Opinion ID: 2358790
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: DTPA laundry list

Text: Vento submitted instructions under subsections 17.46(b)(2), (3), (5), (8), (12), and (23). Vento offers no evidence, and none appears in the record, to support a finding under subsection (b)(2), which involves causing confusion or misunderstanding as to the source, sponsorship, approval, or certification of goods or services. Id. § 17.46(b)(2). Subsection (b)(2) deals with deception in the origin, source, or endorsement of goods and services. See Potere, Inc. v. Nat'l Realty Serv., 667 S.W.2d 252, 257 (Tex.App.-Houston [14 Dist.] 1984, no writ). The record contains no evidence that any action by Bradford caused such confusion. Similarly, there is no evidence to support Bradford's liability under subsection (b)(3), which involves causing confusion or misunderstanding as to affiliation, connection, or association with, or certification by, another. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code § 17.46(b)(3). And the record contains no evidence to support a finding that Bradford violated subsection (b)(8) by disparaging the goods, services, or business of another by false or misleading representation of facts. Id. § 17.46(b)(8). Subsections (b)(5) and (b)(12) involve a defendant's representations that goods, services, agreements, or persons have characteristics that they do not in fact have. Id. § 17.46(b)(5), (12). But the only possible misrepresentation that Bradford made was that he would take care of Vento in January. Vento testified that he understood this to mean that he would have to work out a lease in January. Bradford's statement is simply too vague to provide a standard for the jury to use to measure the accuracy of the representation; it is therefore nonactionable. See Douglas v. Delp, 987 S.W.2d 879, 886 (Tex. 1999). Last, the jury was asked whether Bradford fail[ed] to disclose information concerning goods or services that was known at the time of the transaction, if such failure to disclose such information was intended to induce a person into a transaction which he would not have entered had the information been disclosed. As in the instruction, subsection (b)(23) requires that information known at the time of the transaction must be withheld for the purpose of inducing the consumer into a transaction which the consumer would not have entered had the information been disclosed. Doe v. Boys Clubs, Inc., 907 S.W.2d 472, 479 (Tex.1995) (emphasis added); see also Tex. Bus. & Com.Code § 17.46(b)(23). But there is no evidence that Bradford intended to induce Vento into a transaction by his actions on October 4. Bradford could not have intended to induce Vento into paying October rent because that rent was already due under the existing lease with Collector's Choice. Bradford and Vento did not engage in any other transaction in goods or services at that time. [5] They did not negotiate a lease, and nothing Bradford said or did on October 4 could have been intended to induce Vento to purchase the store because Vento had already purchased the store in September. Because a defendant's deceptive trade act or practice is not actionable under the DTPA unless it was committed in connection with the plaintiff's transaction in goods or services, Vento's claim under subsection (b)(23) is not actionable. See Amstadt v. U.S. Brass Corp., 919 S.W.2d 644, 649-50 (Tex.1996).