Opinion ID: 1774020
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the davis application

Text: Campbell's brief in the Court of Civil Appeals contained a point of error that the trial court judgment awarding Davis a $20,624.38 recovery was excessive and should be corrected by remittitur. The court treated the point as complaint that the trial court failed to offset against the judgment $13,500.00 in motel rent arrearage which Davis acknowledged owing Campbell. The court concluded that Davis' liability to Campbell for the arrearage was proven as a matter of law and reformed and reduced the judgment by offsetting the amount thereof. Whether the offset was allowable under the record is the question raised by the Davis application. We hold the offset improper. In the trial court Davis pleaded a conventional breach of contract action. Campbell answered by general denial and in the alternative pleaded and prayed that certain alleged indebtedness Davis owed him be offset against any recovery Davis might be awarded. One of the items of indebtedness alleged was the $13,500.00 rent arrearage that accrued under the motel lease. In the trial court Davis presented his action on the theory that the measure of damages was the net profit that he would have made under the consummated sale of the property had Campbell performed the alleged contract. All evidence produced was in harmony with this theory. The $13,500.00 rent arrearage was treated by the parties as indebtedness that Davis was obligated to pay and as an expense that Campbell was entitled to recoup before a balance was struck that would show Davis' profit on the transaction. Two special issues presenting the Davis theory were submitted to the jury. No objection to the issues or request for additional issues or instructions challenged the theory. Nothing in the record suggests that the jury in answering the special issues submitted did not credit the rent arrearage to Campbell and consider it as a charge against Davis' probable profit had the alleged contract been performed. Campbell's motion for new trial contained an assignment of error that the trial court failed to award him judgment on his cross-action for the rent arrearage but the assignment was abandoned and not brought forward or briefed as a point of error in the Court of Civil Appeals. Also, consistent with Davis' theory of the measure of damages, the jury had before it, without objection, a blackboard chart which summarized the testimony tending to prove Davis' probable profit, as follows: Sales Price $210,000.00 Loan Payoff $55,000.00 Loan Fees 6,500.00 Loan Fees 2,000.00 Closing Costs 749.00 Closing Costs 10.00 Closing Costs 12.50 Closing Costs 280.00 Closing Costs 35.00 First Lien Payoff 70,336.77 Taxes 2,922.19 Taxes 1,837.94 Judgment 2,000.00 Judgment 6,179.92 Judgment 311.11 Delinquent Rents 13,500.00 Payments made on loan 23,559.52 __________ Total Offsets 185,233.95 __________ Balance owed Davis $ 24,766.05 =========== The closeness of the balance shown on the chart, $24,766.05, to the sum found by the jury as damages to Davis, $20,624.38, suggests that the jury considered the rental offset in its damages award. Although the mental processes of the jury are unknown, the constraints of the theory upon which the case was tried by the parties required the jury to offset the rent arrearage in favor of Campbell in determining Davis' profit. Parties are restricted on appeal to the theory on which the case was tried. State v. J. M. Huber Corporation, 145 Tex. 517, 199 S.W.2d 501 (1947); Sorrells v. Coffield, 144 Tex. 31, 187 S.W.2d 980 (1945); Safety Casualty Company v. Wright, 138 Tex. 492, 160 S.W.2d 238 (1942); Kousal v. Texas Power & Light Company, 142 Tex. 451, 179 S.W.2d 283 (1944). The Court of Civil Appeals apparently overlooked the parties' trial theory and the jury's offset of the rent arrearage in reaching its verdict and granted Campbell a second setoff of the amount thereof. Such action was erroneous and harmful to Davis. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals awarding Campbell a recovery on the arrearage cross-claim and reforming the trial court judgment is reversed.