Opinion ID: 895153
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Joint Check Agreement

Text: Although the parties disagree as to the effect of the Joint Check Agreement, one fact is uncontested: the Joint Check Agreement was a binding contract between SCC, Diamond, and Dealers. If the McGregor Act was meant to be exclusive, Dealers' common-law breach of contract claim would be preempted. But abrogation of common-law rights is disfavored, and absent clear legislative intent we have declined to construe statutes to deprive citizens of common-law rights. See Cash Am. Int'l, Inc. v. Bennett, 35 S.W.3d 12, 16 (Tex.2000). Nothing in the McGregor Act indicates that the Legislature intended to preclude public-work laborers or materialmen from enforcing their contractual rights under the common law. To the contrary, allowing unpaid laborers and materialmen to vindicate their contractual rights furthers the legislative goal of protecting public-work laborers and materialmen whose valid claims cannot be enforced by procuring a lien upon the property. City of LaPorte, 836 S.W.2d at 831-32. Because allowing Dealers to recover for SCC's breach of the Joint Check Agreement furthers, rather than frustrates, the McGregor Act's purpose, we hold that the Act does not preempt Dealers' contractual rights. According to Dealers, the Joint Check Agreement was an unconditional guarantee by SCC to pay for any materials Dealers provided to Diamond. We disagree. In relevant part, the agreement provides that [SCC] agrees to make all payments for all materials ... furnished by [Dealers] ... by check made jointly payable to [Diamond] and [Dealers]. The agreement's unambiguous language guarantees only that SCC will make payment by joint check. Thus, SCC complied with the agreement to the extent checks were made jointly payable to Diamond and Dealers, and the trial court erred by expanding the agreement's scope. SCC has challenged the sufficiency of Dealers' evidence to support a breach of the joint-payment provision, and we remand the issue to the court of appeals for consideration along with the remaining points.