Wright v. Kinsel

34 S.W.2d 350
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 17, 1930
DocketNo. 8511.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 34 S.W.2d 350 (Wright v. Kinsel) 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
Wright v. Kinsel, 34 S.W.2d 350 (Tex. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

COBBS, J.

Jesse Wright, trustee for the estate of B. B. White, bankrupt, plaintiff in error, against E. A. Kinsel, defendant in error, presents' this record on an application for a writ of error.

On the 3d day of September, A. D. 1926, E. A. Kinsel and wife, Linnie Kinsel, entered into a certain building contract with B. B. White, wherein the said B. B. White obligated himself to construct in a good workmanlike manner, and according to the best of his art and skill, a one-story brick, hollow tile garage building on certain property in the town of Hebbronville, Jim Hogg county, Tex., fully described in the contract, all in accordance with certain plans and specifications attached to and made a part of the contract.

By the terms of said contract the said E. A. Kinsel and wife were to pay to the said B. B. White the sum of 89,000 on completion of the building, which, as specified by the contract, was to be $1,500 in cash and five material-man’s notes of even date with said contract, in the sum of $1,500 each, interest at the rate of 8 per cent, per annum payable annually, due in one, two, three, four', and five years. This part of the written contract by the undisputed evidence of the parties was modified to the extent that, prior to the execution of said contract, it was agreed between E. A. Kinsel and B. B. White that the same would be a cash job all payable upon completion, or as the work progressed, and the notes were only executed for the purpose of enabling E. A. Kinsel to secure the money for the purpose of erecting the building; that prior to the entering into of the contract E. A. Kinsel himself had made arrangements with one Mr. Yeager to loan him $7,500, representing the $7.500 for which he executed notes to B. B. White, but which never came into possession of B. B. White and which were transferred to Mr. Yeager, and the funds secured therefrom placed in the bank in what was known as the “Kinsel-White Building Fund” for the purpose of erecting this building and making payments thereon as the work progressed. This fund was under the exclusive control and management of E. A. Kinsel, and all checks drawn thereon were drawn by E. A. Kinsel.

*351 As the work progressed E. A. Kinsel paid to B. B. White a total of $7,800, and, after exhausting the $7,500 received by his sale of the notes to Mr. Yeager, placed $1,500 additional by his own personal cheek in said bank account and upon which he issued checks to cause the total expenditure or total sums paid B. B. White to be the sum of $7,800.

This becomes important, in view of the contention of plaintiff in error that this suit was one for a breach of contract exclusively, and that title to this money in the Hebbronville Bank had passed to B. B. White and then to his trustee in bankruptcy.

Simultaneously with the execution of the contract, or shortly thereafter, B. B. White furnished a bond from the National Surety Company to E. A. Kinsel and Linnie Kinsel to secure his performance of said contract.

On the 24th day of December, 1926, after B. B. White had left the job and abandoned it, E. A. Kinsel took the position that h^ had not completed the work and demanded that he return and complete the same, at the same time notifying his bondsmen.

B. B. White refused to return and do any more work on the-building, and this suit followed.

As shown by plaintiff’s amended original petition, they asked for damages in the sum of $4,500 against the National Surety Company ; and an additional sum of $1,545 against B. B. White, and that the First National Bank of Hebbronville be ordered to pay to E. A. Kinsel the $1,200 which was therein deposited and to which they asserted that the title was in E. A. Kinsel.

B. B. Milite was adjudged a bankrupt on the 2d day of April, 1929, and discharged in bankruptcy on the 2d day of August, 1929.

After it had been established that B. B. White had been adjudged a bankrupt, permission was given for his trustee, Jesse Wright, to intervene in this cause; the plaintiffs in said cause, being defendants in error herein, filed their answer to said plea of intervention, wherein they asked that they be permitted to prosecute said suit as against the National Surety Company and for judgment establishing their right, title, and interest in and to the $1,200 held by the First National Bank of Hebbronville.

This cause came on for trial on the 9th day of December, 1929, and plaintiffs recovered judgment for the sum of $3,250 against the National Surety Company upon which a credit was ordered to be allowed of $1,200, being the same $1,200 in the First National Bank of Hebbronville, and the bank was ordered to deliver said sum of $1,200 to plaintiffs, E. A. Kinsel and wife, Linnie Kinsel. The court by its decree finding that title at all times to said sum of money had been in plaintiffs, E. A. Kinsel and Linnie Kinsel, and that B. B. White had never had any title thereto, nor had his trustee in bankruptcy, the intervener, Jesse Wright.

After judgment plaintiff in error, Jesse Wright, filed a request for findings of- fact and conclusions of law. The trial court in response thereto filed his findings of fact and conclusions of law.

The court properly overruled plaintiff in error’s plea in abatement and his first special exception as being without merit. The federal court issued no restraining order against the state court to prevent it from proceeding with the case. The $1,200 deposited in the First National Bank of Hebbronville was a special fund, to be applied to the particular purpose of paying for the work and material placed in said garage, as the work progressed, and therefore at no time was it the property of B. B. White or the trustee in bankruptcy.

The pleadings of defendants in error specially allege that the building was not built in substantial compliance with the contract, and show the defects in the construction, and the court correctly overruled exceptions filed by B. B. White and intervener Wright, trustee.

The evidence fully established that the labor and material placed in said building was not accepted as the work progressed, by E. A. Kinsel and his wife, Linnie Kinsel. It was alleged and proven that the garage was not completed in substantial compliance with the contract, but was left in an incomplete and dangerous condition. Hence the court properly rendered judgment for defendants in error against plaintiff in error.

The $1,200 left in the bank was at all times the property of defendants in error, and it was not required under the Bankruptcy Code to present any claim therefor. It never be-caijie the property of White nor of his trustee in bankruptcy.

The pleadings of all the parties and the evidence show an agreement between Kinsel and White for the transfer of the notes and lien and the placing of the money in the First National Bank of Hebbronville as a special account. This clearly authorized the court to make the findings of which no complaint can be heard, and plaintiff in error is estopped to complain. It is apparent that, White not having completed said garage and not having constructed the same in substantial compliance with the contract, the court properly rendered judgment for the amount shown therein. The evidence supports the court’s findings and judgment. When complaint was made of apparent defects, from time to time, White gave his promise to rectify them.

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Related

Zackery Jamarcier Summage v. State
Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas, 2015
Wright v. Kinsel
52 S.W.2d 77 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1932)

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Bluebook (online)
34 S.W.2d 350, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wright-v-kinsel-texapp-1930.