Zummo Cattle Company v. Millard

482 S.W.2d 17, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2441
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 11, 1972
Docket609
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 482 S.W.2d 17 (Zummo Cattle Company v. Millard) 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
Zummo Cattle Company v. Millard, 482 S.W.2d 17, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2441 (Tex. Ct. App. 1972).

Opinion

McKAY, Justice.

Appellant Zummo Cattle Company, hereinafter called “Zummo”, brought suit against George H. Millard, Jr. and George H. Millard, Sr., dba Millard Feed Lots, hereinafter called “Millard”, on a written feed lot contract whereby Millard fed cattle for Zummo. Trial was before a jury, and judgment was rendered on the verdict that Zummo take nothing, and that Millard recover on his counter-claim. After Zum-mo’s Amended Motion for New Trial was overruled, he brings this appeal on twenty-four points. The judgment did not involve George H. Millard, Sr.

Zummo’s pleading alleged that under the cattle feeding contract 1 the interim pay *20 ments which he had made exceeded the amount he would owe under the contract, and he sued for loss of profits, failure of Millard to use medication, for loss of unaccounted for cattle, and claimed such losses were caused by mixed lots of cattle, refusal to allow Zummo to remove cattle in an orderly manner, and failure to properly care for cattle. Zummo further claimed that such acts by Millard disrupted Zummo’s business operation and caused Zummo to have to buy cattle on the open market and put many of the cattle in other feed lots.

Millard denied that the contract was the true contract of the parties, and pled alternatively that the contract was amended after its execution. Millard also claimed there was no consideration for Paragraph 8 of the contract, and that the account was not due or just and that he was not indebted to Zummo. Millard, by way of counter-claim, alleged that Paragraph 8 of the contract was not the agreement of the parties, but that it should be the normal 3% loss which was claimed to be standard in the cattle feeding industry, and that subsequent to the execution of the contract the parties agreed to change Paragraph 8 to the effect that Millard would be responsible for death and mysterious disappearance of cattle not to exceed 3%.

By his first three points appellant Zum-mo contends that the trial court erred (1) by not charging Millard with all losses from death or mysterious disappearance of cattle under the terms of the contract; (2) because there is no evidence, or insufficient evidence, to support jury finding in Special Issue 18 that the parties agreed to change Paragraph 8 of the contract so as to provide that Millard’s liability for death and mysterious disappearance losses would not exceed 3%; and (3) by permitting George Millard, Jr. to testify, in violation of the parol evidence rule, that he and John Zummo prior to the execution of the contract made an agreement relating to the death and mysterious disappearance losses of cattle which was contrary to the written provisions in Paragraph 8 of the contract, there being no allegation of fraud, accident or mistake alleged in the execution of the contract.

These points relate to Special Issues Nos. 16, 17 and 18, 2 and the testimony of George Millard, Jr. The jury answered Issue 16 that Paragraph 8 was not placed in the contract solely as an accommodation to Zummo, and by Issue 17 that the parties did not mutually agree at the time of agreeing to the contract that Millard’s lia *21 bility for death and mysterious disappearance loss would not exceed 3% of the total cattle placed with him for feeding. Issue No. 18 seems to be the critical one wherein the jury found that after the execution of the contract Millard and Zummo agreed to change Paragraph 8 so that Millard’s liability for losses by death or mysterious disappearances would not exceed 3%. The record discloses that there were 407 cattle lost by death and mysterious disappearances. Zummo contends there is no evidence, or insufficient evidence, in the record upon which the jury’s answer to Issue 18 could be based.

While we must consider on the no evidence point all the testimony in the record from the standpoint most favorable to appellee Millard, indulging in his favor every reasonable intendment deducible from the evidence, to sustain such point it must be determined that there is no evidence having probative force upon which the jury could have made the findings in question. North Texas Lumber Company v. Kaspar, 415 S.W.2d 470 (Tex.Civ.App., Dallas, 1967, writ ref., n. r. e.); Burt v. Lochausen, 151 Tex. 289, 249 S.W.2d 194, 199 (1952); Gage v. Wimberley, 476 S.W.2d 724 (Tex.Civ.App., Tyler, 1972, n. w. h.).

In passing on appellant Zummo’s point that the jury’s answer to Issue No. 18 is so contrary to the overwhelming weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong, we must consider all of the evidence, both that which supports the answer and that which might be contra. In deciding the insufficient evidence question we must consider and weigh all the evidence in the case to determine whether the answer to Issue 18 is so contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be manifestly unjust. United Furniture and Appliance Company v. Johnson, 456 S.W.2d 455 (Tex.Civ.App., Tyler, 1970, n. w. h.); Bowen v. Merritt, Incorporated, 417 S.W.2d 313 (Tex.Civ.App., Fort Worth, 1967, n. w. h.).

We have carefully reviewed the 193 pages of testimony of George Millard, Jr. He testified that he received the contract in the mail from Zummo, and that before he (Millard) signed it he called John Zum-mo by telephone and told him that he, Millard, could not take all the death and mysterious disappearance losses because he was unable to take that kind of risk involving about 3,000 head of cattle and a possible loss of a quarter of a million dollars. Millard further testified that John Zummo told him he could take the normal death losses and mysterious disappearances up to 3% and that he, Millard, agreed to that arrangement, and that he, Millard, thereafter signed the contract, and that Paragraph 8 was left in the contract because John Zum-mo said it would help him with his banker. Millard also testified he never intended to be bound nor did he agree to Paragraph 8 of the contract. Zummo denied there was any alteration, modification or side agreement of any kind pertaining to Paragraph 8.

Zummo objected that the testimony of Millard was a violation of the parol evidence rule, and such objection was overruled by the trial court. It is noted that all of Millard’s testimony set out above relates to a telephone conversation before he signed the contract, and we have found no evidence in the record of any discussion or agreement relating to Paragraph 8 of the contract after the execution of the contract.

The parol evidence rule is the rule which, “upon the establishment of the existence of a writing intended as a completed memorial of a legal transaction, denies efficacy to any prior or contemporary expressions of the parties relating to the same subject-matter as that to which the written memorial relates.” 2 Texas Practice — Evidence, McCormick & Ray, Second Edition, Sec.

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482 S.W.2d 17, 1972 Tex. App. LEXIS 2441, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zummo-cattle-company-v-millard-texapp-1972.