Metro Siding Distributors, Inc. v. Master Shield, Inc.

717 S.W.2d 455, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 8811
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 17, 1986
Docket2-85-174-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 717 S.W.2d 455 (Metro Siding Distributors, Inc. v. Master Shield, 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
Metro Siding Distributors, Inc. v. Master Shield, Inc., 717 S.W.2d 455, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 8811 (Tex. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

OPINION

HOPKINS, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment rendered against Metro Siding Distributors, Inc. and appellants, Bill Poston and Gary Don Jenny, jointly and severally, in favor of appellee, Master Shield, Inc., for $63,498.47, plus attorney’s fees of $5,000. Only the two individuals are before us on appeal. Each party filed motions for summary judgment which were denied. Master Shield, Inc. filed a second motion for summary judgment which was granted.

The judgment is affirmed.

The facts are undisputed. Appellants requested appellee furnish vinyl siding for a distributorship business they were establishing. Appellee agreed to do so provided appellants furnished financial statements and executed a guaranty agreement, whereby appellants individually and personally guaranteed the payment of their company account with appellee. At the time the guaranty agreement was executed and delivered to appellee, the name of the appellants’ company as principal debtor was left blank and later filled in by appel-lee and a completed copy was mailed to appellants. It was the testimony of appel-lee’s president, Nicholas Martin, that at the time its guaranty agreement was signed, the reason the instrument was blank as to the principal obligators’ name was because appellants had not yet decided on a name for the company. Appellants in their depositions acknowledged that they knew at the time they signed the guaranty agreement they were individually and personally guaranteeing the judgment of their company’s account to appellee.

Appellee filed suit against appellant Metro Siding Distributors, Inc. (hereinafter “Metro Siding") alleging it owed appellee $66,736.04 on an open account. Appellee also sued appellants Poston and Jenny, individually, alleging: 1) these appellants had personally guaranteed the payment of this amount; 2) the amount was due and owing by Metro Siding; 3) demand had been made that appellants Poston and Jenny pay this amount pursuant to the guaranty agreement; and 4) the amount was still unpaid.

Appellants Poston and Jenny answered by filing a general denial and asserting an affirmative defense. They claimed the guaranty agreement was unenforceable due to noncompliance with the Statute of Frauds.

Both parties filed motions for summary judgment, and the trial court granted ap-pellee’s motion and rendered judgment against appellants for $63,498.47, plus attorney’s fees of $5,000.

Appellants’ two points of error allege error by the trial court in entering summary judgment for Master Shield, and denying their motion for summary judgment, because the guaranty agreement did not satisfy the Statute of Frauds, TEX.BUS. & COM.CODE ANN. sec. 26.01(b)(2) (Vernon Pamph.Supp.1986) in that the blank for the name of principal debtor was not filled in when they signed the instrument.

In a summary judgment case, the issue on appeal is whether the movant met his burden for summary judgment by establishing that there exists no genuine issue of material fact and that he is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. City of *457 Houston v. Clear Creek Basin Authority, 589 S.W.2d 671, 678 (Tex.1979); TEX.R. CIV.P. 166-A. The burden of proof is on the movant, and all doubts as to the existence of a genuine issue as to a material fact are resolved against him. Great American R. Ins. Co. v. San Antonio PI. Sup. Co., 391 S.W.2d 41, 47 (Tex.1965). Therefore, we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-movant. Id. In deciding whether there is a material fact issue precluding summary judgment, all conflicts in the evidence will be disregarded and the evidence favorable to the non-movant will be accepted as true. Montgomery v. Kennedy, 669 S.W.2d 309, 311 (Tex.1984); Farley v. Prudential Insurance Company, 480 S.W.2d 176, 178 (Tex.1972). Every reasonable inference from the evidence must be indulged in favor of the non-movant and any doubts must be resolved in his favor. Montgomery, 669 S.W.2d at 311. Evidence which favors the movant’s position will not be considered unless it is uncontroverted. Great American, 391 S.W.2d at 47. If such uncontroverted evidence is from an interested witness, it cannot be considered as doing more than raising a fact issue, unless it is clear, direct, positive and free from inconsistencies and contradictions. Id. The summary judgment will be affirmed only if the record establishes that the movant has conclusively proved all essential elements of his cause of action or defense as a matter of law. City of Houston, 589 S.W.2d at 678.

The applicable portion of section 26.01 of the Business and Commerce Code provides:

(a) A promise or agreement described in Subsection (b) of this section is not enforceable unless the promise or agreement, or a memorandum of it, is
(1) in writing; and
(2) signed by the person to be charged with the promise or agreement or by someone lawfully authorized to sign for him.
(b) Subsection (a) of this section applies to:
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(2) a promise by one person to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another person....

TEX.BUS. & COM.CODE ANN. sec. 26.-01(a) (Vernon 1968) & sec. 26.01(b)(2) (Vernon Pamph.Supp.1986).

A guaranty agreement falls under section 26.01(b)(2) and appellants argue, citing as authority Cohen v. McCutchin, 565 S.W.2d 230 (Tex.1978), that the guaranty agreement signed by them is void as it is not “a written memorandum which is complete within itself in every material detail, and which contains all of the essential elements of the agreement,” as required by the Statute of Frauds. Id. at 232.

The guaranty agreement is written and signed by the parties to be charged, Jenny and Poston, which is all that section 26.01 specifically requires. However, in Cohen the court said the instrument must be complete as to all material elements. Id. We hold that the name of the principal obligor is a material element of the guaranty agreement. We have found no cases specifically supporting this conclusion; however, a review of Statute of Fraud cases leads us to the conclusion that the specific obligation of the party sought to be held liable is an essential element. Appellants signed an agreement to be bound as guarantors of the debt of someone to Master Shield. The extent of that undertaking needs to be identified.

Further, we have failed to find any Statute of Frauds case in which a “material element” of the contract was omitted. However, the case of Smith v. Jones,

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717 S.W.2d 455, 1986 Tex. App. LEXIS 8811, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metro-siding-distributors-inc-v-master-shield-inc-texapp-1986.