O'Brien v. McDow

8 S.W.2d 561, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 703
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 26, 1928
DocketNo. 1672.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 8 S.W.2d 561 (O'Brien v. McDow) 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
O'Brien v. McDow, 8 S.W.2d 561, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 703 (Tex. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

WALKER, J.

This suit was instituted by appellee against B. M. O’Brien, now deceased, to recover damages for breach of contract. Appellee alleged that B. M. O’Brien sold him, f. o. b. Devers, Tex., 500 head of cattle at $20 per head, to be delivered on or about the 1st day of June, 1926; that the cattle were of the reasonable market value at that time and place of $30 per head; that O’Brien wrongfully breached the contract by refusing to deliver the cattle, to appellee’s damage $5,000. On a trial to a jury, the issues were submitted by the following questions, answered as indicated:

“Question No. 1: Did the defendant, B. M. O’Brien, on or about May 11, 1926, agree to sell to the plaintiff, A. M. McDow, the entire stock of cattle branded O-bar, .made thus, -0-, and to deliver same at Devers, Texas, on June 1, 1926, for the price of $20 per head, and did said McDow, on or about May 11, 1926, agree to buy from said O’Brien said stock of cattle, and to pay him $20 per head therefor on delivery of same at Devers, Texas, on June 1, 1926 ? (Answer yes or no.)”
The jury answered this question: “Yes.”
“Question No. 2: Was the plaintiff, A. M. McDow, on June 1, 1926, ready, willing, and able to pay to the defendant, B. M. O’Brien, the sum of $20 per head for said stock of cattle? (Answer yes or no.)”
The jury answered this question: “Yes.”
“Question No. 3: How many head of cattle did said entire stock of cattle include and consist of,' counting all calves born up to and including the 31st day of May, 1926?”
In answer to this question the jury- found that the stock of cattle in question consisted of 500 head.
“Question No. 4: What was the market value of said stock of cattle, per head, at Devers, Texas, on June 1, 1926?”

In answer to this question, the jury found that the market value thereof per head at Devers, on June 1, 1926, was $27.

On defendant’s request, the court submitted an additional question, designated as “Special Issue No. 1 Requested by Defendant,” reading:

“If you find that the defendant, B. M. O’Brien, offered to sell the cattle in question to the plaintiff, A.. M. McDow, did the said defendant, B. M. O’Brien, withdraw, call off and can- *563 cel such offer to sell before the plaintiff, A. M. MeDow, agreed to purchase? (Answer yes or no.)”
The jury answered this question: “No.”

After the rendition of the verdict, but' be? fore judgment, B. M. O’Brien died, and his surviving wife, as temporary administratrix, was made a party, and judgment being against her in that capacity for $2,700, with interest at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum from the 1st day of June, 1926, she has duly perfected her appeal.

Nome of the findings of the jury are attacked, except the answer to question No. 4. An assignment is presented against the form of question No. 1. Without discussing the testimony in detail, the answer to question No. 4 is fully sustained. The evidence of ap-pellee’s witnesses clearly supported the finding. The testimony of O’Brien himself was that, after his failure to deliver the cattle to appellee, he sold his herd for $10,000, believing that he had only 400 head. On O’Brien’s testimony, the cattle actually sold, on his estimate of the number of cattle, at $25 per head. One of appellant’s witnesses, in testifying as to the value of the different classes of cattle involved, put a total value of the 500 head at $12,660, which is more than $25 per head. Speaking of the jury, appellant admitted in her brief :

“It does not appear that the jury was biased or prejudiced, or that it acted on any improper motive in arriving at its verdict. No misconduct can be attributed to it.”

On the statement made, the finding in answer to question No. 4 must be sustained.

Appellant attacks the form of question No. 1 by her eighth proposition, as follows :

“Since the first special issue assumed that the alleged agreement of O’Brien and the alleged agreement of MeDow were mutual — that is, that such agreements were concurrent as to time — such special issue was erroneous, and should not have been submitted to the jury.”

The evidence was that O’Brien’s offer to sell was made to appellee on May 11, 1926, and during their meeting on that date the sale was consummated. Appellant concedes that O’Brien offered to sell his cattle to ap-pellee on the terms pleaded, but insists that the offer was retracted before appellee accepted it. As we understand her criticism of this issue, it is that the jury was deprived of the opportunity to pass on the issue of withdrawal. Question No. 1 is not open to the criticism urged; but, if it were, the objection was obviated by appellant’s special requested issue No. 1, which directly and affirmatively carried the issue of withdrawal to the jury, and which the jury answered against her contention. We do not discuss this proposition further, since appellant concedes in her discussion of her eighth proposition:

“Appellant might concede that, standing alone, this proposition, if it pointed out the only error in the trial of this case, might be insufficient upon which to base a reversal.”

Appellant’s fourth proposition is as follows:

“Since it appears that the cattle were to be delivered aboard the cars at Devers, Tex., and that they were to be transported to some other place, which transportation would necessarily entail cost and expense for freight, etc., the measure of damages, if any, for the alleged breach of the contract of sale by defendant, would be the difference in the contract price and the market value at Devers, less the cost of transportation, and, since the judgment did not allow for such cost of transportation, it is fundamentally erroneous.”

This proposition is not supported by any assignment, and, as it does not present fundamental error, requires no further discussion. However, if it had been duly assigned, no error is disclosed.. The contract was f. o. b. Devers, Tex. Therefore, In giving appellee judgment for the difference between the f. o. b. contract price and the market value at Devers, appellant has suffered no injury. This is a matter of which she cannot complain.

Appellant duly excepted to the refusal of the trial court to charge on the burden of proof. On the facts of this case, considering the manner of submitting the special issues, the refusal to so charge was not error. The court instructed the jury:

“I will propound to you certain questions, which you will answer, as you may find from the evidence.”

While a charge on. the burden of proof is proper in a submission on special issues (Goree v. Uvalde National Bank [Tex. Civ. App.] 218 S. W. 620), the refusal to so charge is not reversible error,' where the issues are clearly worded and the jury is instructed to answer “from the evidence” (Blum v. Strong, 71 Tex. 324, 6 S. W. 167). Citing that ease and many other eases, it was held in Railway Co. v. Bush, etc. (Tex. Civ. App.) 136 S. W.

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Bluebook (online)
8 S.W.2d 561, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 703, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/obrien-v-mcdow-texapp-1928.