Presslor v. Kandy, Inc.

611 S.W.2d 953, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3281
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 12, 1981
DocketNo. 6234
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 611 S.W.2d 953 (Presslor v. Kandy, 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
Presslor v. Kandy, Inc., 611 S.W.2d 953, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3281 (Tex. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

HALL, Justice.

Appellee Kandy, Inc. was awarded a contract for the construction in 1969 of a sewage disposal plant known as Ten Mile Creek Project in Ellis County, Texas. Kandy contracted orally with Dick Presslor d/b/a Low Cost Form & Supply Co. for concrete forming equipment needed on the project. Their agreement was that Presslor would furnish and rent to Kandy all concrete forming equipment and the equipment accessories required by Kandy on the project, and that Presslor would furnish and sell to Kandy the expendable forming equipment ties which would be needed. This lawsuit stems from that agreement.

This suit was initiated by Presslor against Kandy. He alleged that during the construction of the sewage disposal plant, at Kandy’s instance and request, he rented and sold and delivered to Kandy concrete forming equipment and accessories and ties; that Kandy thereby became bound to pay to him upon demand “so much money as said goods and merchandise were reasonably worth”; that the reasonable rental value of the forms used and returned by Kandy was $9,000.00; that the reasonable value of [955]*955forming equipment which was not returned by Kandy was $3,943.00; and that the reasonable value of the ties provided and sold to Kandy was $4,000.00. Presslor also pleaded for attorney’s fees in the amount of $5,000.00. He prayed for recovery of the sum of $16,943.00, and for the attorney’s fees.

Kandy answered with a general denial. It also filed a counterclaim alleging these facts: That in July, 1969, Kandy and Press-lor entered into an oral agreement that Presslor would furnish to Kandy on a rental basis all concrete forming equipment and its accessories required for the sewage disposal project for the sum of $15,000.00, and that Presslor would furnish and sell to Kan-dy all concrete form ties required on the project for the sum of $4,000.00; that during the course of the project some of the forms furnished by Presslor were determined by the owner of the sewage disposal plant to be of poor quality and condition, and the owner rejected these forms and prohibited their use by Kandy; that when this matter was brought to Presslor’s attention by Kandy, Presslor explained that he did not have forms in sufficient quantity to comply with the project, and he requested Kandy to rent the additional forms needed from Symons Manufacturing Company and to “back-charge” the cost of this additional rental from Symons “against the amount agreed to be paid” by Kandy to Presslor under their original contract; that thereafter, in accordance with Presslor’s request, Kandy rented the necessary forms for completion of the project from Symons; that the total cost of the reasonable rental of the additional forms paid by Kandy to Symons was $27,735.46, “which sum is $8,735.46 more than the total amount agreed to be paid by the cross-plaintiff to the said Richard Presslor under their original agreement”; and, therefore, that no sum was due to Presslor under the original contract, but Kandy was entitled to recover $8,735.46 from Presslor. Kandy prayed for recovery of that amount.

Presslor died before trial, and his widow, Sarah Presslor, Independent Executrix of his estate, was substituted as plaintiff.

The case was tried to a jury in February, 1980. Answering special issues numbered as follows, the jury made these findings:

1. Presslor and Kandy entered into an agreement that Presslor would rent to Kandy the concrete forms and accessories to be used on the sewage disposal plant project, for which Kandy agreed to pay the sum of $15,000.00.
2. Presslor and Kandy agreed that Presslor would sell Kandy the form ties to be used on the project, for which Kandy agreed to pay the sum of $4,000.00.
3. The reasonable rental value of the forms and accessories furnished by Presslor was $15,000.00.
4. The reasonable cash market value of the form ties furnished by Presslor was $4,000.00.
5. Kandy failed to return some of the rented forms and accessories to Presslor.
6. The reasonable cash market value of the forms and accessories not returned by Kandy was “zero.”
7. The reasonable attorney’s fees incurred by Mrs. Presslor in the trial of this case was $5,000.00.
8. Presslor contracted with Kandy to furnish all forms and accessories required for the project for $15,000.00.
9. “Some of the forms” furnished by Presslor were not approved by the [owner’s] Engineers as not complying with the specifications of the contract.
10. Presslor attempted to rent the additional forms to meet the specification requirements from Symons Manufacturing Co. to furnish to Kandy for the project.
11. Symons refused to rent the forms to Presslor because his credit reputation would not justify it.
12. Symons agreed to supply the additional needed forms if Kandy would pay Symons directly each month for the forms supplied.
[956]*95613. The fair rental value of the forms furnished by Symons to Kandy for the project was $18,700.00.

Plaintiff (Mrs. Presslor) filed a post-verdict motion for judgment. In it she asserted that under the verdict she was entitled to judgment for the amounts set forth in her pleadings for forming equipment rentals ($9,000.00), for sale of ties ($4,000.00), and for attorney’s fees ($5,000.00), but that Kandy was not entitled to any recovery or offset under the verdict because Kandy had not requested special issues nor secured findings upon the questions of (a) breach of the original contract by Presslor, and (b) the existence or not of the second back-charge agreement which was disputed in the evidence. Plaintiff attached a form judgment to the motion which would have decreed that plaintiff recover $13,000.00 damages and $5,000.00 attorney’s fees, and that Kandy take nothing.

Kandy also filed a motion for judgment in which it requested simply that the court “enter judgment in favor of the defendant on the findings of the jury on the special issues submitted to it.”

The trial court rendered judgment that plaintiff “take nothing by her action” and that Kandy recover $5,700.00 from plaintiff. The costs of the trial were assessed against plaintiff. The judgment recited that the court had considered the verdict and the parties’ motions for judgment.

Plaintiff brought this appeal on two points of error. Under her first point, she asserts the court erred in overruling her motion for judgment. We overrule this contention.

Rule 279, Vernon’s Tex.Rules Civ.Proc., provides in part that where a ground of recovery or of defense consists of more than one issue, if one or more of the issues necessary to sustain such ground of recovery or of defense, and necessarily referable thereto, are submitted to and answered by the jury, and one or more of such issues are omitted without objection by the opposing party, and there is evidence to support a finding thereon, “such omitted issue or issues shall be deemed as found by the court in such manner as to support the judgment.”

In our case, special issues 8 and 13 submitted to the jury, and resulted in findings upon material elements of Kandy’s counterclaim.

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Bluebook (online)
611 S.W.2d 953, 1981 Tex. App. LEXIS 3281, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/presslor-v-kandy-inc-texapp-1981.