Case Name: Thomas J. TIERNEY, Appellant, v. LANE, GORMAN, TRUBITT & COMPANY, Appellee
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Texas
Decision Date: 1984-01-31
Citations: 664 S.W.2d 840
Docket Number: No. 13-83-209-CV
Parties: Thomas J. TIERNEY, Appellant, v. LANE, GORMAN, TRUBITT & COMPANY, Appellee.
Judges: Before UTTER, BISSETT and GONZALEZ, JJ.
Reporter: South Western Reporter Second Series
Volume: 664
Pages: 840–847

Head Matter:
Thomas J. TIERNEY, Appellant, v. LANE, GORMAN, TRUBITT & COMPANY, Appellee.
No. 13-83-209-CV.
Court of Appeals of Texas, Corpus Christi.
Jan. 31, 1984.
Eugene W. Brees, II, Thompson & Knight, Dallas, for appellant.
Michael P. Lynn, Michael Lowenberg, Robert B. Luther, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, Dallas, for appellee.
Before UTTER, BISSETT and GONZALEZ, JJ.

Opinion:
OPINION
UTTER, Justice.
This is an appeal from the granting of a summary judgment. The appeal involves a dispute over whether Lane, Gorman, Tru-bitt & Company (hereinafter called "plaintiff") is required to pay additional rent for parking spaces under a lease for office space in an office building. The lawsuit arose as a result of the demand of Thomas J. Tierney (hereinafter called "defendant") that plaintiff pay additional rent for the parking spaces for which plaintiff made payment under protest.
Plaintiff brought this suit to obtain a declaratory judgment that it was entitled to the use of thirty-two parking spaces without payment of any additional fees. Plaintiff also sought to recover the monies it had paid for the use of the thirty-two spaces before and during the pendency of the lawsuit, plus interest and attorney's fees. Additionally, plaintiff filed a claim under the Texas Consumer Protection — Deceptive Trade Practices Act, but that claim is not before this Court.
Both parties moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted plaintiff's motion on all grounds except those predicated on the Texas Consumer Protection— Deceptive Trade Practices Act for which the trial court granted defendant's motion. An interlocutory summary judgment was rendered on March 3,1982. The trial court decreed: (1) that plaintiff was entitled to the thirty-two parking spaces under the lease in question; and, (2) that defendant could not assess any fees for the use of such parking spaces other than the rent presents ly paid for the leasehold. The issues regarding attorney's fees and the payments which had been paid by plaintiff to the defendant were set down for a trial. Final judgment, which incorporated the interlocutory summary judgment therein, was rendered on July 19, 1982. It further decreed: (1) that defendant pay plaintiff $10,500.00 attorney's fees; (2) that defendant reimburse plaintiff in the amount of $14,400.00 for the rent from January, 1980, through June, 1982, which plaintiff had paid under protest; and, (3) that defendant pay all pre-trial interest in the amount of $1,116.00.
Defendant has raised four points of error on appeal. In his first point of error, defendant asserts that the trial court erred in granting plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the ground that the July 1, 1979 lease unambiguously permitted him to assess a reasonable parking fee for the parking spaces allocated to plaintiff. In the second point of error, he contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion for summary judgment because the July 1, 1979 lease was unambiguous and, as a matter of law, permitted him to assess a reasonable parking fee for the parking spaces allocated to plaintiff. Alternatively, defendant, in his third point of error, asserts that the trial court erred in granting plaintiff's motion for summary judgment on the ground that the July 1, 1979 lease was ambiguous with respect to defendant's right to charge a reasonable parking fee, and the resolution of such ambiguity was a question of fact. In his fourth point of error, defendant claims that the trial court erred in awarding attorney's fees to plaintiff under TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 2226 (Vernon Supp.1982-1983) since plaintiff failed to plead and prove presentment of the claim. Points one, two, and three are interrelated and shall be treated together.
