains the same provision as to removal of material supplied as contained in the Moodie lease. The record shows that Stell had paid the rent to February, 1930, and from that time appellee was a tenant of the premises at will under Loftus, and for which he was to pay no rent, as found by the jury.

The verbiage of the lease as to the right of removal of things supplied is not as clear as it might be, but Moodie testified that he put in the partitions, the lighting fixtures, the plumbing fixtures, “and all of those things after the contract was signed and under this contract.”

When the right of removal is given in a lease, and the same right is continued in a subsequent lease, the owner of the things supplied has the right of removal. When a lease reserves the right of removal of things supplied to the premises by the lessee, the fact of such reserved right shows that it was the intention of the parties to the lease that the things supplied should remain personalty, be and remain the property of the lessee, and not to become a part of the realty and the property of the landlord. In other words, the intention to retain ownership, in the lessee of the property supplied is indicated by the reservation in the lease, and the rule -of law as to fixtures yields to the special provision of removal in the lease. Wright v. Macdonnell et al., 88 Tex. 140, 30 S. W. 907; Hertzberg v. Witte, 22 Tex. Civ. App. 320, 54 S. W. 921. The market value of the .bathtub, plumbing fixtures, lumber, and lighting fixtures, was sufficiently shown. Appellee qua.1ified to state the values of the things he bought of Stell, and made an inventory of the several items and the values he put on the property; said he had been in the rooming house business for years, had bought and sold rooming house furniture of the kind in question, had gone to different stores in Hous: ton and compared values, and knew the reasonable market value there of this particular furniture at the time in question. When he took the inventory he appraised the values accordingly and stated the value of the bathtub and toilet and other plumbing fixtures, and light-fixtures, and the lumber, and said: “Those different amounts represent the reasonable market value of that stuff in Houston on May 1st, 1930.”

No objection was made to appellee’s statement as to the values. The only objection noted in the record is to Stell’s answer to a question as to how much appellee paid him for the property. Stell was permitted to say, “$1300.00.”

Moodie testified that he sold to Stell everything he had in the house for $650, the value the jury put on the property, other than the bathtub, plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, and the lumber.

We think no reversible error is shown in Stell’s answer.

In Gulf, C. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Conley, 113 Tex. 472, 260 S. W. 561, 32 A. L. R. 1183, the Supreme Court held that article 1985, relating to the submission of- cases on special issues, requires the submission of all issues made by the pleadings, and that the failure to submit any issue shall not be deemed a ground fo'r a reversal of the judgment unless the submission was requested in writing hy the complaining party.

Neither party requested the submission of the value of the bathtub, plumbing fixtures, lumber, and lighting fixtures, and under the above authority no error is shown in not submitting the issue of values off said items.

This brings us to the question of error submitted and in rendering judgment’ for exemplary damages. Appellant insists that the verdict of the jfiry on exemplary damages is not supported by the evidence-.

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46 S.W.2d 1034, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loftus-v-ray-texapp-1932.