University General Hospital LP and Ascension Physician Solutions, LLC v. Prexus Health Consultants, LLC and Prexus Health, LLC

403 S.W.3d 547, 2013 WL 3312358, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 7462
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJune 20, 2013
Docket14-11-00988-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 403 S.W.3d 547 (University General Hospital LP and Ascension Physician Solutions, LLC v. Prexus Health Consultants, LLC and Prexus Health, LLC) 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
University General Hospital LP and Ascension Physician Solutions, LLC v. Prexus Health Consultants, LLC and Prexus Health, LLC, 403 S.W.3d 547, 2013 WL 3312358, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 7462 (Tex. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

SUBSTITUTE OPINION

J. BRETT BUSBY, Justice.

We issued an opinion in this case on April 2, 2013, modifying the trial court’s judgment to delete awards of lost profit damages and affirming the judgment as modified. Appellees subsequently filed a motion for rehearing. Without changing the disposition of the case, we deny the motion for rehearing, withdraw our previous opinion, and issue this substitute opinion.

Appellants University General Hospital, LP (“University General”) and Ascension Physician Solutions, LLC (“Ascension”) appeal from a judgment rendered against them following a jury trial. Concluding that there is legally insufficient evidence to support the jury’s awards of lost profit damages, we modify the trial court’s judgment to delete those awards and affirm the judgment as modified.

BACKGROUND

Appellees Prexus Health Consultants, LLC and Prexus Health, LLC (collectively “Prexus”) provide healthcare management, administrative support, and consulting services to hospitals such as University Gen *550 eral. On March 2, 2009, University General entered into a Professional Services Agreement (“PSA”) with Prexus. Pursuant to the PSA, Prexus would provide three distinct services to University General: medical transcription, medical coding, and billing. On that same day, Ascension, which was responsible for the day-today operation of University General, entered into a Consulting Services Agreement (“CSA”) with Prexus. Through the CSA, Prexus agreed to provide various consulting services related to the daily operation of University General. The term of both the PSA and the CSA was three years, with both expiring on March 2, 2012. 1

On September 8, 2009, University General and Ascension terminated both the PSA and the CSA. In December 2009, Prexus filed suit against University General, Ascension, and numerous other defendants not parties to this appeal. Prexus alleged University General had breached the PSA and Ascension had breached the CSA. Prexus sought damages for unpaid invoices for work already performed as well as damages for lost profits Prexus allegedly would have earned during the two-and-a-half years remaining under both agreements. The lawsuit went to trial before a jury on April 11, 2011.

The jury found that University General breached the PSA. The jury then determined that University General owed Prex-us $146,000 for work already performed under the PSA and that Prexus suffered $900,000 in lost profits as a result of University General’s breach. The jury also found that Ascension breached the CSA. The jury found that Ascension owed Prex-us $608,005 for work already performed pursuant to the CSA and determined that Prexus experienced $1,200,000 in lost profits as a result of Ascension’s breach. Finally, the jury determined that Prexus’s reasonable and necessary attorneys’ fees through trial were $107,000.

Contending the evidence was insufficient to support the award of lost profits under either contract, appellants moved for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The trial court denied appellants’ motion and rendered judgment in accordance with the jury’s verdict. This appeal followed.

Analysis

Appellants’ three issues on appeal challenge only the portion of the trial court’s final judgment awarding Prexus lost profits. Because it is dispositive of this appeal, we need only reach appellants’ second issue, in which appellants contend the evidence is legally insufficient to support the jury’s awards of lost profits under the PSA and the CSA.

I. Standard of review

If an appellant attacks the legal sufficiency of an adverse finding on an issue on which it did not have the burden of proof, the appellant must demonstrate on appeal that there is no evidence to support the adverse finding. Price Pfister, Inc. v. Moore & Kimmey, Inc., 48 S.W.3d 341, 347 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2001, pet. denied). In conducting a legal sufficiency review, we must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the appealed finding and indulge every reasonable inference that supports it. *551 2900 Smith, Ltd. v. Constellation NewEnergy, Inc., 301 S.W.3d 741, 745 (Tex.App.Houston [14th Dist.] 2009, no pet.) (citing City of Keller v. Wilson, 168 S.W.3d 802, 821-22 (Tex.2005)). The evidence is legally sufficient if it would enable reasonable and fair-minded people to reach the decision under review. Id. This court must credit favorable evidence if a reasonable trier of fact could, and disregard contrary evidence unless a reasonable trier of fact could not. Id. The trier of fact is the sole judge of the witnesses’ credibility and the weight to be given their testimony. Id.

This court may sustain a legal sufficiency (or no evidence) issue only if the record reveals one of the following: (1) the complete absence of evidence of a vital fact; (2) the court is barred by rules of law or evidence from giving weight to the only evidence offered to prove a vital fact; (3) the evidence offered to prove a vital fact is no more than a scintilla; or (4) the evidence established conclusively the opposite of the vital fact. Id. at 745-46. Evidence that is so weak as to do no more than create a mere surmise or suspicion that the fact exists is less than a scintilla. Kellmann v. Workstation Integrations, Inc., 332 S.W.3d 679, 684 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2010, no pet.).

II. Prexus’s awards of lost profit damages are not supported by legally sufficient evidence.

Lost profits are damages for the loss of net income to a business. Miga v. Jensen, 96 S.W.3d 207, 213 (Tex.2002). Broadly speaking, they reflect income from lost business activity, less any expenses that would have been attributable to that activity. Kellmann, 332 S.W.3d at 684. While the recovery of lost profits does not require that the loss be susceptible of exact calculation, the party seeking such damages must do more than show that it suffered some lost profits. ERI Consulting Eng’rs, Inc. v. Swinnea, 318 S.W.3d 867, 876 (Tex.2010) (quoting Holt Atherton Indus., Inc. v. Heine, 835 S.W.2d 80, 84 (Tex.1992)). The amount of the loss must be shown by competent evidence with reasonable certainty. Id.

A party seeking lost profit damages need not produce documentary evidence in court supporting an award, but any opinions or estimates of damages must be based on objective facts, figures, or data from which the amount of lost profits can be ascertained.

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403 S.W.3d 547, 2013 WL 3312358, 2013 Tex. App. LEXIS 7462, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/university-general-hospital-lp-and-ascension-physician-solutions-llc-v-texapp-2013.