Schell v. Centex Materials Company

450 S.W.2d 673, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2389
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 21, 1970
Docket11725
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 450 S.W.2d 673 (Schell v. Centex Materials Company) 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
Schell v. Centex Materials Company, 450 S.W.2d 673, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2389 (Tex. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinions

HUGHES, Justice.

We, on our own motion, have concluded that a single final judgment has not been rendered by the trial court, absent which we are without jurisdiction. Rule 301, T.R.C.P., Art. 2249, V.T.C.S. Thomas v. Shult, 436 S.W.2d 194, Tex.Civ.App., Houston (1st) no writ (1968).

Appellant, C. J. Schell, sued Travis Materials Company, a division of Centex Materials Company, Inc. and Centex for damages for breach of contract. Centex answered and filed a cross action against appellant.1 Centex also filed a motion for summary judgment as to appellant’s suit against it. This summary judgment was entered on February 4, 1969.2 The de-cretal portion of this judgment reads:

“It is therefore Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed, Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment as to any general issue of material fact relating to Plaintiff’s Original Petition is granted, and that Plaintiff take nothing in his suit against Defendant, Centex Materials, Inc., and that this cause proceed to trial upon the remaining issues set out in the Counterclaim of Defendant, Centex Materials, Inc., and in the General Denial and Answer to Counterclaim of Plaintiff, C. J. Schell.”

In Nichols v. Omega Amusement Company, 391 S.W.2d 754, Tex.Civ.App., Dallas, no writ (1965) and York Corporation v. Security Savings and Loan Association, Dickinson, Texas, 391 S.W.2d 830, Tex.Civ.App., Houston, no writ (1965) it was held that a summary judgment for a plaintiff was not a final appealable judgment where pending cross actions were not disposed of and there was no severance. These cases were before the Supreme Court opinion in North East Independent School District v. Aldridge, 400 S.W.2d 893, where the Court made a radical departure from the existing law regarding the finality of judgments for appeal purposes.

In that case the District sued Aldridge for damages and Aldridge brought in his alleged principal and prayed for judgment over against him. The trial court [675]*675granted plaintiff a summary judgment against Aldridge establishing his liability and directed that “this cause proceed to trial upon the sole remaining issue of the amount of damages to which the plaintiff is entitled.” Upon the amount of damages being ascertained, the trial court rendered judgment against Aldridge and made no mention of the cross claim. The Supreme Court held this to be a final, appealable judgment and promulgated a new rule for determining this issue, which is :

“Analysis of the decisions we have discussed is sufficient to lead us to the statement of a rule for determining, in most instances, whether judgments in which parties and issues made by the pleadings are not disposed of in express language are, nevertheless, final for appeal purposes. When a judgment, not intrinsically interlocutory in character, is rendered and entered in a case regularly set for a conventional trial on the merits, no order for a separate trial of issues having been entered pursuant to Rule 174, Texas Rules of Civil Procedure, it will be presumed for appeal purposes that the Court intended to, and did, dispose of all parties legally before it and of all issues made by the pleadings between such parties. A claim duly severed under Rule 41 is a ‘case’ within the meaning of the foregoing rule. The rule will be subject to the exception created by Davis v. McCray Refrigerator Sales Corporation; [136 Tex. 296, 150 S.W.2d 377] but it will apply to separate claims of the plaintiff, cross-actions and counterclaims by defendants against the plaintiff, cross-actions by defendants against other defendants and cross-actions by defendants against third-party defendants.”

The Court went on to say:

“The rule announced disposes of the question to be decided in this case unless the statement contained in the court’s summary judgment is regarded as an order for a separate trial of the issue of damages. As heretofore noted, that judgment decreed that Aldridge was personally liable to School District for damages caused by breach of the contract, and then directed that ‘this cause proceed to trial upon the sole remaining issue of the amount of the damages to which the plaintiff is entitled.’ We are not disposed to regard the quoted order as one entered under Rule 174 for trial of the separate issue of the amount of damages. The order speaks of the ‘cause’ proceeding to trial of a particular issue; it does not speak of a separate trial of an issue as a preliminary matter or as independent of final trial of the cause. It indicates that at that stage of the proceedings the court overlooked the fact that under the pleadings there were other issues and parties to be disposed of when the case was reached for trial on the October, 1964, jury docket.
Under the rule announced, the presumption is that the judgment entered on October 7, 1964, disposed of Al-dridge’s cross-action against King-O-Hills Development Company; and in the absence of a contrary showing in the record, we hold that the judgment entered on that date was a final judgment.”

While the language used by the trial court in the above case when it provided for the cause to proceed to trial upon the issue of damages is very similar to the language used by the trial court in this case when it ordered that “this cause proceed to trial upon the remaining issues” set out in the counterclaim of the defendant, we are of the opinion that judgment provided for a separate trial of the cross action under Rule 174, T.R.C.P., and that such judgment was not a final appealable judgment, for if it was, this appeal is not timely as will be shown.

On October 28, 1968, Schell filed a motion for a new trial from the order or judgment of October 17, 1968, granting the motion of Centex for a summary judgment. This motion for a new trial was [676]*676not acted upon. On the same day Schell filed a notice of appeal from the judgment rendered on October 17, 1968.

On May 19, 1969, the trial court rendered a judgment on the cross action of Centex pursuant to an agreement of the parties. We quote from that judgment, the portion which is pertinent here:

“On this the 19th day of May, 1969, at a regular term of this Court, this cause came on for trial, and came plaintiff, C. J. Schell, by his attorneys of record, and also came defendant, Centex Materials, Inc., by its attorneys of record, and all parties having announced ready for trial on the Counterclaim of defendant, Centex Materials, Inc., and the General Denial and Answer to Counterclaim of plaintiff, C. J. Schell, and a jury being waived, all remaining matters of fact and of law were submitted to the Court, the Court having entered judgment on the 17th day of October, 1968, that plaintiff, take nothing in his suit against defendant based on Plaintiff’s Original Petition.”

On May 23, 1969, Schell filed a motion for new trial and notice of appeal, which we quote:

“The Court having entered judgment on the 9th day of May, 1969, that defendant, Centex Materials, Inc., recover from the plaintiff, C.

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Related

Webb v. Jorns
473 S.W.2d 328 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1971)
Schell v. Centex Materials Company
450 S.W.2d 673 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1970)

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Bluebook (online)
450 S.W.2d 673, 1970 Tex. App. LEXIS 2389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schell-v-centex-materials-company-texapp-1970.