Martindale v. Gulf Oil Corporation

345 S.W.2d 810, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2252
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 6, 1961
Docket6430
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 345 S.W.2d 810 (Martindale v. Gulf Oil Corporation) 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
Martindale v. Gulf Oil Corporation, 345 S.W.2d 810, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2252 (Tex. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

ANDERSON, Chief Justice.

The appeal is from an order granting a temporary injunction. On the petition of Gulf Oil Corporation, and after notice and a hearing, the trial court temporarily enjoined Jack Martindale, F. W. Martin-dale, A. L. Mays, Virgil Mays, and E. 0. Aud:

“1. From interfering, either by word, act or deed, with the entry of plaintiff, its agents, servants, employees, or contractors upon the service station premises known as ‘Aud’s Service Station’ located on U. S. Highway 96, Jasper County, Texas, in the performance of its contract with the defendant A. L. Mays;

“2. From storing, handling, selling or dispensing any product of any kind, class or character through plaintiff’s equipment located on the said premises, except the plaintiff’s products; and

“3. From painting, removing, changing or altering in any manner any of the plaintiff’s equipment located on the said premises.”

The contract to which the trial court referred, and on which the injunction is grounded, is a written contract Gulf Oil Corporation, as party of the first part, and A. L. Mays, who is therein described as “party of the second part situated U. S. Hwy. No. 96 City of Jasper County of Jasper State of Texas,” entered into under date of August 10, 1953. It became effective September 1, 1953, and, subject to specified rights of cancellation, was to remain in force for a period of ten years from that date, or through August 31, 1963.

The “service station premises” to which the court referred are situated in Jasper, Texas, on U. S. Highway No. 96, are owned by Virgil Mays, are in the possession of E. O. Aud, a tenant, and are under a term lease to Jack Martindale and F. W. Martindale. To the extent that they comprise land, they are also premises A. L. Mays and his wife owned as community property when the aforesaid contract was made. A service station which Mr. and Mrs. Mays likewise owned, and which was being operated by E. O. Aud, was on the land at that time, but it has since been replaced by another. The existing station was not built until after Mrs. Mays had died, having been built in May, 1959, and she having died in September, 1958.

The equipment to which the trial court referred as “plaintiff’s equipment located on the said premises” is equipment Gulf Oil Corporation installed on the premises to facilitate sales of its own petroleum products, and to which that company has retained title. It consists of pumps, tanks and other items common to service stations.

The contract between Gulf Oil Corporation and A. L. Mays, in pertinent part, is as follows:

“The party of the first part sells and agrees to deliver to the party of the second part and the party of the second part purchases and agrees to receive from the party of the first part, during the term of this contract, second party’s entire requirements of Gulf petroleum products, consisting of * *.
“This contract is not assignable, except with the written consent of first party.
“It is also agreed between Mr. A. L. Mays, property owner of subject service station location, and the Gulf Oil Corporation, party of the first part, that this contract shall become effective only when the said Mr. A. L. Mays receives from the said Gulf Oil Corporation payment for one Westinghouse 11/2 H.P. Air Compressor in the *812 amount of $440.00 and one Model 10 B R Joyce Lift in the amount of $495.-00, which the Gulf Oil Corporation is purchasing from the property owner, Mr. A. L. Mays, in return for which Mr. Mays’ service station will handle Gulf Petroleum products for a period of ten years, beginning September 1, 1953.”

Except as already reflected, no Mays property was or is described, mentioned or alluded to in the contract. However, to the extent that they contracted with reference to a specific service station or with reference to specific service-station premises, it is undisputed that the contracting parties had reference to the station and premises E. O. Aud had in charge when the contract was made.

Mr. Aud, who all along has operated the service station under a verbal agreement with its owners, apparently as a tenant at will, paying as rental one and one-fourth cents on each gallon of gasoline sold at it, acquiesced in the contract between Gulf Oil Corporation and A. L. Mays, ceased selling the brand of petroleum products he had theretofore sold, and since September 1, 1953, has sold only Gulf products. He now proposes, however, to discontinue selling Gulf products and to begin selling the products of Mobil Oil Company. The Mar-tindales and Virgil Mays are agreeable to the change and are even disposed to require it.

The following sequence of events rounds out the background of the controversy: When Mrs. A. L. Mays died in September, 1958, her four children by Mr. Mays, one of whom was Virgil Mays, inherited her undivided one-half interest in a sizable tract of land she and her husband owned as community property, a part of which was the service-station premises E. O. Aud had in charge. In the spring of 1959 the existing service station was built and Gulf Oil Corporation installed in it or on the premises new pumps, tanks and other equipment, at an expense to itself of $5,725. The Martindales, who are distributors in Jasper for Mobil products, then talked to some of the Mays children about converting the service station from a Gulf to a Mobil station. In September, 1959, by a letter purporting to be from A. L. Mays but actually written by Virgil Mays, Gulf Oil Corporation was requested to invoice its equipment on the premises to Magnolia Petroleum Company, which has since become Mobil Oil Company. Gulf Oil Corporation’s dealer or distributor in Jasper thereupon went to see A. L. Mays and agreed that if no change was made he would supplement what Aud was paying Mr. Mays to the extent of one-fourth cent per gallon on each gallon of gasoline sold at the Aud station, the same to be paid from his own commissions on sales. A. L. Mays agreed that' on this basis Gulf products would continue to be sold at the service station.

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Bluebook (online)
345 S.W.2d 810, 1961 Tex. App. LEXIS 2252, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martindale-v-gulf-oil-corporation-texapp-1961.