The Supreme Court, in R & P Enterprises v. LaGuarta, Gavrel & Kirk, 596 S.W.2d 517 (Tex.1980), laid out the following rules of interpretation of contracts regarding possible ambiguous contractual provisions: The question of whether a lease is ambiguous is one of law for the court. The court should give effect to the intentions of the parties by examining the entire instrument and interpreting them so that none of the instrument's provisions will be rendered meaningless. An instrument is not ambiguous if it is worded so that a court may properly give it a certain or definite legal meaning. If an instrument is worded so that, after the application of the established rules of interpretation, it is genuinely uncertain which of two meanings is proper, it is ambiguous. When the instrument remains reasonably susceptible to more than one meaning after the correct rules of interpretation have been applied, extraneous evidence is then admissible to determine the instrument's true meaning. Where the instrument is ambiguous and extraneous evidence is considered, a summary judgment based on a record is normally improper. With these rules of interpretation before us, we will examine the lease involved in this case.
The lease in question was dated July 1, 1979, and was entitled:
"National Health Insurance Company Office Lease."
National Health Insurance Company, the lessor and owner of the office building at the time of the execution of the lease, executed the lease with plaintiff, the lessee, on July 1, 1979. The lease was for a term of five (5) years. Defendant acquired ownership of the office building in December, 1979. The lease includes two sections to which our attention is directed: one section entitled "Definitions and Basic Provisions," subsections (c) and (i), and another section entitled "Granting Clause."
Subsection (c) defines the "Demised Premises" as "approximately 9,500 square feet on Floor 2 in the building located at 2301 North Akard in Dallas County, Texas, such premises being shown and outlined on the plan attached hereto as Exhibit A." Subsection (i) defines "Parking Lot Space" as "See Exhibit C." Both definitions thus refer to exhibits.
The "Granting Clause" reads as follows: "In consideration of the obligation of the Tenant to pay rent as herein provided and in consideration of the other terms, covenants, and conditions hereof, Landlord hereby demises and leases to Tenant, and Tenant hereby takes from Landlord, the Demised Premises to have and to hold the same for the lease term specified herein, all upon the terms and conditions set forth in this lease."
The parties in this case dispute whether the defendant may charge a reasonable fee for the use of thirty-two parking spaces allocated to the plaintiff by the lease. The resolution of this issue first requires an interpretation of the following language from Exhibit C to the lease:
"Tenant is entitled to twenty-five percent of the total parking spaces which total is one hundred thirty spaces, or a total of thirty-two spaces."
Defendant argues (1) that plaintiff obtained no right to use the parking spaces, to which plaintiff is "entitled" under the lease, without the payment of additional consideration because the parking spaces were not included under the definition of "Demised Premises" in the lease; and, (2) that the granting clause of the lease gave plaintiff the right to use only the defined "Demised Premises" without incurring an extra charge. The effect of this argument is to sever Exhibit C from the remaining portions of the agreement and to treat it as a separate lease.
The lease instrument in this case is not susceptible to more than one meaning. The only interpretation of the entire instrument which will not render any of its provisions meaningless is that plaintiff, in leasing the described "Demised Premises," also obtained the right to use the thirty-two described parking spaces for the duration of the lease without having to pay additional consideration for them. We hold that the lease in question is unambiguous and that it does not permit defendant the right to assess a reasonable parking fee for the spaces involved. Accordingly, defendant's first three points of error are overruled, and the judgment of the trial court is affirmed as to plaintiff's right to use the parking spaces in question without any additional charge and in ordering defendant to pay back $14,-400.00 to plaintiff plus pre-trial interest in the amount of $1,116.00.
We now turn to defendant's fourth point of error wherein he asserts that the trial court erred in awarding attorney's fees to plaintiff under TEX.REY.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 2226 (Vernon Supp.1982-1983) because plaintiff failed to plead and prove presentment of its claim as required by the statute. The record shows that plaintiff did plead for a recovery of attorney's fees. The record further shows that defendant's pleadings did not deny presentment of plaintiff's claim; it only denied that the charges were improper.
