Parker Plaza West, Ltd. v. Boniuk Investments, Ltd.

153 S.W.3d 729, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 474, 2005 WL 130139
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 24, 2005
Docket05-04-00049-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 153 S.W.3d 729 (Parker Plaza West, Ltd. v. Boniuk Investments, Ltd.) 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
Parker Plaza West, Ltd. v. Boniuk Investments, Ltd., 153 S.W.3d 729, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 474, 2005 WL 130139 (Tex. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

OPINION

Opinion by

Justice MORRIS.

In this commercial lease dispute, Parker Plaza West, Ltd. appeals-from the trial court’s judgment in favor of Boniuk Investments, Ltd. In twelve issues, appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court’s judgment, claims certain evidence was improperly admitted, and contends the trial court erred in denying its counterclaim. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

Appellant owns a retail shopping center in Plano, Texas. Pursuant to a master lease agreement, appellee leases about thirty-five percent of the shopping center, which it then sublets to other tenants. From the time appellee acquired its leasehold interest in the shopping center until January of 2000, Ross Stores occupied the majority of appellee’s portion of the shopping center. Ross had always performed its own roof maintenance. After Ross vacated the premises, two of appellee’s representatives, Benjamin Hershorn and David Boniuk, inspected the property. At *732 trial, both men testified their inspection revealed the roof was in disrepair. Appel-lee solicited several bids for the needed repairs. Appellee hired the lowest bidder, Mid States Roofing, Ltd., to perform repairs and replace the roof. After Mid States began work on the roof, however, appellee discovered the master lease required appellant to maintain and repair the roof. Appellee immediately notified Mid States to stop work. Because Mid States had already started to reróof about 20 to 25 percent of the roof, appellee also instructed Mid States to remove the new roof and replace it with the type of roofing material formerly on the roof. Appellee then wrote a letter to appellant notifying them of the situation.

About one month after appellee sent its original letter to appellant (and after additional letters had been exchanged between the parties), appellee received a letter from appellant’s attorney demanding ap-pellee complete the roof replacement at appellee’s expense. Appellee instructed Mid States to complete the roof replacement. Appellee then filed this lawsuit for breach of contract seeking to recover the costs of the roof replacement and the return of certain overcharges on its portion of common area maintenance fees. Appellant filed a counterclaim seeking termination of the lease agreement. After a trial before the court, the trial court rendered judgment in favor of appellee for $78,804.05 plus interest and rendered a take-nothing judgment on appellant’s counterclaim. This appeal followed.

In its first seven issues and issue twelve, appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court’s findings of fact. We review the evidentia-ry sufficiency of the trial court’s fact findings under the same standards that are applied in reviewing evidence supporting a jury verdict. See Catalina v. Blasdel, 881 S.W.2d 295, 297 (Tex.1994). An appellant attacking the legal sufficiency of an adverse finding on an issue on which it did not have the burden of proof must demonstrate on appeal that there is no evidence to support the adverse finding. See Croucher v. Croucher, 660 S.W.2d 55, 58 (Tex.1983). In evaluating a no evidence challenge, we consider only the evidence and inferences tending to support the finding and disregard all contrary evidence and inferences. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals v. Havner, 953 S.W.2d 706, 711 (Tex.1997). If there is more than a scintilla of evidence to support the finding, we will not reverse the trial court’s judgment. Id. When reviewing a finding for factual sufficiency, however, we consider all of the evidence and will set aside the finding only if it is so contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust. Cain v. Bain, 709 S.W.2d 175, 176 (Tex.1986) (per curiam).

Citing the lease provision requiring the landlord to make all repairs and alterations “which may be necessary to maintain” the roof, appellant first argues the evidence was legally and factually insufficient to establish the roof was damaged and needed to be replaced. Specifically, appellant complains that the lack of expert testimony on this issue is fatal to appel-lee’s claim.

Although expert testimony may have been helpful to the trial court, appellant has not cited a single case, and we have not found one, that would require such testimony. And given the testimony at trial about the roof, we cannot conclude expert testimony about the roofs condition was necessary in this case. Boniuk and Hershorn testified that their inspection of the premises revealed the roof was in serious disrepair and leaking in several areas as evidenced by fallen insulation and ceiling tiles and water stains on the carpet, *733 floor, and down the interior back wall. Boniuk further testified the roof consisted of a single ply, rubberized material known as an EPDM roof that was laid over some recovery board, which, in turn, was laid over a very old, built up tar and gravel roof. Boniuk’s inspection of the roof revealed that there were holes in the roofing and it was all pulled up, torn up, and wrinkled in a lot of areas. Moreover, Hershorn testified that appellee hired a consultant who reported the roof was in poor condition and at the end of its life. Appellant offered no evidence with respect to whether replacement was necessary. According to Boniuk, even after Mid States removed the portion of the new roof it had installed and replaced it with EPDM roofing material, the rest of the roof still leaked. Based upon our review of the record, the evidence was legally and factually sufficient to support the trial court’s finding that the roof was damaged and needed to be replaced.

Appellant next asserts there was no evidence or insufficient evidence that the roof replacement was necessitated by a cause within its responsibility. 1 The evidence at trial revealed Ross maintained the roof while it occupied the premises. There was no indication, however, that the poor condition of the roof was the result of repairs or misinstallation performed by Ross. Instead, Hershorn testified that the roof was old and that a consultant had indicated the roof was at the end of its life. Appellant offered no evidence with respect to the cause of the roofs disrepair and leaks. We conclude the evidence was legally and factually sufficient to support the trial court’s finding that the condition of the roof was the result of normal wear and tear and not the result of any repairs, alterations, or other improvements or installations made by appellee, its subtenants or their agents.

Finally, appellant complains that appellee’s failure to provide notice before beginning work on the roof precludes its claim for reimbursement. As legal support for its argument, appellant cites a single case for the general proposition that a contracting party who is in default cannot sue for breach of that contract. See Dobbins v. Redden, 785 S.W.2d 377, 378 (Tex.1990).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 S.W.3d 729, 2005 Tex. App. LEXIS 474, 2005 WL 130139, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parker-plaza-west-ltd-v-boniuk-investments-ltd-texapp-2005.