Opinion ID: 1653163
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: liability and damages

Text: The claims in this case, as in most other wrongful repossession cases, include tort claims. The plaintiff sued for false imprisonment as well the section 9.503 claim. [1] If we construe her pleadings liberally, we conelude she brought negligence claims. Damages sought are $250,000 compensatory and $1,000,000 punitive. Under the decision delivered today, the bank is potentially liable for all claims and all resulting damages, as though the bank itself had executed the repossession. This is so because one who performs a nondelegable duty for the principal is a vice-principal. See Fort Worth Elevators Co. v. Russell, 123 Tex. 128, 70 S.W.2d 397, 406 (1934); Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. v. Reeves, 578 S.W.2d 795, 800 (Tex.Civ. App.Houston [1st Dist] 1979, writ ref'd n.r.e.). A vice principal's acts are the acts of the principal, and the principal is liable as though he himself performed them. Fort Worth, 70 S.W.2d at 406. Liability extends to all damages, whether compensatory or punitive. Id.; Southwestern Bell, 578 S.W.2d at 800. This extreme liability takes the bank beyond the law of the Uniform Commercial Code. Under the Code, damages are expressly limited and defined. See Tex.Bus. & Com.Code Ann. § 9.507 (Vernon 1991) [hereinafter UCC]. Punitive damages are not available. Id.; see also § 1.106 (Vernon 1991). Those who read today's decision may argue that damages are limited by the UCC. After all, the break in the independent contractor relationship was made through a UCC provision. But I find no authority to support the proposition that, once the independent contractor relationship is destroyed by a nondelegable duty, it is destroyed in some limited way, so that the bank may be liable for statutory damages but insulated from the full range of tort damages. It is more consistent with the law to recognize that the independent contractor relationship is destroyed for all claims arising out of facts such as those presented in this case, and to accept that the bank may now be held liable for all resulting damages.