Plaintiff asserts that it presented its claim for a recovery of the monies paid under protest in a letter written by plaintiff's counsel and sent to defendant's counsel. The letter was dated January 31,1980. Its pertinent contents read as follows:
"Second, it is rather clear that Lane, Gor-man is entitled to the thirty-two spaces for the entire term of the lease, and that your client has no right to charge any money for the thirty-two spaces.
Accordingly, my client will not agree that it owes any amount of money for the parking spaces. In order to protect its leasehold interest and to minimize any inconvenience to its partners and employees, however, a $480 payment will be delivered to the building management by Lane, Gorman as the amount claimed due for February of 1980. This payment does not constitute or reflect any admission that any parking fee is lawfully owing to your client nor is it a waiver by Lane, Gorman of its lawful entitlement to occupy the parking spaces without payment of any fee and to seek a judicial declaration establishing such entitlement. To the contrary, Lane, Gorman will continue to insist upon its absolute legal entitlement to use the thirty-two parking spaces without being subjected to the improper charges."
Plaintiff also asserts that the notation on the back of a check dated February 1, 1980, which was used to pay rent on the parking spaces substantiates a presentment of the claim. The notation on the back indicates that the rent payment was made under protest and refers to the letter of January 31, 1980.
TEX.REV.CIV.STAT.ANN. art. 2226 (Vernon Supp.1982-1983) provides for the recovery of a reasonable amount of attorney's fees, in addition to one's claim and court costs, for the successful prosecution of a suit founded on a written contract. A necessary requisite for the recovery of attorney's fees is the presentment of the claim to the opposing party and the failure of that party to tender performance within 30 days after the presentment. The statute further provides that it is to "be liberally construed to promote its underlying purposes." The purpose of the requirement for presentment of a claim is to allow the person against whom it is asserted an opportunity to pay a claim within 30 days after they have notice of the claim without incurring an obligation for attorney's fees. No particular form for presentment is required. Ashford Development, Inc. v. US Life Real Estate Services Corp., 661 S.W.2d 933 (1983); France v. American Indemnity Co., 648 S.W.2d 283 (Tex.1983); Jones v. Kelley, 614 S.W.2d 95 (Tex.1981).
In Huff v. Fidelity Union Life Insurance Co., 158 Tex. 433, 312 S.W.2d 493 (1958), the Texas Supreme Court held that sufficient demand was made by plaintiff on defendant to entitle plaintiff to recover attorney's fees. The proof relied upon by plaintiff to show demand consisted of letters written by plaintiff to defendant. Plaintiff's last letter ended by saying "I trust that this letter will be final and renewals will be forthcoming." The Texas Supreme Court stated that the letters and oral demands, by which plaintiff sought payment from defendant insurance company of certain renewal overriding commissions that defendant consistently refused to pay, constituted a sufficient demand for payment of plaintiff's claim to entitle plaintiff to attorney's fees under Article 2226. The Texas Supreme Court in Huff quoted from National Life and Accident Insurance Co. v. Dove, 141 Tex. 464, 174 S.W.2d 245 (1943) regarding the requisites of a demand under Article 2226, stated:
" In order to meet the terms of the statute it is not indespensible that the demand be evidenced by firm and co-manding language. It may be couched in the customarily-used polite language of the day. All that is required is the assertion of the right under the contract and a request for compliance therewith. " Huff at p. 500.
In the instant case, the fact that plaintiff made the parking fee payments under protest and indicated that.it would "continue to insist" that it was entitled to the parking spaces without charge was sufficient to place defendant on notice of plaintiff's asserted rights under the existing contract and plaintiff's implicit demand for the recognition and performance of the obligation on which such rights rested, and "it does not matter in what terms the demand may be couched." See Huff at p. 500.
In accordance with the statutory mandate that Art. 2226 is to "be liberally construed to promote its underlying purposes," we hold that plaintiff did prove presentment of its claim as required by TEX.REV. CIY.STAT.ANN. art. 2226 (Vernon Supp. 1982-1983); therefore, the award of attorney's fees was proper, and appellant's fourth point of error is overruled. The judgment of the trial court is AFFIRMED.