Rouser v. Wright

205 S.W. 849, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 806
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided May 31, 1918·No. No. 7587.·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

GRAVES, J.

Appellees Wright & Hearne, who had been bondsmen for tbe contractors Crawford & Hogue, on a contract tbe latter made with appellant, Mrs. Rouser, for the erection of a brick building under tbe supervision of ber architect, Watson, at George^ town, Tex., sued all the others named to recover amounts claimed to be due for labor and material put into the’ building both by Crawford & Hogue and themselves. They charged there was a balance due Crawford & Hogue upon the original contract price and for extras the latter had furnished before quitting the work; that Orawford & Hogue had ceased work upon the building before its entire completion, and, by mutual agreement of all parties, they as their bondsmen had taken in hand its completion, including the tearing down of the roof the contractors had put on and the building of a new one; that they thus became subrogated to the rights of the contractors as to all sums due them, and also themselves directly furnished such1 additional work and material necessary for the completion of the building. The main recovery sought was against the owner of the building, Mrs. Rouser; that against her architect and the contractors, whose sureties they had become, being contingent or incidental.

Orawford & Hogue replied by answer and a cross-bill each against Mrs. Rouser and her architect, Watson; that against her being for extra work and material alleged to have been furnished by them before ceasing work upon the building, while their claim against Watson was for one-half the expense of putting certain truss rods into th'e original roof built by .themselves. On the trial no proof was offered upon this latter claim against Watson, and it was so abandoned and lost sight of by both counsel and court that in entering the original judgment no disposition was made of it. Dikewise Mrs. Rouser, after otherwise answering, filed a cross-action against the contractors and th'e bondsmen for defective work and material claimed to have gone into the building, and in the alternative against Watson for such damages as might b.e shown to have resulted from any defects in plans and specifications furnished her by him.

The cause having been submitted to, and findings returned by, a jury, judgment was rendered tbereon in favor of Wright & Hearne for $1,665.71, and in favor of Oraw-ford & Hogue for $294.26, respectively, against Mrs. Rouser, and in her favor against the architect, A. O. Watson, for $1,561.98; but, as already stated, by oversight and mutual mistake of all parties, including the court, no disposition was made in the judgment of the cross-action pleaded by Crawford & Hogue against Watson, upon which they had offered no proof.

Mrs. Rouser alone appealed from the judgment originally entered, but th'e Court of Civil Appeals at El Paso dismissed her appeal, on the ground that no final judgment below had been rendered because of tbe trial court’s failure to dispose of this cross-action of the contractors against the architects. Subsequently, and at a different term, upon a hearing - had on the motion of appellees Wright & Hearne, at which all the parties in interest, including Mrs. Rouser, appeared for trial, she having specially answered the motion upon the facts, the trial court entered a corrected and final judgment in the cause, disposing of the cross-action of Orawford & Hogue against Watson, but in no other re *850 spect changing or amending it, thus leaving the original recoveries against Mrs. Rouser unaffected. Of that judgment, as so finally-entered, she alone complains through her appeal now before this court, having named all the other parties to the suit as appellees.

Considering, first, the.question raised as to the right of the trial court to so amend and thereby make final its judgment at a later term, we are not prepared to hold that authority wanting, under the conditions here shown. It is not contended that the correction or amendment made failed to reflect the true state of the record, or that it determined any issue not litigated at the original trial, but simply that the court was without power to enter it at a subsequent term.

In Young v. Pfeiffer, 30 S. W. 94, it is said:

“The judgment originally entered failed to dispose of the case as to one of the defendants, and therefore no appeal could be taken from it. The court clearly had power at a later term to enter a judgment that disposed of all the parties, which was done, and from the judgment so rendered the appeal was properly taken. Johnson v. Smith, 14 Tex. 412.”

[1] We can see no difference in principle between that case and this. There the failure was to dispose of one of the parties, here one of the issues. Moreover, this record shows without dispute that such issue had in fact been eliminated by its abandonment, and, through mutual mistake of court and counsel for both sides, the mere recitation of that established fact had been omitted from the entry of the judgment as originally made. Under that view of what was actually done in this instance, the assignments attacking the court’s action are overruled. See, also, Thompson v. Field, 164 S. W, 1115; Coleman v. Zapp, 105 Tex. 491, 151 S. W. 1040.

Through appellant’s first assignment complaint is made of the overruling of her general demurrer to the trial petition of appel-lees Wright & Hearne; but, after an examination of the pleadings, we conclude there were at least two respects in which they alleged a cause of action: First, that there was a balance properly due them under their relation to the original contract upon the agreed cost therein fixed for the building; second, that after they, Wright & Hearne, came into the matter, a new agreement entirely had been finally made by all parties interested, under which they were to tear down the old roof, construct another one, and complete the building in other details, upon such arrangement as to the extra cost over the original contract price as might be arranged between them and appellant’s architect, Watson; that accordingly they did in fact take down the first roof, build a new one, and otherwise do further work upon the building, at the extra cost and of the reasonable value of $1,566.98 over the sum named in the original contract, which was all done under the architect’s direction, not . only at the instance and with the full knowledge and approval of Mrs. Rouser and her named architect, Watson, but, after being so done, was received and accepted by both. These allegations having stated a cause of action, it was not error to overrule the general demurrer.

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Rouser v. Wright, 205 S.W. 849, 1918 Tex. App. LEXIS 806 (Tex. Ct. App. 1918).

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