Transmission Exchange Inc. v. Long

821 S.W.2d 265, 1991 WL 218410
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 5, 1991
Docket01-90-00966-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by72 cases

This text of 821 S.W.2d 265 (Transmission Exchange Inc. v. Long) 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
Transmission Exchange Inc. v. Long, 821 S.W.2d 265, 1991 WL 218410 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinions

SAM BASS, Justice.

OPINION

Appellant appeals from a money judgment. The case was submitted to a jury on alternative theories of fraud and deceptive trade practices. Based on the jury’s answers to special issues, appellee, Long, elected his remedy against appellant, Transmission Exchange, on the jury’s findings that Transmission Exchange had defrauded him. Long elected his remedy against Don Schmidt under Tex.Bus. & Oom. Code Ann. § 17.41, et seq., on the jury’s findings that Schmidt had violated the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

We affirm.

[268]*268Appellee, Long, contacted appellant, Transmission Exchange, on May 10, 1989, seeking a price quote on a rebuilt transmission for his 1976 Cadillac. Long had seen a billboard advertisement of Transmission Exchange that advertised a price of $179.95 for a transmission exchange for. “most cars.” Appellee remembered the billboard because he had paid $285 for a previous transmission exchange with a torque converter.

Appellee claimed that appellant Schmidt quoted him a price of $326, while Schmidt testified that he told appellee the price would be $426, the “basic price” for exchange and installation of the transmission with torque converter.. Based upon his understanding that the price was $326, “all inclusive,” Long requested that Transmission Exchange take the Cadillac to its shop where its employees removed the transmission.

When the transmission was out, appellants determined that mounts were needed, at a cost of $22.50. On May 12, Long agreed to the additional charge, but, when Schmidt quoted him a total price of $487.87,1 Long became angry. Long testified that he thought he was being cheated, and instructed Schmidt to stop work immediately.2 He expressed his intention to have the car picked up the next morning, but Schmidt refused to release it. According to Long, Schmidt said he would not release the car until Long paid him “what he owed,” but did not specify an amount. Long had an attorney call Schmidt. The attorney determined that Schmidt wanted $150 to release the car. Long decided that he would not pay one dollar to get the car, and filed suit on May 19, later amending to allege actions for conversion, fraud, and knowing violations of the DTPA.

Long also obtained a temporary injunction preventing Transmission Exchange from foreclosing on any asserted mechanic’s lien and requiring that it store the Cadillac indoors, away from other vehicles or repair operations, on a clean concrete floor, and in a secure building, to prevent damage or vandalism to the car. In spite of the injunction, Long testified that the car was not properly stored and, when he reclaimed it some two and one-half months later, the paint and the plastic trim on the car had been damaged.

Appellants denied Long’s claims and responded with allegations of constructive fraud, abuse of process, and harassment. Appellants alleged that Long had failed to mitigate his damages.

In its answers to special issues, the jury found:

(1) both Schmidt and Transmission Exchange had willfully made a material misrepresentation about the price of their services to induce Long to purchase those services, and Long had relied on the misrepresentation in agreeing to the exchange of his transmission;
(2) Schmidt had knowingly violated the DTPA in certain particulars but Transmission Exchange had not;
(3) the defendants had converted Long’s car but their conduct in that regard was not malicious;
(4) Long’s actual damages were $2189;
(5) Long was entitled to punitive damages against Transmission Exchange in the amount of $30,000 and against Don Schmidt in the amount of $2,500;
(6) Long had failed to mitigate his damages;
(7) Long’s damages should be reduced by $1677 because of his failure to mitigate; and
(8) Long had not filed the suit in bad faith or for purposes of harassment. The trial court entered judgment for

Long on July 2, 1990, in the amount of $30,512.07 against appellant, Transmission Exchange, and in the amount of $9,536.21 against appellant, Don Schmidt, and awarded costs of court and attorney’s fees in the DTPA cause of action, which were stipulated by the defendants to be $8000.

[269]*269Appellants challenge the judgment in 12 points of error. Appellee responds that several of appellants’ complaints, specifically those raised in points of error five, six, nine, 10, 11, and 12, have been rendered moot by virtue of appellee’s waiver of his $9,536.21 judgment against appellant, Schmidt, and his waiver of the jury’s favorable answer on his conversion theory. Appellants contend that appellee has taken no formal steps to effect any such waiver.

Appellant has stated unequivocally in a formal document filed with this Court that he has waived the judgment against appellant Schmidt. He has not retracted this averment. Neither has he responded to appellant’s six remaining points of error challenging that judgment. Therefore, we accept appellee’s statement of waiver as true and it is binding on him. See Houston First Am. Sav. v. Musick, 650 S.W.2d 764, 767 (Tex.1983); Galvan v. Public Util. Bd., 778 S.W.2d 580, 583 (Tex.App.—Corpus Christi 1989, no writ). Under these circumstances, we find it unnecessary to address appellant’s points of error five, six, nine, 10,11, and 12 which concern the conversion finding, and the judgment rendered against Schmidt.

In its first three points of error, Transmission Exchange claims that the fraud findings and the punitive damages awarded against Transmission Exchange are not supported by the evidence. We consider this complaint along with the complaint raised in appellants’ eighth point of error, that Long’s pleadings do not support a judgment for fraud.

The judgment shall conform to the pleadings, the nature of the case proved, and the verdict, and shall be so framed as to give the party all the relief to which he may be entitled either in law or equity. Tex.R.Civ.P. 301. A petition is sufficient if it gives fair notice of the facts upon which the pleader bases his claim so that the opposing party may adequately prepare his defense. Roark v. Allen, 633 S.W.2d 804, 809-10 (Tex.1982); Stone v. Lawyers Title Ins. Corp, 554 S.W.2d 183, 186 (Tex.1977). Pleadings are to be construed so as to do substantial justice. Tex. R.Civ.P. 45, 47.

Plaintiff went to trial on his third amended petition that sets out facts involving the alleged misrepresentation of the price of its services by Transmission Exchange. Those facts, if proven, would constitute fraudulent conduct. Contained in paragraph XI of plaintiff’s third amended petition, is the statement, “Plaintiff seeks to recover all damages caused as a ... result of defendants’ wrongful conduct including ... fraud.” The prayer in the petition also requests that “plaintiff have and recover judgment from defendants for all damages caused as a ... result of defendants’ wrongful conduct including ...

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821 S.W.2d 265, 1991 WL 218410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/transmission-exchange-inc-v-long-texapp-1991.