Volunteer State Life Ins. Co. v. Snipes

209 S.W.2d 935, 1948 Tex. App. LEXIS 1102
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 17, 1948
DocketNo. 11811.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 209 S.W.2d 935 (Volunteer State Life Ins. Co. v. Snipes) 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
Volunteer State Life Ins. Co. v. Snipes, 209 S.W.2d 935, 1948 Tex. App. LEXIS 1102 (Tex. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

MURRAY, Justice.

This suit was instituted by Volunteer State Life Insurance Company against Roy A. Snipes, Jr., seeking to recover the sum of $611.57, as a balance due it, growing out of an agency contract.

At a non-jury trial judgment was rendered against plaintiff on the theory that its account was barred by the four-year statute of limitation, art. 5527, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.Stats., from which judgment Volunteer State Life Insurance Company has prosecuted this appeal.

The trial judge, upon request of appellant, made and filed the following findings of fact:

“1. That on September 10, 1940, plaintiff and defendant in writing entered into an agent’s agreement, effective September 9, 1940, wherein plaintiff agreed to pay defendant certain commissions for procuring insurance. That said agreement provides that either party thereto may terminate the same by giving the other party fifteen days’ notice in writing tO' that effect, and that in serving such notice upon the agent, the personal delivery or the posting of a letter containing such notice addressed to the agent at his usual or last known postoffice address shall be deemed sufficient, and an affidavit of the mailing or personal delivery of such notice by the person mailing or delivering the same shall be competent and conclusive evidence of such mailing or delivery, and in the event the notice is sent by mail the fifteen days shall begin to run *936 from the date when the notice is deposited in the- United States mails;
“2. -That upon the date of said agent’s agreement, and as a part thereof, another and supplemental agreement was entered into by plaintiff and defendant, also effective September 9, 1940, wherein plaintiff agreed to advance to defendant the sum of $140.60 monthly in lieu of the manner of payment of commissions provided in the above mentioned agent’s agreement. That said supplemental agreement provides that the same shall automatically terminate upon notice of termination of the said agent’s agreement.
“3. That said supplemental agreement provides that such advance shall continue for a period of six months, and if at the end of that time defendant shall have paid for a minimum of $40,000.00 of statistical paid business the same advance shall continue for another three months, at the end of which time if defendant has paid for a total of $70,000.00 of statistical paid business at the end of the total nine months’ period the advance shall continue for the balance of the contract year. That said supplemental agreement provides that same ■shall automatically terminate at the end of the contract year, to-wit, on September 9, 1941, and shall be replaced by another agreement mutually agreeable to both parties, which will be drawn at that time. The •said supplemental agreement expired on September 9, 1941, and no other agreement was entered into by plaintiff and defendant after the termination of said supplemental agreement.
“4. That plaintiff made such advancements to defendant between the effective date of said supplemental. agreement, to-wit, Sptember 9, 1940, and January 9, 1941, and in the sum of $630.00.
“5. That at the end of the six months’ period provided in said supplemental agreement, to-wit, on March 9, 1941, defendant had not paid for a minimum of $40,000.00 -of statistical paid business.”

The trial judge was further requested to make the following additional findings of fact;

“1. That there was no personal delivery by the defendant, Roy A. Snipes, Jr., of any notice of termination of the agent’s agreement to Mr. J. Wiley King, plaintiff’s manager in San Antonio, Texas.
“2. That the agent’s agreement was not terminated by the defendant, Roy A. Snipes, Jr., on or about May 1st, 1941.
“3. That the agent’s agreement was terminated February 18th, 1944.” which were refused.

The court’s refusal to make these findings of fact is assigned as error.

The trial court concluded, as a matter of law, “that at the time of the filing of this suit, on August 1, 1946, same was barred by the four-year statute of limitation * * ” Following this conclusion of law the court gives his reasons therefor, which show that the court reached such conclusion as a matter of construction of the contract entered into, or if mistaken in this then that the sums sued for had become due from and after the date upon which the appellant’s manager wrote the letter of August 12 (Aug. 5), 1941, to the appel-lee. ■ The court having arriv'ed at these conclusions, he undoubtedly regarded the requested findings as immaterial.

We cannot agree with the trial court’s interpretation of the written contract. The original contract was to run for an indefinite time and could be terminated by either party, giving written notice of such intention in the manner provided for in the contract. This contract further provided, in effect, that no indebtedness of the agent to the company was to become due and payable, until the agreement was terminated.

The supplemental agreement' referred to the original agreement and provided that the supplemental agreement should be a part of the original agreement and, therefore, these two instruments must be construed together. Veal v. Thomason, 138 Tex. 341, 159 S.W.2d 472. The supplemental agreement has no provision as to when advances made by the company were to be repaid to the company and, therefore, we are relegated to the main agreement to determine this matter. Thus we determine that such advancements would become due and payable when the agency agreement was terminated in the *937 manner provided therefor in that agreement.

It is true, that the supplemental agreement provides that unless the agent produces a minimum of $40,000.00 of “Statistical Paid” business during the first six months the agreement to advance $140.00 per month should terminate, but it does not provide that the agent at that time shall repay the amounts advanced, but leaves this matter to be determined by the provisions of the main agreement of which the supplement was a part. Likewise, the entire agreement to advance $140.00 per month to the agent was to terminate in any event in one year, but here also there was no provision as to when advancements were to be repaid.

When these two instruments are construed together and from their four corners, there can be no question as to when advancements and other indebtedness of the agent to the, company became due and payable. Paragraph 23 of the main contract takes care of this matter: “23. Upon termination of this agreement, any indebtedness of the Agent to the Company shall immediately become due and payable.”

This brings us to a consideration of whether or not the contract was terminated by the letter from the Manager of the Company to Snipes, dated August 5, 1941 (referred to in the trial court’s findings as August 12, 1941).

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Bluebook (online)
209 S.W.2d 935, 1948 Tex. App. LEXIS 1102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/volunteer-state-life-ins-co-v-snipes-texapp-1948.