Wilson v. Snead Site Preparation, Inc.

770 S.W.2d 840, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 411, 1989 WL 54923
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 3, 1989
DocketB14-88-00164-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 770 S.W.2d 840 (Wilson v. Snead Site Preparation, Inc.) 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
Wilson v. Snead Site Preparation, Inc., 770 S.W.2d 840, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 411, 1989 WL 54923 (Tex. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

OPINION

SEARS, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment in a suit on a sworn account. We affirm.

Appellee, Snead Site Preparation, Inc. (hereafter Snead), entered into a contract with Mr. Ray F. Wilson, owner of Five Eleven Home Repair, Inc. (hereafter Five Eleven), whereby Snead agreed to do earth moving work on a project Mr. Wilson had with the Texas Highway Department. The total bill for the work was $14,068.61. Mr. Wilson made partial payment of $5400.00 for the work on February 13, 1984, leaving a balance of $8668.61 unpaid.

On March 22, 1985, Snead filed a sworn petition under Rule 185 to recover this remaining balance. Appellants answered alleging that the earth moving work had been performed improperly, that the earth was placed at the wrong location, and that Snead charged Appellant an hourly rate rather than the agreed charge for moving the dirt by a cubic yard rate. Appellants counterclaimed for $53,350.00 for damages resulting from the improperly performed work. The jury awarded Snead $8668.61 plus interest, costs and attorney’s fees and found against Appellants on their counterclaim.

Appellants assert five points of error on appeal. In their second point of error, Appellants contend the trial court erred in denying Appellants’ Motion for Misjoinder.

Both Ray Wilson and Five Eleven Home Repair, Inc. were named as defendants in Appellee’s Original Petition. The petition alleged that Ray Wilson acted in his individual capacity and failed to reveal to Ap-pellee that he was acting as an agent for Five Eleven Home Repair, Inc., when he contracted for the services. The Appellee further alleged that the corporation, Five Eleven Home Repair, Inc., was the alter ego of Mr. Wilson.

Appellants responded to these allegations in their Original Answer as follows:

V
Referencing the allegations embodied in Paragraph Four of Plaintiff’s Petition in effect that Five Eleven is a sham is false and reflects Plaintiff’s disregard for truth and honesty.
VI
Referencing the allegations in Paragraph Five that Ray F. Wilson in effect acted as undisclosed agent for Defendant Corporation, your Defendant would show the Honorable Court and Jury that Plaintiff’s misrepresentations are asserted to establish through fraud and misrepresentation joint and several liability against Defendant Ray F. Wilson.

*842 Subsequently, Appellants filed a verified Defendants’ Special Exceptions which reads in pertinent part:

That inasmuch as said Five Eleven Home Repair, Inc. is not the alter ego of said Ray F. Wilson, thus he is not a proper party and for said reason request dismissal of any cause of action against said Ray F. Wilson.

If a defendant seeks to establish as an affirmative defense that he is not liable in the capacity in which he was sued, he must file a pleading, verified by affidavit, setting up such defense. Tex.R.Civ.P. 93.

We find that both Appellants’ Original Answer and the Defendants’ Special Exceptions simply denied the allegations in Appellee’s petition. This is insufficient to raise an affirmative defense as to Mr. Wilson’s individual liability. Butler v. Joseph’s Wine Shop, Inc., 633 S.W.2d 926, 929-30 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 1982, writ ref’d n.r.e.). Appellants’ pleadings fail to specifically raise the affirmative defense that Mr. Wilson is not liable in the capacity in which he was sued. Further, there is no showing in the record that Defendants’ Special Exceptions were ever brought to the trial court’s attention or ruled upon. Special exceptions that are not called to the trial court’s attention are waived. Dodson v. Citizens State Bank of Dalhart, 701 S.W.2d 89, 95 (Tex.App.-Amarillo 1986, writ ref’d n.r.e.).

Even if the issue had been properly raised, Mr. Wilson offered no proof at trial to support such an affirmative defense. He did not offer proof of a corporate charter or that he made Appellee aware that he was acting in a corporate capacity. Mr. Snead testified that he did not know that Mr. Wilson was representing a corporation. The checks by which Mr. Wilson made partial payment for the earth moving services were drawn on the account of “Five Eleven Home Repair” without any indication that it was a corporation.

We hold that Appellant Ray Wilson failed to properly raise the affirmative defense that he was not liable in the capacity in which he was sued; therefore, the trial court did not err in denying his Motion for Misjoinder. Point of error two is overruled.

Appellants’ remaining four points of error concern the exclusion of certain documents from the evidence presented at trial. In their first point of error, Appellants complain the trial court erred in granting Appellee’s Motion in Limine.

The record reveals that on February 4, 1987, Appellee filed a Request for Production, requesting that Appellants produce certain documents. Appellants filed a Motion to Protect Records, seeking payment for the cost of reproducing these documents. The trial court granted this Motion to Protect and ordered Appellee to pay in advance for reproduction costs. Appellants failed to produce the documents within the prescribed time limits for production and Appellee filed a Motion for Sanctions. On July 27, 1987, Appellants delivered several hundred documents to Appellee’s counsel. However, not all of the requests in Appellee’s Request for Production were responded to by this production. Specifically, no documents were provided in response to Request No. 6 which called for:

Any and all documents evidencing the the [sic] remedial work you allegedly had to have done in 1984 because of Snead Site Prepoaration, Inc. [sic] allegedly hauling dirt to the wrong location. Said documents include but are not limited to work orders, contracts, billing statements, lease agreements, lease contracts, invoices, cancelled checks and receipts.

Shortly before trial, Appellee filed its Motion in Limine to preclude Appellants from introducing into evidence any documents not produced pursuant to Appellee’s Request for Production. At the pre-trial hearing on the motion, the trial court did not rule on the Motion, but stated, “... if they have not produced them, then they can’t use them during the trial.” During the trial, Appellants attempted to introduce Defendant’s Exhibit No. 2, a document summarizing the cost of the remedial work. Appellee objected that Appellants were attempting to introduce a document which *843 had not been produced in response to the Request No. 6. The court ordered Mr. Wilson to locate the document, or other documents from which it was compiled, in the items he had delivered to Appellee in response to the Request for Production. Mr. Wilson was unable to locate the documents and the objection was sustained. The trial court informed Mr. Wilson that he would, however, be allowed to prove up the damages asserted in his counterclaim in any other way he could.

Later in the trial, Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
770 S.W.2d 840, 1989 Tex. App. LEXIS 411, 1989 WL 54923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-snead-site-preparation-inc-texapp-1989.